Obama pushes DREAM Act, other action

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ORLANDO, Fla., June 22 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Friday said he agrees with likely Republican opponent Mitt Romney on one thing: This election is about America's future.

Obama, in an appearance before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual convention in Orlando, Fla., one day after Romney's, said immigration is "the defining issue of our time" and pushed for the adoption of the DREAM Act, which would allow young people brought to the United States illegally by their parents to earn citizenship. He also talked about improving the economy, expanding educational opportunities, making healthcare affordable, supporting energy research, helping those caught in the housing meltdown and reforming the tax code.

"The Republicans who run Congress, the man at the top of their ticket, they don't agree with any of the proposals I just talked about," Obama said. "They believe the best way to grow the economy is from the top down. So they want to roll back regulations and give insurance companies and credit card companies and mortgage lenders even more power to do as they please. They want to spend $5 trillion on new tax cuts -- including a 25-percent tax cut for every millionaire in the country. And they want to pay for it by raising middle-class taxes and gutting middle-class priorities like education and training and healthcare and medical research.

"And that's it. That's it. That's their economic plan."

Obama called for immigration reform "that finally lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and as a nation of immigrants, and continues the American story of renewal and energy and dynamism that's made us who we are."