Candidates stump midwest in campaign swing

President Obama told Minnesota voters he fears seniors will pay about $6,000 more per year for health care if GOP lawmakers have their way.

In an appearance at Cannon Falls, Minnesota, the president said, “So instead of fixing the system, they’d just completely overhaul it. And what would happen would be, is you’d get a voucher that says, you’re allowed to get X amount -- spend X amount on health care, and if your health care costs keep on going above that, you’re out of luck. And it was estimated that under their plan the average senior would pay about $6,000 more per year for their Medicare when it kicked in. I think that’s a bad idea. I think there are better ways for us to manage the Medicare problem than to put a burden on seniors.”

Cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security are necessary, according to GOP lawmakers and presidential candidates, to restore the nation to prosperity.

In an appearance at Waterloo, Iowa, Governor Rick Perry said, "I happen to think the biggest issue facing this country is that we are facing economic turmoil, and if we don't have a president that doesn't get this country working, we're in trouble," Perry told about 300 Republicans in Waterloo's Electric Park Ballroom, "And I've got a track record." He pointed to Texas' experience in job creation and retention in the midst of a national recession.

GOP U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, fresh from a victory at the Iowa Straw Poll, touted her experience running her family's small business in Minnesota.

"We started our own successful small company," she told reporters. "We know how to build from scratch, putting capital together and starting a business from scratch and building it up so that we can actually offer jobs to people."

A vocal opponent of sanctioned gay marriage in other states, she and her husband operate a Christian-based counseling service in Minneapolis that often seeks to correct homosexual behavior in adolescents and young adults.

The practice has generated much controversy of late.