A combative Barack Obama today hit back at Mitt Romney,retrieving lost ground in the second of the three high-stake presidentialdebates, saying his Republican rival's plans on outsourcing will only result inmore jobs in China and India.
Obama, who drew flak from his own party for a lacklustreperformance in round one two weeks ago, this time often dictated the terms ofthe debate questioning Romney's approaches towards China, immigration, taxes,unemployment, gun laws and other domestic and foreign issues.
During the 90-minute face-off at the Hofstra University herefor a town hall style debate, Romney retorted claiming US has been losingmanufacturing jobs to China as enterprises feel it is "moreattractive" to go offshore than to stay here.
A snap CNN/ORC International poll showed 46 per cent ofrespondents thought 51-year-old Obama won, compared to 39 per cent for65-year-old Romney. The result was within the survey's margin of error.
Both Obama and Romney fielded questions also on topics likegas prices and Libya from members of the audience, a group of 82 undecidedvoters from New York's Nassau County.
The question on outsourcing of American jobs overseas cameat the end of the debate, which saw an aggressive and assertive Obama take onRomney as he tried to improve on his performance at the first debate in Denverwhere the Republican leader came out as the surprise winner.
"One of his (Romney's) big ideas when it comes tocorporate tax reform would be to say, if you invest overseas, you make profitsoverseas, you don't have to pay US taxes.
"But, of course, if you're a small business or amom-and- pop business or a big business starting up here, you've got to payeven the reduced rate that Governor Romney's talking about. And it's estimatedthat that will create 800,000 new jobs. The problem is they'll be in China. OrIndia. Or Germany," Obama said.
"That's not the way we're going to create jobs here.The way we're going to create jobs here is not just to change our tax code, butalso to double our exports," the president said.
Responding to the question on what plans they each had tokeep jobs in the US, Obama said while Romney and he agreed that the corporatetax rate should be lowered, there is a difference on the way they both wouldapproach the issue.
"I want to close loopholes that allow companies todeduct expenses when they move to China; that allow them to profit offshore andnot have to get taxed, so they have tax advantages offshore. All those changesin our tax code would make a difference," Obama said, slamming Romney forwanting to expand the tax breaks.
Romney shot back that "if you elect President Obama,you know what you're going to get -- you're going to get a repeat of the lastfour years."
Responding to the question, Romney blamed Obama for notlabelling China as a currency manipulator, promising to put the label onBeijing on day one of his presidency.
"We are going to have to make sure that as we tradewith other nations that they play by the rules. And China hasn't.
One of the reasons -- or one of the ways they don't play bythe rules is artificially holding down the value of their currency. Because ifthey put their currency down low, that means their prices on their goods arelow. And that makes them advantageous in the marketplace.
"We lose sales. And manufacturers here in the US makingthe same products can't compete. China has been a currency manipulator foryears and years and years. And the president has a regular opportunity to labelthem as a currency manipulator, but refuses to do so," Romney said.
Romney repeatedly took on Obama, blaming his rival'spolicies for rising federal deficits and debts, leaving more than 20 millionpeople jobless.
"We don't have to settle for what we're going through,"Romney said at one point. "We don't have to settle for unemployment at achronically high level. We don't have to settle for 47 million people on foodstamps. We don't have to settle for 50 per cent of kids coming out of collegenot able to get work. We don't have to settle for 23 million people strugglingto find a good job."
