Obama, Romney duel over tax cuts

WASHINGTON -- Dueling with Republicans on taxes, President Barack Obama is urging the House to pass a tax cut for households earning less than $250,000 a year and drawing a bright line with rival Mitt Romney on a pocketbook-issue for voters.

Romney, who arrived home Wednesday from meetings with foreign leaders in Britain, Israel and Poland, released a new television commercial designed to introduce him to voters in battleground states who know little or nothing about his personal background.

Obama was in Ohio, making campaign stops in Republican-friendly Mansfield and the Democratic stronghold of Akron, rallying voters after a week of low-profile fundraisers and formal speeches in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

Obama's campaign released a new ad Tuesday that said Romney's approach on tax cuts, coupled with increased military spending, would add "trillions to the deficit."

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams called it a "ridiculous ad coming from a president who shattered his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term."

In Romney's new ad, he speaks of his years in private business, in government and as the head of the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City a decade ago, saying, "I want to use those experiences to help Americans have a better future."

A new poll showed that Obama holds an advantage over Romney in three swing states critical to the outcome of the presidential election.

The telephone survey of likely voters in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania also found support for the president's plan to increase income taxes on upper-income Americans. The survey was conducted by Quinnipiac University, CBS News and the New York Times.

The swing-state polling found Obama supported by at least 50 percent of the voters surveyed in all three states, with the president leading Romney by 51 percent to 45 percent in Florida, 50 percent to 44 percent in Ohio and 53 percent to 42 percent in Pennsylvania.Yesterday, Republicans controlling the House passed a bill to extend tax cuts due to expire Dec. 31.

The GOP plan would renew a full package of Bush-era tax cuts when they expire at the end of the year, but Obama has promised to veto the measure.

The vote was 256-171.