Barack Obama,  Mitt Romney,  Paul Ryan,  President 2012

Romney in Florida Attacks Obama on Medicare

Mitt Romney is taking the Medicare debate right to President Obama as he campaigns in the key battleground state of Florida – where there just happen to be many senior citizen retirees, who use Medicare.

Mitt Romney told a Florida crowd Monday he and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wanted to “preserve and protect Medicare” as Democrats seized on his vice presidential candidate’s reform proposal to claim Republicans would increase healthcare costs for seniors.

The debate is likely to become a focal point of the presidential election, with Florida’s 29 electoral votes — and powerful senior voting bloc — crucial to winning the White House.

Mitt Romney told a Florida crowd Monday he and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wanted to “preserve and protect Medicare” as Democrats seized on his vice presidential candidate’s reform proposal to claim Republicans would increase healthcare costs for seniors.

The debate is likely to become a focal point of the presidential election, with Florida’s 29 electoral votes — and powerful senior voting bloc — crucial to winning the White House.

And, running mate, Paul Ryan answered critics of his Medicare proposal yesterday evening on CBS’s Sixty Minutes:

During an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Ryan defended his Medicare proposal.

“My mom is a Medicare senior in Florida,” Ryan said. “Our point is we need to preserve their benefits, because government made promises to them that they’ve organized their retirements around. In order to make sure we can do that, you must reform it for those of us who are younger.”

Here is a video of a portion of Romney’s speech:

Mitt Romney now moves on to Miami for an afternoon campaign event with Senator Marco Rubio.