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• Romney's April Fundraising Haul Nearly Matches Obama's
  

  Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) -- Mitt Romney’s around-the-clock fundraising schedule seems to be paying off -- literally.
  
  Romney, with the help of the Republican National Committee, raised $40.1 million in April -- nearly matching the $43 million raised by President Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee in the same month -- proving the strength of his fundraising campaign since essentially clinching the nomination.
  
  The fundraising numbers, expected to be released formally by the campaign Thursday morning, were first reported by The New York Times and later confirmed by ABC News.
  
  The April haul far exceeds the money the presumptive GOP nominee raised in March -- just $12.6 million -- and clearly shows the boost the campaign got from joining forces with the RNC to develop a Victory Fund, which allows donors who have already maxed out to Romney to then give more money -- and in larger amounts.  
  
  Romney, a multi-millionaire, has still not given any of his personal fortune to his campaign, which will report Thursday morning that it has $61.4 million in cash on hand.
  
  Romney’s fundraising schedule has undoubtedly ramped up since joining forces with the RNC in early April, but the candidate spent only the later half fundraising with the Victory Fund -- the first two fundraisers officially organized by the committee not occurring until April 15 in Florida.  Since then, Romney has maintained an aggressive fundraising schedule.
  
  On Wednesday alone, Romney is said to have raised more than $4.3 million at two fundraisers in South Florida.  The candidate has two more fundraisers in the Sunshine State on Thursday, and has held several earlier in the week. 

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• Senators to Unveil ‘Ex-Patriot Act’ in Response to Tax ‘Scheme’
  

  Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has a status update for Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin: Stop attempting to dodge your taxes by renouncing your U.S. citizenship or never come to back to the U.S. again.
  
  In September 2011, Saverin relinquished his U.S. citizenship before the company announced its planned initial public offering of stock, which will debut on Friday.  The move was likely a financial one, as he owns an estimated 4 percent of Facebook and stands to make $4 billion when the company goes public.  Saverin would reap the benefit of tax savings by becoming a permanent resident of Singapore, which levies no capital gains taxes.
  
  At a news conference Thursday morning, Sens. Schumer and Bob Casey, D-Pa., will unveil the “Ex-PATRIOT” (“Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy”) Act to respond directly to Saverin’s move, which they dub a “scheme” that would “help him duck up to $67 million in taxes.”
  
  The senators will call Saverin’s move an “outrage” and will outline their plan to re-impose taxes on expatriates like Saverin even after they flee the United States and take up residence in a foreign country.  Their proposal would also impose a mandatory 30 percent tax on the capital gains of anybody who renounces their U.S. citizenship.
  
  The plan would bar individuals like Saverin from ever reentering the United States again.
  
  “Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,” Tom Goodman, Saverin’s spokesman, told Bloomberg News in an email.
  
  Last year 1,700 people renounced their U.S. citizenship.

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• House, Senate Unanimously Reject Obama Budgets -- Or Do They?
  

  Hemera/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- The White House on Wednesday reacted to news that representations of President Obama’s budget had been voted down by the House and Senate by decrying the introduction of the amendments, by Republicans, as “gimmicks.”
  
  “Gimmicks are not solutions,” White House press secretary Jay Carney emailed to ABC News.  “The American people overwhelmingly support a balanced approach to our long-term budget challenges.  That’s the approach the President supports.  The sooner Republicans drop their intransigence and join the American people in supporting a balanced approach, the sooner Congress will be able to come together and reach a compromise.”
  
  Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Miss., introduced a budget amendment representing the president’s budget request; the Sessions amendment was voted down 99-0.
  
  A similar effort from Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-SC, was rejected in the House 414-0.
  
  Sessions told reporters that it was “stunning” that no one voted for the version of the Obama budget he put forward.
  
  “A sitting president of the United States, seeking reelection, can’t lay out a plan that will gain a single vote in the House or Senate for the financial future of America,” he said.  “It speaks volumes
  
  While the Sessions and Mulvaney bills put forward the same topline numbers as those in the president’s budget, neither offered any specifics.  The Sessions legislation was 56 pages long; actual budgets are closer to 2,000 pages long.
  
  Thus, a White House official said, the Sessions proposal was a “shell that could be filled with a number of things that could hurt our economy and hurt the middle class.  For example, rather than ending tax breaks for millionaires his budget could hit the revenue target by raising taxes on the middle class and rather than ending wasteful programs, his budget could hit its spending target with severe cuts to important programs.”
  
  “This is the president’s budget,” said the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Kent Conrad of South Dakota, indicating the voluminous budget proposal Obama offered.  “This is what Sen. Sessions has presented as being the president’s budget,” he said,  indicating the much slimmer document.
  
  “I think it’s readily apparent there is a big difference between the president’s budget, which I hold in my hands, and what Sen. Sessions has presented as being the president’s budget.  This is not the president’s budget.  So, of course, we’re not going to support it.  It’s not what the president proposed,” Conrad continued.
  
