Mitt Romney is out with a new television ad accusing President Barack Obama of "raiding" Medicare to pay for his health care reform law.
The 30-second spot, titled "Nothing is Free," echoes attacks Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan, his vice-presidential running mate, have made on the campaign trail over the last week.
"Some think Obamacare is the same as free health care," a narrator says. "But nothing is free. Obama is raiding $716 billion from Medicare, changing the program forever."
Romney has repeatedly cited the $716 billion in cuts in attacking Obama on Medicare. His campaign cites that number to a Congressional Budget Office report that says repealing Obama's health care reform law would prompt a $716 billion increase in Medicare spending.
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But the Obama campaign has rejected that argument, saying that the cuts are actually "savings" for seniors, "getting waste and fraud out of the system." It has also pointed out that Ryan included the cuts in his own budget proposal—though the Romney campaign has pushed back on that argument, insisting Ryan only included those cuts because it was the "baseline" of where the budget is today.
The Romney ad accuses Obama of "taxing wheelchairs and pacemakers" and raising taxes on the middle class.
"Free healthcare comes at a very high price," the narrator says, adding that Romney and Ryan would "protect and strengthen" Medicare for the "next generation."
The Romney campaign did not say where the ad is airing or how much it is spending to run the spot.