The Hill News

Mitt Romney is expected to launch a severe critique of the president's stimulus package Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa, arguing that government spending and debt "threatens what it means to be an American."

For Romney, the speech is an opening salvo on the economy, a topic his campaign hopes will dominate the race for the White House. His team and the Republican National Committee have looked to refocus the conversation back to economic matters this week after the first month of the campaign was dominated by social and foreign policy controversies.

That effort was aided Monday by the president's reelection team, which issued a campaign ad and corresponding website depicting Romney as a corporate raider who contributed to the loss of American jobs. The Romney campaign quickly fired back, arguing the attack was unfair and claiming net job growth from the investments of his private equity firm, Bain Capital.

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