Romney tags Obama for debt "prairie fire"

DES MOINES -- Republican Mitt Romney said yesterday that President Barack Obama's support for increased federal debt has put the economy on a disastrous course, portraying himself in a speech in battleground Iowa as the defender of fiscal responsibility and his opponent as reckless.

Calling for sharp spending cuts and a long-term budget discipline, Romney is trying to frame the campaign against the Democrat as a contest of fairness versus irresponsibility.

"A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation and every day we fail to act we feed that fire with our own lack of resolve," Romney said, according to excerpts of a speech he was to deliver on his first trip to Iowa since January.

The White House promptly dismissed Romney's critique. Press secretary Jay Carney blamed federal overspending primarily on Romney-backed tax cuts for the wealthy that were enacted during President George W. Bush's administration and on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Carney said Romney wants to repeat policies that led to high deficits and the recession and repeal Obama policies "that reversed the cataclysmic decline on our economy and that now has us growing for 11 straight quarters."

Romney's debt-and-spending argument is his counter-argument to Obama's emphasis on fairness; he is asking more of wealthier Americans by eliminating tax breaks and loopholes.

The speech also shows Romney's effort to focus on the economy, voters' No. 1 concern, after several days in which gay marriage dominated the campaign debate. Obama announced last week that he supports same-sex marriage, after publicly opposing it but saying his position was "evolving." Romney opposes it and reaffirmed his position while delivering a weekend graduation speech at Liberty University, a conservative Christian university in Virginia.

Romney's speech in Des Moines also marked an effort to paint the wealthy, former private equity firm executive as a live-by-the-rules citizen, not a detached elitist, as the Obama campaign has sought to portray him.