Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has accused Barack Obama of failing to outline a second term agenda, mocking the incumbent US President for 'running on fumes.'
"I think it's pretty clear that when it comes to his policies and his answers and his agenda, he's pretty much running on fumes, and the American people want some real answers and a real agenda," Romney said during an election rally in Virginia yesterday.
A day after the second of the three debates with Obama, Romney said November's presidential elections puts before Americans a choice between two different America.
"An America where government makes the rules, where government is larger and larger, where it takes more and more from the American people, where it runs more of our businesses and increasingly runs our lives; or instead an America where we restore the principles that made the nation it is, that we bring back the principles of the Declaration of Independence, recognise that God gave us our rights and they include life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the right to pursue happiness," he said.
"We take America in two very different places, and I think that's very clear by virtue of what you've heard over the last two debates and probably will over the third as well. One is, the President will put America in a place that has about $20 trillion in debt, killing the American dream for your kids," he said.
"If I become President, I'm going to take the action to make sure that we cap our federal spending, we limit federal spending as a percentage of our total economy, and we finally get America on track to a balanced budget," Romney said.
"If President Obama were re-elected, his spending plan and his borrowing and the debt on that borrowing will cause not only high- income people to see higher taxes, but ultimately, you're going to see middle-income people in this country facing $4,000 more in taxes.
When I become president of the United States, I'm going to lower taxes on the middle class and on small business to help people" he said.
At another election meeting in Ohio, Romney's vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, alleged that Obama's economic policies have not worked.
"Here is President Obama's problem: His economic agenda failed not because it was stopped. It failed because it was passed. Let's not forget he came in with one-party rule, the ability to do everything of his own choosing. And he did. Look at where we are right now: 23 million Americans struggling to find work," he said.
He also accused Obama of failing the women in the country on both economic and social issues.
"We had a discussion about how women are faring in this economy last night. Five-and-a-half million women are still struggling for work in this economy. A half-million women more are unemployed today than when President Obama was sworn in. Twenty-six million women are trapped in poverty today. That's the highest rate in 17 years. We need to get people back to work. We need to get this economy turned around," Ryan said.