Obama, Romney get testy in exchange of allegations

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama in person and in TV advertising Tuesday of cutting Medicare “to pay for Obamacare,” launching a strong counterattack to Democratic charges that he and running mate Paul Ryan would radically remake the popular health care program that serves tens of millions of seniors.

The charge drew a blistering response from Obama’s campaign, which labeled the ad dishonest and hypocritical.

Obama “has taken $716 billion out of the Medicare trust fund. He’s raided that trust fund,” Romney said at a campaign stop in Beallsville, Ohio, as he neared the end of a multistate bus trip punctuated by his weekend selection of a ticket mate.

“And you know what he did with it? He’s used it to pay for Obamacare, a risky, unproven, federal takeover of health care. And If I’m president of the United States, we’re putting the $716 billion back,” he said.

Aides said a commercial containing the same allegation would begin airing immediately in several battleground states, although they declined to provide details.

In a campaign without Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan greets supporters as he campaigns in Lakewood, Colo., on Tuesday. summer doldrums, the rival sets of ticket mates campaigned in a half-dozen of the most hotly contested states, in settings as diverse as a coal mine in Ohio (Romney); a wind farm in Iowa (Obama) and a casino in Nevada (Ryan).

Vice President Joe Biden stirred controversy in Virginia when he said the Republicans would favor the big banks over the interests of consumers. He said Romney has said he is “going to let the big banks once again write their own rules. Unchain Wall Street.”

Hundreds of black voters were in the audience that Biden told, “They’re going to put y’all back in chains.”

Romney’s campaign reacted strongly to that, saying the comments were “not acceptable in our political discourse and demonstrate yet again that the Obama campaign will say and do anything to win this election.” Biden later conceded using the wrong word but dismissed the Republican criticism and did not apologize.