DURHAM, N.H. - President Obama continued his attack on Mitt Romney and his former firm's business practices, mocking the response of his rival's campaign to a report that Bain Capital had invested in companies that shipped jobs overseas.

Aides to Romney disputed the report in the Washington Post, saying it had confused the business practices of offshoring and outsourcing.

"If you're a worker whose job went overseas, you don't need someone trying to explain to you the difference," Obama said. "You need someone who's going to wake up every single day and fight for American jobs."

Obama said that unlike his GOP rival, he would close a loophole in the tax code that offers an incentive to companies who move operations abroad.

The president, speaking at a New Hampshire high school at the start of a two-day campaign swing, said his argument against Romney is more than about his business practices. "It's part of an overall economic vision that he and Republicans in Congress want to implement," he said. "It's been voted on in Congress; it's right there on Governor Romney's website."

Voters have a choice in the election, one in which they could break the stalemate in Washington between two very different paths for the country, the president said.

Appealing to the fiscal Yankee conservatism of New Hampshire voters, Obama spoke specifically about the deadlock between him and Republicans on the deficit, spotlighting their resistance to asking the wealthy to pay "even a nickel more in taxes."

Obama also said he cut taxes for typical working families by $3,600 a year, and cut small-business taxes 18 times.

New Hampshire supported the president by a double-digit margin in 2008, but swung back toward Republicans in the 2010 midterm elections.

Obama's trip also will include stops in Boston, Atlanta and Florida.