Obama ramps up attacks against Romney as outsourcer of jobs

President Obama on Monday seized on a report claiming that Mitt Romney’s economic plan would create jobs overseas to ramp up his attacks on his Republican rival.

Obama cited a Tax Notes newsletter by Reed College economist Kimberly Clausing that said Romney’s jobs plan “would increase employment in low-tax countries by about 800,000 jobs.”

“Today we learned that Romney's jobs plan would create 800,000 jobs,” Obama said at a campaign stop in Cincinnati on Monday. “There’s only one problem: they wouldn't be in America.”

The president's comments underscored his efforts to hit Romney on the issue of outsourcing. They dovetailed with his campaign's criticism of Romney's work for the private-equity firm Bain Capital, which Obama's team has argued shipped jobs overseas during Romney's tenure. 

Romney has fought back, saying Obama is lying about his record and that instances of offshoring by companies purchased by Bain happened after he left the firm. 

He has called for Obama to apologize for comments by his campaign team, and pushed back Monday with a new video decrying the president's "Chicago-style politics."

The Obama campaign distributed the Tax Notes report to members of the press aboard Air Force One earlier in the day.

“[The Romney plan] would significantly increase incentives for U.S. firms to move economic activity abroad,” Clausing wrote, adding that “those new, low-tax-country jobs could displace jobs at home.”

The Weekly Standard pointed out that Clausing donated $250 to Obama for America (OFA) in 2012, and $242 to OFA in 2011. 

“We don’t need a President who plans to shift jobs overseas,” Obama continued. “I want to give tax breaks to companies that are investing right here in Ohio.”

The offshoring argument also buttresses the president’s personal attacks against Romney for holding bank accounts overseas, in places like Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.

“[Romney’s policies will] encourage companies to shift money to foreign havens,” Obama continued.

Romney doesn’t have any public events scheduled for Monday, but he decried the president’s tactics in an interview on Fox News Monday morning.

Romney also looked to move beyond Obama’s attacks on his links to Bain Capital with a new line of attack accusing the White House of favoring political donors with government contracts.

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