Obama continues campaigning

me now the
stephanie cutter
. let me start there, where i left off. why
pennsylvania
? you guys seem to be more concerned about it than republicans are in targeting it. do you — how nervous are you guys about
pennsylvania
?

oh, i disagree, chuck. the president’s on a bus tour all through ohio today. we’re in the northeast part of the state. it just made sense to hop over to
pennsylvania
and touch base with those voters dl. you know, i’m sure throughout the course of this campaign we’ll be back in
pennsylvania
again not because we’re concerned about it but because we want to talk to the voter tons ground there. we feel pretty good about where we stabbed nd in
pennsylvania
but no doubt, we will be back there.

do you believe the conventional wisdom that the white vote in this
midwest
is the
swing vote
of this election?

i think they’re a very important part of this election. the president is going to be speaking with many of them today, as you know. i listened as you went through our bus tour route. that’s the heart of the
midwest
. one in eight jobs in ohio is tied to the
auto industry
. so it’s critically important to those voters about where people stand, where the two candidates stand on the
auto industry
and whether — who stood up to save it, who wanted to let it go bankrupt. today there’s a article in the ”
toledo blade
” where the president is starting his tour about new enforcement actions against china who are putting tariffs on our autos, our exports, into that country. so i think all of this, the industrial
midwest
, many other states, are going to be looking at this about who identifies with them, who is in touch with what’s going on in their daily lives and who is fighting for them. i think it’s a critically important piece of this electorate.

i want to shift to
health care
. it’s basically same question that’s been asked of governor
romney
. is if mandate attacks of them?

we asked several times in the difference between obama administration and the president and
mitt romney
is we’ve been consistent. h is a penalty administered through the
tax code
. it’s a penalty of less than 1% of the american public.

does the nuance matter there?

who can get
health care
and choosing not to get it. they’re choosing not to get it so they’re taxing you. at the
end of the day
it doesn’t matter what we’re calling this. we’ve been consistent about what it is. it’s a penalty on the 1% that aren’t getting
health care
and can afford to do it. contrast that with
mitt romney
. it’s a tax, it’s a penalty. i watched a power point yesterday from
2009
where
mitt romney
was walking through his
health care law
, which as you know is almost identical to the president’s
health care law
, talking about taxing people. he just needs to figure out whether what it is on his end. we’re pretty clear on our end.

it’s not clear. you’re saying the same thing that governor
romney
said. he said he seems to be reluctantly saying, well, the
supreme court
said it’s a tax so, fine, it’s a tax. but then he says his own — it’s not what it is in
massachusetts
. it was a penalty. and you’re saying we you’re not being very clear either about this whole tax source of penalty. if you’re going to hold them accountable on having to be clear of whether it’s a tax versus a penalty, i think it’s only fair that you guys are just as clear. no?

we’re pretty clear. go back and look at our
supreme court
arguments. go back and look at everything that we have said about the president’s
health care law
. it’s a penalty. it’s a penalty that’s administered through the
tax code
. on less than 1% of the
american people
who are choosing not to get
health care
but can afford it.
mitt romney
can call it a tax, a penalty. we don we just hope he chooses one and sticks to it.

the difference but — hang on a minute.

look at what has happened over the past five days. his spoerks person calls it a penalty. a couple days later after his right wing of his party rises up and criticizes him he is suddenly calling it a tax. that’s what this debate is all about, whether
mitt romney
can take a principled position and stick with it. that’s the question.

but the difference between a tax and a penalty is a penalty means you’ve done something wrong. so do you believe that not buying
health insurance
somebody is doing something wrong? it’s a
supreme court
decision. the way
john roberts
wrote it is he was making the case that, look, it’s not illegal to not buy
health insurance
. so, therefore, because it’s not — you’re not committing some sort of misdemeanor here, it’s not a penalty, it’s a tax.

no, that’s not what he said. he said that there are several different ways you can go at this. and he thought, he disagreed with the
commerce clause
decision, but he thought that congress had the power to penalize people through the
tax code
. if you don’t get insurance and you can afford it, congress has the power to penalize you because you’re passing your cost on to everybody else. but, again, that’s not really what this demand is about. this debate is about two
presidential candidates
, a president who is standing by his position, consistent on his position, pretty clear on his position.

the president was — talking candidate who was taking both sides of it over the past — just in the last week we’ve seen both sides of the issue. but over the course of the in m. years when he was been putting his
health care
plans out there he’s called it a penalty, a tax, gone back and forth. ultimately both of these laws do the same thing. they penalize people who can afford to get
health insurance
but are choosing not to. they do penalize people because it means they’re passing their costs off to me and you. that’s what this is.

i’m going to ask you about an ad you’re currently running that has to do with you’re hitting
mitt romney
for outsourcing. “the
washington post
” — you’re quoting a ”
washington post
” story saying that, you know, this is proof,
mitt romney
did nothing but outsource when he was at bane. now, the same ”
washington post
” said, gave you four pinocchios saying that what you’re claiming the article said is not what the article said. it’s in one of their outsourcing ads before the article ran, in fact, earned four pinocchios. there’s little in the post article that backs up the
obama campaign
spin. you know, if there’s not passing the
fact checker
, do you feel as if you have to redo your ads?

i’m not understanding — so if we’re not passing the ”
washington post
”
fact checker
we should redo our ads?

a lot of fact checkers say the ads are a little
over the top
, a bit misleading. you’ve taken issue when
romney
has done this to you.

sure. we feel pretty comfortable with the ads that we have up for a couple reasons.
mitt romney
oversaw bane capital. we all know that. bane capital invested in companies that were pioneers in outsour outsourcing. that’s a known fact. what’s what “the
washington post
” reported.
mitt romney
has made millions of dollars, personal profit, out of outsourcing. the second thing that some of these fact checkers take issue with is when
romney
left bane. he said he left before the olympics. there are plenty of records out there, whether it’s s.e.c. files, his own words, his own attorney’s words, that show he didn’t leave bane until
2001
. and many cases occurred between the time he said he left for the olympics in
2001
of outsourcing. so we’re just — you know, we believe that these ads are fact chul. we believe these ads tell an important story about
mitt romney
, how he’s made his money, what his beliefs are in our economic system. don’t just look at those ads, chuck, look at his policies today and what he did in
massachusetts
. he outsourced state jobs in
massachusetts
. his policies today encourage outsourcing. he has a chance to fix it. he has a chance to show, no, i’m for the american worker, i want to bring
american jobs
back here but he won’t. his policies don’t do that. he doesn’t say that.

if you were advising a democrat running for the house and senate, would you advise them to skip the
democratic convention
or go to the
democratic convention
?

i would advise them to do whatever they think is best. some are skipping it because they want to spend the time campaigning. some are going to go. and enjoy it. so it’s ultimately a personal decision. this happens every four years. it’s happening on the
republican side
, too. so
either way
is not a
big deal
.

so you don’t take the campaign doesn’t take personal offense?

no. not at all.

all right.
stephanie cutter
, deposition any
campaign manager
for the president’s re-election. thanks for coming on this morning.

thank you.