Romney counters Obama outsourcing claims with some of his own
(CBS News) For weeks now, President Barack Obama's campaign has been saying that Mitt Romney made a fortune by getting rid of American jobs. Now the Romney campaign is fighting back.
The presumptive Republican presidential candidate said the president is doing the same thing - with tax dollars.
Romney, GOP say Obama is "outsourcer-in-chief"Romney and the Republican Party launched a coordinated attack Tuesday, outlining numerous ways they say the president is shipping jobs to foreign countries. They're hoping the attacks could take hold in the all-important swing states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania - states that have lost thousands of jobs to foreign countries.
Romney said, "If there's an outsourcer-in-chief, it's the President of the United States - not the guy that's running to replace him."
The chairman of the national Republican Party went next, launching a website with a laundry list of allegations that the federal government - under President Obama's watch - has funneled money to projects overseas to help build things like diesel engines in Thailand and solar panels in Mexico.
If it sounds familiar, that's because it is. Democrats have been pounding Romney with similar attacks for weeks, using ads and speeches to highlight the time Romney spent running the investment firm Bain Capital. Their argument: Bain invested in U.S. companies that outsourced jobs abroad and Romney made millions.
Campaigning in Iowa Tuesday, the president said, "Governor Romney has experience running companies called 'pioneers in outsourcing.' As long as I am president we'll fight to keep to make sure jobs are located right here in the United States of America."
Both campaigns also are playing defense. The Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith argues that the president has "fought to end tax breaks" for companies that outsource jobs and rewarded them for "bringing jobs back."
Romney points out that an independent fact checking group, FactCheck.org, recently labeled the outsourcing claims against him "false and misleading." He has said, "I'm not going to apologize for success at home, and I'm not going to apologize for America abroad."
Later Wednesday, Romney will be speaking in Houston, Texas to the NAACP. African-Americans are a group that overwhelmingly supported President Obama. He got 96 percent of the vote in 2008. But in this economy, the president's supporters are worried about turnout. And Romney is hoping his economic message will resonate.
For more on this story, watch Jan Crawford's full report in the video above.
