President Obama today pounced on rival Mitt Romney's comment that it's fair for him to pay a lower tax rate than middle class Americans, arguing his opponent's remarks embody the different visions at stake in this election.

"He said yes, I think it's fair, and I also think that's the way you get economic growth," Obama said in an appearance on ABC's "The View." "The notion being, if people at the top have more income, they'll invest and they'll create jobs."

"I've just got a different vision about how we grow an economy," Obama said today. "I think… that you grow an economy from the middle out, not from the top down."

Romney has defended paying a lower tax rate on his roughly $20 million investment income than people do when they make $50,000 a year. He told CBS' "60 Minutes," It's "the right way to encourage economic growth - to get people to invest, to start businesses, to put people to work."

"That's a different vision about how we move the country forward, and you know, ultimately it's going to be up to the American people to make a decision about you know who's got the better plan," the president told the women of "The View."

"When the teacher and the bus driver and the receptionist and the office manager, when they've got more money in their pockets, when they're doing well, then that means business has more customers, that means business makes more profits, they hire more workers and that's been the history of our country, is we grow fastest when the middle class is doing well and when folks who are trying to get in the middle class have ladders of opportunity," Obama said.

"I'm voting for him," First Lady Michelle Obama chimed in to laughter and applause from the audience.

In response to the president's appearance on "The View," the Romney campaign said "There is only one candidate in this race who has raised taxes on middle-class workers and families - Barack Obama."

"Governor Romney will lower tax rates across the board and eliminate all taxes on savings and investment for low- and middle-income Americans. The robust economic benefits of a lower capital gains tax rate is the reason President Clinton signed such reforms into law, and many prominent Democrats - including members of the Obama Administration - have supported that policy," Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said in a written statement.