Romney pushing jobs on small-town America tour

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney pushed his economic plan Saturday, saying he would spur dramatic US business growth and provide far more jobs than his rival President Barack Obama.

US unemployment crept up last month to 8.2 percent, and Romney has used the worrying data as a club to bludgeon the Obama administration over its policies to turn around the sluggish economy, as the presidential race heats up less than five months from the November election.

Several regions in the states he’s visiting — including New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin — have been hard-hit in recent years, with a hollowing out of manufacturing and other jobs that was only made worse by the 2008 recession.

Romney, a multimillionaire former businessman and investor, has long called for lower taxes on businesses, particularly small to medium enterprises that form the majority of US companies, less regulations and a repeal of Obama’s signature health care reform law.

He argues that such steps would bring stability to employers and generate a wave of new hires, creating a knock-on effect that could bring economic gains to millions of struggling working-class Americans.

Obama and Romney, locked in a neck-and-neck race, presented dueling economic visions for the country earlier this week, as each side seeks to exploit shifting economic news to position itself for the sprint to the finish line in less than five months.

Romney accused Obama of “cheap” talk not backed up by action, while the president said his challenger’s “top-down” economics merely favored the rich.

Romney enlisted former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who has been an anti-Obama attack dog of sorts for Romney, to drive home the message that the president lacks the economic chops to create jobs and that three-plus years of Obama’s economic plans have been a failure.

Pawlenty told the crowd at Weatherly Casting & Machine Co. that he met a child in the state of Iowa who succinctly laid out how low taxes lead to more disposable income, and to more purchases that increase business, in turn generating more hires.

Romney and many top Republicans laid into Obama for his recent comment that the US private sector was “doing fine,” an observation that angered many senior Democrats as well.

Romney sat down with business executives to talk about his economic plans before taking a tour of the Weatherly plant and then addressing the crowd.

Local resident Ann Gangwer, 62, said Romney’s pro-jobs agenda would likely help the local economy.

Romney says his six-state bus tour will bring him in closer contact with everyday Americans, many of whom are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet in the aftermath of the worst recession in decades.