WASHINGTON (AP) — Dueling with Republicans on taxes, President Barack Obama is urging the House to pass a tax cut for households earning less than $250,000 a year and drawing a bright line with rival Mitt Romney on a pocketbook issue for voters.

Obama was making campaign stops in Republicanfriendly Mansfield and the Democratic stronghold of Akron today, rallying voters after a week of low-profile fundraisers and formal speeches in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

The president looked to reprise the middle-class tax debate as Romney wrapped up a three-country foreign trip and the monthly jobs report loomed on Friday. The House today is expected to consider Obama’s plan to extend President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for individuals earning less than $200,000 and couples making less than $250,000, along with a Republican proposal to extend the tax cuts for everyone.

Taxes have become a defining issue in the presidential race, and the outcome of the tax debate isn’t expected to be decided until after November. With less than 100 days before the election, the campaign remains tight, with both campaigns trying to pump up their core supporters while competing for a narrow slice of undecided voters in about eight states that could tip the election.

Obama’s campaign released a new ad Tuesday focused on taxes and the deficit, calling Romney’s approach a way to provide a “new $250,000 tax cut for millionaires.” The ad said Romney’s approach on tax cuts, coupled with increased military spending, would add “trillions to the deficit.”

“To cut the deficit we need everyone to pay their fair share,” Obama said in the ad’s tag line, looking into the camera. The spot was airing in Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Florida, part of what detailed advertising records show is a heavy investment in the range of $30 million during August.

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams called it a “ridiculous ad coming from a president who shattered his pledge to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term.”

Obama has repeatedly pressed for the one-year tax extension, arguing that it would provide relief for families and certainty for businesses wary of hiring workers at a time of concerns over the global economy. The White House says it would provide an average of $1,600 a year in tax cuts for more than 100 million families.