Romney in Orlando (Evan Vucci/AP)Mitt Romney doubled down on his efforts to cast President Barack Obama as "out of touch," insisting Obama's declaration last week that the private sector is "doing fine" wasn't just a random gaffe.
Speaking at a rally in Orlando, Fla., Romney said Obama's remark "wasn't just one line taken out of context" and said it was just one of many signs that the current president "is so out of touch with what's happening across America."
"It is finally time to have a president who's in touch with what's happening in America, and I am," Romney declared, vowing that, if elected, he would restore the country's "strength."
Appearing in a battleground state that many consider a must-win for his campaign this fall, Romney took specific aim at Obama's health care law, arguing that it has been detrimental to the nation's economy because small businesses can't afford to pay for expanding health care coverage.
The Republican nominee also pointed to expanding cost estimates of what it will cost the federal government to pay for implementing the law.
"It's not just bad policy," Romney said, speaking against the backdrop of a sign that read "Repeal & Replace Obamacare." "It's simply unaffordable."
As he does at almost every single campaign event, Romney pledged to begin efforts to repeal Obama's health care law on "day one" of his presidency. In Florida, he acknowledged that the law's mandate that individuals obtain health care coverage or receive it from their employers is currently pending before the Supreme Court.
But "whatever happens," Romney told supporters in Florida, it will still be up to the next president to make a decision about what to do about the rest of Obama's health care law.
"I will repeal it," he vowed.