President
Barack Obama spoke to a welcome and lively crowd in Jacksonville. President Barack
Obama warned Thursday that his Republican challenger Mitt Romney would gut his
health care reform law and turn Medicare into a voucher program, driving up
costs for the elderly on fixed incomes. Romney, firing away near his Boston
home base, accused Obama of caring only about saving his own job — not the jobs
of Americans.
Nowhere
is the campaign potentially more pivotal than in Florida, which decided the
2000 election and remains the ultimate swing state. With a large pool of
retired voters, Medicare has been used by both parties to rally support from
seniors in Florida and elsewhere, mostly by warning that the other party had in
mind changes that would curb the national insurance program for older Americans.
Obama
sought to broaden his attack on Romney's support for a House Republican plan
that would shift Medicare from a fee-for-service program into one where future
retirees buy insurance using subsidies. Republicans say it would introduce
competition and give seniors more choices, but it is closely watched in
Florida, where about half of the 2008 electorate was age 50 and older.
"He
plans to turn Medicare into a voucher program," Obama said at West Palm
Beach's Century Village, home to thousands of Democratic retirees from New
York, New Jersey and elsewhere. "If the voucher isn't worth what it takes
to buy health insurance in the private marketplace, you're out of luck. You've
got to make up the difference. You're on your own."
During
stops in Jacksonville and in West Palm Beach, Obama jumped on Romney's
opposition to his health care reform law, which was recently upheld by the
Supreme Court. He said the former Massachusetts governor's approach would force
more than 200,000 Floridians pay more for their prescription drugs.
"It's
wrong to ask you to pay more for Medicare so that people who are doing well
right now get even more," Obama told seniors at Century Village.
"That's no way to reduce the deficit. We shouldn't be squeezing more money
out of seniors."
As
Obama stuck to his economic message, his campaign kept up its aggressive
attempt to raise doubts about Romney's trustworthiness. Obama and his
surrogates have been pushing Romney to release more than two years of tax
returns. Some members of Romney's party have agreed, although others say the
idea is a distraction.
