Obama knocks Romney over Mass. health care law

By Chris Moody,

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DUBUQUE, Iowa--In one of his final campaign speeches in Iowa before Election Day, President Barack Obama hit the major themes from his normal stump speech but also took a quick shot at Mitt Romney for the health care law he championed while governor of Massachusetts.

Obama has made it a staple of his campaign address in recent weeks to accuse Republicans of refusing to compromise during his first term. Speaking to about 4,000 supporters in a public park here on Saturday evening, he added a brief reference to Romney's health care law, which he says was the model for the federal overhaul Obama signed in 2010.
"They engineered a strategy of gridlock in Congress, refusing to compromise on ideas that in the past Democrats and Republicans supported," Obama said. "Suddenly, Republicans didn't support them anymore. Including, by the way, the health care bill that my opponent designed in Massachusetts.
"And what they're counting on now is that you'll be so worn down by all the squabbling in Washington, so tired of all the dysfunction that you're just going to give up, walk away and leave them in power."
The accusation of hypocrisy on health care reform isn't a new one for Obama--he has mentioned it many times throughout his presidency--but it is the first time he brought up the Massachusetts health care law in the final days of the campaign.

Romney has in the past defended the law enacted in 2006 but now says it should not serve as a model for federal policy. He has vowed to repeal Obama's national law if elected.

Both Romney and Obama are competing for Iowa's six Electoral College votes. They each visited Dubuque on Saturday but missed each other by six hours.