MILWAUKEE – President Barack Obama worked to squash GOP hopes for a resurgence of support in pivotal Wisconsin on Saturday, pushing back against his GOP rival’s arguments against an overly intrusive government. Mitt Romney countered with his own pitch to middle-class voters, saying that the president had fostered a culture of “government dependency” that hinders upward mobility.

Obama faulted Romney for advancing a top-down economic that “never works.”

“The country doesn’t succeed when only the folks at the very top are doing well,” he said. “We succeed when the middle class is doing well.”