Obama campaign defines Romney/Ryan as “The Go Back Team”

By: CNN’s Dana Davidsen

(CNN) — The Obama campaign released a web video following Mitt Romney’s announcement of his running mate in Virginia Saturday morning seeking to define the newly formed pair as toxic for the middle class.

The video highlights presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his running mate pick, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, architect of the House’s Republican budget proposal and chairman of its Budget Committee, as a ticket supporting a drastic budget plan which includes deep cuts to entitlement programs that would affect middle income Americans.

Obama’s campaign website features a picture of the Republican pair labeling them “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: The Go Back Team” a play on the Republican team’s actual new slogan: “America’s Comeback Team.” And a reference to the generally conservative-backed trickle down economic theory espoused by previous Republican presidents.

“Romney and Ryan want to take us back to the failed, top-down economic ideas of the past,” the website reads along with the campaign web video.

The video begins with the text, “Ryan is the mastermind behind the extreme GOP budget plan.”

Next comes Ryan’s voice explaining his budget plan.

“I’ve put out a very comprehensive plan rewriting the healthcare system, Medicare, social security, the tax system.”

“It’s a plan Mitt Romney endorses,” text reads.

In a news clip from CNN, Mitt Romney speaks by phone to a “Tele-Town Hall’ in March where he said “I think that it would be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan’s budget and to adopt it.”

“But what does that mean for America?” the video questions. “It hurts seniors.”

“The Paul Ryan Medicare plan turns Medicare into a voucher system,” says a clip in the video from CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

Unattributed text in the video then comes up on screen: “It hurts middle class families.”

“The Paul Ryan budget, which cuts aid to the disabled, which cuts aid to the immigrants’ children, which cuts aid to the elderly,” says a video clip of another commentator.

Furthermore, “It hurts students,” the web ad says, and continues:

“…would cut Pell Grants for student up by $170 billion and cut off a million students over the next decade,” says another commentator.

“The cuts in here are so dramatic, they are so painful,” says yet another commentator on television news in a clip in the video.

“All to pay for those at the top,” reads the ad.

The web ad continues by using pieces of television commentator sound bites with text to highlight what the campaign is framing as the pitfalls of Ryan’s budget, his support of -what they call– extreme entitlement cuts and Romney’s support of it.

The 95 second video concludes with a picture of Romney and Ryan along with text reading, “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan: Back To The Failed Top Down Policies That Crashed Our Economy.”

In turn, Romney and Ryan in their remarks Saturday blasted the Obama campaign for running a negative campaign stating that they were focused on fixing problems going forward.

“We won’t duck the tough issues, we will lead!,” Ryan told a cheering crowd on the battleship USS Wisconsin. “We won’t blame others, we will take responsibility. We won’t replace our founding principles, we will reapply them.”