PORTSMOUTH — Mitt Romney will force seniors out of nursing homes and "out into the cold" if he's elected president, the head of the Democratic National Committee warned voters in Portsmouth Friday.



Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz toured the Granite State Friday to draw attention to how the 2012 presidential race will influence the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Monday marks the 47th anniversary of the establishment of Medicare, according to President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.



In a short speech at Obama's campaign office at 125 Brewery Lane, Wasserman Schultz warned supporters that Romney "and his Tea Party extremist allies" are planning to strip seniors of safety net benefits provided through the Medicare program.



Schultz said Romney endorses the GOP budget crafted by Congressman Paul Ryan, which would "end Medicare as we know it" by converting the program into a voucher system. The change would cost the average senior an extra $6,300 in annual Medicare premiums, she claimed.



Republicans are also striving to convert Medicaid into a block grant program, she said. As a result, seniors who rely on Medicaid benefits to pay for nursing home care will no longer be able to afford their bills.



By contrast, she said, Obama has spurred 28 months of job growth in the private sector, enacted 18 tax breaks for small businesses, and put a "tourniquet" on the bleeding economy through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Romney wants to hand out $5 trillion in new tax breaks "weighted toward the wealthy," she said.



"It's unbelievable and astonishing how out of touch Mitt Romney is and how he really doesn't understand the needs of regular working families who aren't already doing really well," Wasserman Schultz said.



Social Security and Medicare are the two largest federal programs, accounting for 36 percent of federal expenditures in fiscal year 2011, according to an annual report created by the Medicare and Social Security Board of Trustees. Medicare costs are projected to escalate as health care spending increases and the population ages.



"Lawmakers should not delay addressing the long-run financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare," the report states. "If they take action sooner rather than later, more options and more time will be available to phase in changes so that the public has adequate time to prepare."



Under Ryan's GOP budget proposal, Medicare beneficiaries would begin receiving fixed payments to offset the cost of buying private health insurance. The change would apply to people turning 65 beginning in 2022, according to an analysis created by the Congressional Budget Office. The matching payments states receive for Medicaid would also be converted into block grants of fixed dollar amounts beginning in 2013.



The proposal would also repeal the key provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act regarding insurance coverage, the CBO analysis states.



The CBO determined that Ryan's budget would shrink the national debt, but the growing number of Medicare beneficiaries participating in the premium support program would bear a much larger share of their health care costs than they would under the current system. States would also have to pay substantially more for their Medicaid programs or tightly constrain spending for those programs, according to the CBO.



After the event, Foster's requested information from Wasserman Schultz's regional press secretary regarding how Obama intends to reform the Medicare program, which faces a massive structural deficit. None was provided.



“President Obama and his friends in the Democratic party think the solution for seniors is placing a panel of 15 unelected and unaccountable Washington bureaucrats in between them and their doctors," RNC Spokesman Tommy Schultz said in written statement. "Instead of keeping his promise to protect and preserve Medicare, President Obama decided to cut over $500 billion from Medicare to help pay for his government takeover of healthcare. Mitt Romney wants to deliver affordable, patient-centered solutions for our healthcare, not more bureaucracy and red tape."



After her visit to Portsmouth, Wasserman Schultz traveled to Concord for an 11:45 a.m. news conference at Caffenio at 84 North Main Street. She also attended "grassroots events" at the campaign offices in Laconia and Plymouth.



"We have a real opportunity to make sure that we can turn this state blue again," Wasserman Schultz said. "We know that the progressive values of people here in New Hampshire are going to shine through on Nov. 6."