Feb. 20–REPORTING FROM NEWTOWN, Ohio — As Mitt Romney slammed GOP rival Rick Santorum for repeatedly voting to raise the debt ceiling on Tuesday, he was standing alongside Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio who has also cast several ballots to raise the cap on the nation’s debt.

The former Massachusetts governor praised Portman for not being like other Republicans who went to Washington and embraced the capital’s free-spending ways.

“We have in Washington a malady that affects so many there — not your senator, but many others, who somehow think it’s OK to spend money that they don’t have,” Romney told the employees of a medical device manufacture gathered in the suburb of Cincinnati.

“And to borrow money from China or from others to pay for it. And to pass that burden on to your families and to your kids.”

But Portman, during his time in the Senate and the House of Representatives, repeatedly voted to raise the debt ceiling, most recently in August.

The Romney campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Portman’s past votes.