national

CLEVELAND - Seeking to rally his struggling party for the final weeks of the midterm election season, President Obama laid out a sweeping argument for retaining Democrats and punishing Republicans by casting Democrats as fighters for the middle class and Republicans as protectors of "millionaires and billionaires" and special interests.

He used the speech to formally roll out his latest economic proposal, including letting the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy expire but making the rate cuts for the middle class permanent. He also proposed $180 billion in new construction and business tax credits.

But the address also represented an intensifying campaign by Obama to discredit Republicans -- whom he said would return to economic policies that favor the wealthy at the expense of struggling families -- and craft a roadmap for Democrats confronting a potentially disastrous election cycle likely to cost them scores of congressional seats.

Democrats have waited impatiently for Obama to adopt a more aggressive tone that frames the choice facing voters. And although the push comes late in a tough season for Democrats, White House officials said that now is the moment when American families are returning to turning to political matters.

Republican leaders fired back that Democrats were proposing in effect to raise taxes. And they united around a proposal Wednesday from Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, who could become House speaker if his party wins a majority, to cut domestic spending and freeze all tax rates for two years.

Recalling a 2008 campaign visit to Cleveland, Obama said: "A lot has changed ... but what hasn't is the choice facing this country. It's still fear versus hope, the past versus the future." He chose to speak in the Cleveland suburb of Parma to underscore the contrast with Republicans since Boehner two weeks ago unveiled a GOP message to extend the Bush-era tax rates.

Obama sought to differentiate between the Republican Party of today and an earlier time when the party, he said, upheld "a noble Republican vision of what this country can be" and had statesmen like Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan who "didn't spent all their time playing games or scoring points. They didn't always prey on people's fears."

Obama's proposals to help the flagging recovery include ideas that typically have strong Republican and business backing. The administration figures that if Republicans oppose the proposals that will be further evidence of their determination to stymie Obama over the needs of voters.

The president acknowledged that "people are frustrated and angry and anxious about the future." But he said returning to Republican governance would mean a return to the failed policies of tax cuts and minimal regulations that spawned the financial crisis and housing bubble and the worst recession since the Depression.

"There were no new policies from Mr. Boehner," Obama said. "There were no new ideas. There was just the same philosophy that we had already tried during the decade that they were in power -- the same philosophy that led to this mess in the first place: Cut more taxes for millionaires and cut more rules for corporations."

But acknowledging voter anger, Obama later told ABC that "if the election is a referendum on are people satisfied about the economy as it currently is, then we're not going to do well, because I think everybody feels like this economy needs to better than it's been doing."

The Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Associated Press contributed to this report.