Romney Stands Firm on Taxes, Vows to Court Iowa

In an increasingly rare occurrence, Mitt Romney took questions Saturday from the press after holding a town hall in Peterborough, New Hampshire, saying he would not support any plan negotiated by the congressional Super Committee that raised taxes.

"I believe the right answer is cutting taxes, so I will not endorse any plan that raises revenues, raises taxes."

His remarks come days after fellow Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who serves on the 12 member deficit panel, proposed a plan to raise roughly $300 billion in revenue by limiting tax breaks for some, in an effort to reach a deal before the November 23rd looming deadline.

When questioned at the town hall about how he would bring about compromise in Congress, Romney cited his experience reaching across the aisle as governor of the largely democratic state of Massachusetts and continued to say there is "no substitute for a strong leader" who can reach common ground without "abandoning principles."

Though Romney made it clear that raising taxes would not be an area of compromise.

"There will be a lot of give and take of proposals made and yet I will not support any proposal based upon increasing taxes or revenues. I will support proposals reducing spending"

Defending himself against charges that he was not aggressively addressing the negotiations of the Super Committee, Romney said he doesn't think he could be "more outspoken" about what measure he believes need to be taken.

"I pretty much go across the country every day talking about what I would do to balance the budget." He continued, saying the Super Committee needs to "rein in excessive spending in the current budget and reform Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security to make them permanently sustainable."

While Romney spent the weekend making appearances in the Granite state, seven of the GOP contenders were in Iowa partaking in a debate sponsored by Family Leader, a Christian organization.

Taking heat for not courting voters in the Hawkeye state enough, Romney said he had every intention to "play" in Iowa.

"As we get closer to the caucuses and the primaries, you will see us visiting those states more, spending more time there turning out more volunteers and being more active, because as we get closer to the election, not surprisingly we want people going to the polls to support us," he told reporters.

Though, don't expect to see him lay out his strategy publicly any time soon. Romney said he does not want his competitors privy to his game plan to win over Iowa.  He added jokingly to a gaggle of local and national media hanging on his every word, "I would tell you, if you won't tell anybody."