  The White House official said the Sessions and Mulvaney’s bills were mere GOP stunts to get Democrats on record opposing "the president’s budget” as well as distracting from what the House Republican budget would do, which the official described as “protect(ing) massive tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires while making the middle class and seniors pay.”

  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• Romney Spokesman Throws a Question at Biden During Dinner Run-In
  

  ABC News(STEUBENVILLE, Ohio) -- One of Mitt Romney’s spokesmen, in Ohio to attend Vice President’s Joe Biden’s speech Wednesday in nearby Youngstown, Ohio, got some unexpected one-on-one time with the veep that evening when he was seated next to him at dinner, where he apparently proceeded to drill him on his position on coal production.
  
  Romney spokesman Ryan Williams told ABC News that he went to find a restaurant in Steubenville, Ohio, after the Biden event and came across Maples Spaghetti House. He and his dinner partner, Romney’s Ohio State Director Chris Maloney, walked into the restaurant, where they got swept by Secret Service, which Williams said tipped him off to Biden’s impending arrival.
  
  Williams said he was seated at the “first available table” in the dining room when, moments later, Biden came down and sat at the table right next to him. Williams promptly tweeted a photo.
  
  After a brief photo-op with the traveling press, Williams said a staffer leaned over to Biden and whispered something, prompting the vice president to summon the Romney spokesman over to his table.
  
  “Oh, there’s Ryan,” Williams recalled Biden saying. “He pointed me out and called me over, and we exchanged pleasantries.”
  
  According to Williams, while there was no mention of Romney, Biden did ask if he’d like to join his table so he’d have a better chance of eavesdropping.
  
  Williams said he asked the vice president why he was in coal country, challenging him on his support of the coal industry. According to Williams, Biden refused to answer when he asked the vice president why he believes coal is more dangerous than terrorism.
  
  “He disagreed with that and didn’t want to answer my questions,” said Williams, who added that Biden was “very cordial” and “seems like a nice man.”
  
  After the exchange, Williams said he returned to his table and Biden was relocated to another area of the dining room.
  
  Amy Dudley, Biden’s press secretary, also tweeted a photo of the run-in with the message, “So nice of @RyanGOP to join us for dinner at Naples Spaghetti House in Steubenville.”
  
  Ben LaBolt, a press secretary for the Obama reelection campaign, seemed less amused in his tweet, writing to Williams, “Staffer apparently doesn’t believe the press is capable of asking questions, shouts his own at the candidate. #classy.”
  
  Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, who was dining with Biden, told the Columbus Dispatch that Biden didn’t seem put off by Williams’ questions.
  
  “The vice president did not seem to be the least bothered by it,” Strickland told the paper. "I wasn’t bothered by it, I didn’t perceive it being out of line in any way or inappropriate in any way. I think politics can be fun and enjoyable. They can be a little spicy at times.”
  
  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

  
  
  
• Obama Aide Admits Bain Attacks on Romney Haven't Stuck
  

  Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Alex Wong/Getty Images(CHICAGO) -- A top Obama campaign strategist made a surprising admission Wednesday about Democrats’ efforts to undermine Mitt Romney’s economic chops: they haven’t worked.
   
  “No one has a good understanding of what Mitt Romney’s economics are or what Mitt Romney’s business experience really was,” said deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter on a conference call with reporters.
   
  She was asked to explain why the former governor and private equity executive holds an edge over Obama in some public polling on who Americans believe would better improve the economy.
   
  “In a rare moment of candor a few months ago, Mitt Romney admitted that his job was not about job creation, it was about wealth creation,” Cutter said. “So, what we have been doing today, and all week, is explaining that that ‘wealth creation’ came at a price.”
   
  “I think that over time people will become aware of these things,” she added.
   
  Democrats have spent months hammering Romney’s economic record as governor of Massachusetts, his lack of transparency with tax returns and his business dealings at Bain Capital -- through online and TV ads, social media campaigns, and local and network news interviews.  The problem, she said, is that a clear message has yet to break through.
   
  The Obama campaign is amplifying their case about Romney this week, through a coordinated TV ad campaign, a tour by Vice President Joe Biden through Ohio, and other public events in key states featuring laid-off workers from former Bain-owned companies.
   
  And aides appear to be trying to further simplify their message -- avoiding the nuances of the practices of private equity -- casting Romney as a ruthless wealth seeker, not a job creator.
   
  “You can take it from me: Mitt Romney is no job creator.  He was a corporate raider.  He tried every way possible to create profits for himself and his buddies instead of trying to create jobs for American workers,” Cutter said.
   
  She underscored later, “As the CEO of Bain, Romney’s first priority was creating wealth for himself and making return on his investment for his investors, not building companies that created jobs for hard-working Americans. As president Romney would do the same.”
   
  And again, hammering the same point home: “As a corporate buyout specialist like Mitt Romney...was very successful at one thing: creating wealth for himself and his investors, getting a return for that investment. He wasn’t successful at ensuring that people get to keep their jobs.”
   
  The question now is whether persuadable voters are listening, and agree.
  
  Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio