First general election ad outlines Romney's Day 1 plan of action

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney released his first general election television ad Friday, listing a menu of things he would do on his first day in office.

He said he would approve the Keystone XL pipeline project, propose “tax cuts and reform that reward job creators” and issue orders replacing President Barack Obama's health-care act with “common-sense reforms.”

The ad is running in four states: Iowa, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina, all swing states. The Republican's campaign also attacked the administration in a release, saying a second Obama term would mean higher taxes, an “outdated” energy policy and a health-care act that would stifle growth.

The ad is running statewide.

Romney followed up the spot with a conference call with voters in four states, which lasted about a half hour. During the call, Romney appealed to listeners to reach out to young people and senior citizens in their states.

He said young people are being laden with a lot of debt, and “it's a puzzle to me” why they would vote for Democrats. He also blamed Obama for cuts to the Medicare program that were part of the Affordable Care Act.

“One thing I can tell you, I'm not going to be out there cutting Medicare,” Romney said. “I'm going to make sure we keep Medicare solvent and Social Security solvent.”

Growth in some entitlements, including Medicare, is seen as a key driver of government spending. But it also is a politically sensitive program. About one in six Iowans received Medicare benefits last year.

Romney pointed to other programs and subsidies he said he would eliminate, such as the National Endowment for the Arts and Amtrak. He said other programs would be sent back to the states.

The new ad is but the latest in a coming wave of television spots that are hitting the state as the general election campaign swings into gear. The president's campaign has been up with four ads already.

Private groups also have begun launching ad campaigns here. Crossroads GPS, a group with ties to Karl Rove, is one of them. It announced earlier this week that it's planning to spend $25 million on television this month in several states, matching the amount the Obama campaign has said it planned to spend in May.

Erin Seidler, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Iowa, responded Friday to Romney's ad:

“Mitt Romney's empty promises are nothing new - the people of Massachusetts heard them when he ran for governor in 2002. Romney said he would use his business experience to cut spending and debt - but both increased under his watch and he left Massachusetts with the largest per-capita debt in the nation. Romney promised he'd use this same private-sector experience to create jobs, but Massachusetts ranked 47th out of 50 in job creation and lagged the nation in almost all key economic indicators. And the one thing he did accomplish - implementing health-care reform that was a model for federal reform - is now something he would undo on Day One of his presidency.”