Romney describes this as a defining election

RENO — Highlighting the importance of Nevada in this election, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney told supporters at the Reno Events Center on Wednesday the debates between himself and President Barack Obama have “propelled” his campaign while diminishing that of the president.“He's now been reduced to talking about Sesame Street characters and word games,” he told the crowd, estimated at 2,000 by fire officials. “The choice you make here in Nevada and perhaps here in Reno will make a difference in the nation, in the families of the nation.”The difference, he said, is that he knows where to take the nation in the coming four years.“The president doesn't understand what it takes to get this country going. He doesn't have a plan for Americans and I do, and that's why I'm going to win,” he said, drawing loud applause from the partisan crowd.He criticized the president's “moving forward” slogan, saying the current economy “doesn't feel like forward to the 23 million Americans struggling to get a good job.”“It doesn't feel like forward to those millions of people who don't have as good a job as they had four years ago. It doesn't feel like forward, it feels like backward,” Romney said. “We're going to take back the White House and get this country on the right track.”Romney said that choice is especially important to seniors and those in their 40s and 50s who will become seniors, adding, “The idea that the president would cut Medicare for current seniors in order to pay for his legacy, Obamacare, is something I don't think the American people understand the impact on them.”Romney also said the past four years have seen the national debt rise from $10 trillion to $16 trillion, and if Obama is re-elected “we're going to have $20 trillion in debt by the end of his term.”Using the example of a daughter in an American family, Romney said the national debt impacts a family just like the weak economy.“Your daughter coming out of college is going to have $10,000-$20,000 in loans to pay back. She's going to be paying interest on those loans for a long time,” he said. “But in addition to that, she's going to have about $50,000 per person in America in debt.”Romney asked how that young woman will ever realize the American dream of her parents when she will be paying taxes on the debt “for things she didn't get and she's going to be paying for that all her life.”His plan, he said, will “get America back on track to a balanced budget.”He also called for much more choice for parents concerned their children aren't getting the kind of education they need. He said they're looking for other opportunities such as charter schools but “the teachers' union doesn't like the kind of choice parents like.”“The PTA doesn't have a union. The parents don't have a union, the students don't have a union,” he said. “I'm going to be the voice of the parents and the kids and the teachers.”Romney said his plan also would get the housing market moving again and take full advantage of the coal, oil and gas resources not now being developed in the U.S.He promised to encourage more international trade while holding nations including China accountable for refusing to follow the rules, keep taxes down on small business and “get regulators to see their job is to encourage small business.”Romney said the key to all his plans is to get out the vote for himself and other Republicans.“Find one person who voted for Barack Obama last time and get them to come out and vote for us this time,” he said. “Nevada, Reno and the whole country have a choice to make.”