Obama, Romney Spar Over Economy

Obama, Romney Spar Over Economy

 WHITE HOUSE — Six weeks before the U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt¹ Romney, spent Saturday campaigning and raising money. Each candidate made the case for his plan to revive the American economy.

In the north central state of Wisconsin, the president told supporters in the city of Milwaukee his economic blueprint² will better serve middle-class Americans than Governor Romney’s plan. 

"Top-down economics never works," said Obama. "The country does not succeed when just those at the very top are doing well. We succeed when the middle class gets bigger, when it feels greater security.”

Romney, in his weekly podcast, said the president’s economic policies depend too much on government and do too little to help the private sector³.

“Under President Obama, we have a stagnant⁴ economy that fosters government dependency. My policies will create a growing economy that fosters upward mobility,” said Romney.

Romney spent Saturday in California, not looking for votes but raising money at events in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Obama is widely expected to win California, the nation’s most populous⁵ state.

The president was visiting Wisconsin for the first time in nine months. His wife Michelle is expected to campaign there in the coming days. 

Public opinion polls in Wisconsin show Obama leading by at least seven points.

At one of his three stops in Milwaukee, the president acknowledged the anti-American unrest in a number of Muslim nations, and said the United States must meet its foreign policy challenges.

“This is a world still full of serious threats. We are going to have to work to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. We are going to have to make sure that not only our diplomatic posts are safe, but we go after folks who threaten or try to kill Americans,” said Obama.

Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, Wisconsin Congressman⁶ Paul Ryan, sharply criticized Obama’s foreign policy on Saturday.

Campaigning in Florida, Ryan said the president has made America weak.

“By gutting⁷ defense⁸, by showing we want to cut defense, by being equivocal, by not speaking up forcefully and clearly for American values of freedom and individual dignity and individual rights and religious freedom, we are projecting weakness abroad,” said Ryan.

Ryan also told Cuban-Americans in Miami that the Obama administration is too soft on the Castro government in Cuba.

Romney is expected to campaign more heavily in swing states in the coming days. The president will visit two college campuses in Ohio in the coming week, and also is likely to visit more swing states.

1 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

2 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 stagnant   

adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的

参考例句：

• Due to low investment,industrial output has remained stagnant.由于投资少，工业生产一直停滞不前。
• Their national economy is stagnant.他们的国家经济停滞不前。

5 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

6 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

7 gutting   

n.去内脏v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的现在分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

8 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。