REDFORD, MICH. – President Barack Obama traveled Monday to Michigan to tout a new investment in domestic auto jobs, while using the opportunity to assail the state's Republican lawmakers for pursuing "right to work" legislation.

Obama renewed his offensive to pressure Republicans into extending middle class tax cuts, calling on Congress to pass legislation making the Bush-era tax rates for those making below $250,000 permanent.

But this trip to the Detroit-area came with some extra baggage in the form of a state-wide union battle over a right-to-work law that Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder (R) has pledged to sign. The president addressed the union controversy towards the middle of his remarks:

"We should do everything we can to encourage companies like Daimler to keep investing in American workers," Obama said, "what we shouldn’t be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages and working conditions."

Related: Lawmakers implore Michigan gov. to halt or delay 'right to work' law

The audience responded enthusiastically as  the president continued: "These so-called right-to-work laws, they don't have to do with economics. They have everything to do with politics. What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money."

While Snyder did not join the president for his event at the Daimler-owned Detroit Diesel Corporation, the governor did greet Obama on the tarmac along with some of  the Democratic members of  Michigan’s congressional delegation.

Snyder had a meeting with many members of the Michigan delegation earlier today to discuss the legislation, which would make mandatory payment of union dues or fees as a condition of employment illegal. On the flight to Michigan, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney noted that the president’s opposition to right-to-work laws was “well known” and the optics of this were brought even more into focus by the president being accompanied on his tour of the engine plant by the UAW NW Local 163 Detroit Diesel Engine Unit Shop Chairperson Mark Gibson, and multiple people in the crowd sporting UAW stickers. Currently, 23 states and Guam have some type of right-to-work legislation on the books.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

President Barack Obama speaks on the economy and fiscal cliff negotiations after touring the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, Michigan, December 10, 2012.

But while the president was on the tour of the Redford engine plant, the clock continued to tick towards the end of the year and the so-called fiscal cliff. Obama again insisted that tax rates on the wealthiest Americans should be allowed to go up,

"What you need is a package that keeps taxes where they are for middle-class families," he said. "We make some tough spending cuts on things that we don't need, and then we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a slightly higher tax rate. And that's a principle I won't compromise on."

He didn’t mention his meeting over the weekend with House Speaker John Boehner, choosing instead to focus the blame on Congress if taxes go up for everyone at the end of the year.

"If Congress doesn't act soon -- meaning in the next few weeks -- starting on Jan. 1, everybody's going to see their income taxes go up. It's true,” the president said.  The audience loudly booed and the president responded, “You all don't like that.”

Michigan's congressional delegation met Monday with Gov. Rick Snyder, asking him to veto or at least delay a vote on a "right to work" law moving through the state's legislature.

Democrats and organized labor groups have launched an all-out blitz they are hoping might halt legislation that would establish workers' rights to employment in a workplace without having to join a union. The Republican-held state legislature passed versions of the legislation last week, and are set to bring it up for final consideration as soon as Tuesday.

Snyder, a first-term Republican governor who's fashioned himself as a more pragmatic leader, has said he would sign the bill if it came to his desk.

"We strongly urged the governor to veto the so-called right to work bill, or at a minimum, ask the legislature to delay the vote on it," Sen. Carl Levin said in a conference call to describe Democrats' meeting with the governor. "The governor listened, and he told us that he would 'seriously,' in his words, consider our concerns."

Snyder's office had no immediate reaction to Democrats' characterization of the meeting.

Michigan has become the latest Midwestern epicenter over labor rights as a result of this fight, following Ohio and Wisconsin. The Republican governors of those states led efforts to curb or eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees' unions.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin

National Democrats have begun to wade into the fight as well, issuing blistering statements warning against the Michigan proposal. The fight could be elevated further this afternoon, when President Barack Obama visits the Detroit area in a previously-scheduled trip.

Democrats are particularly incensed by a procedural move used by Republican authors of the bill which would prevent the law from being challenged by a statewide referendum. The Democrats who met Monday with Snyder said they had also urged the governor to change that provision, so that the right to work proposal could be brought to a popular vote.

FRANKENMUTH, MI -- Returning to the state where he was raised and which propelled his turnaround in the Republican primary, an enthusiastic Mitt Romney declared Tuesday: "I'm going to win Michigan with your help!"

Energetic (and clearly enjoying himself despite the June heat) the presumptive Republican presidential nominee predicted victory in a typically Democratic Midwestern state for the second day in a row, following his projection on Monday that he'd win Wisconsin.

"I grew up in Michigan as you know, born and raised here and if I'm lucky enough to become president I'll be the first president in American history to be born in Michigan," Romney said to cheers. "And I won't forget Frankenmuth, I won't forget Michigan, I won't forget how much I owe to this great state to the people here, I love this state. It's a beautiful place and it's got terrific people."

Bouyed by a warm reception from the crowd here, punctuated by chants of "Go Mitt Go," and the notable absence of protestors for one of the first times on his six-state bus tour, Romney might be forgiven his optimism thanks in part to family history here, which he and his wife gleefully put on display this morning.

"I can't believe it. We're in Michigan. Yay!" Mrs. Romney exclaimed. "People don't know how wonderful it is to be from Michigan."

The Romneys certainly appreciate Michigan's wonder -- the candidate famously jokes that the trees in the state are the "right height."

Mitt Romney's father was a popular two-term governor here, and his squeaker win over Rick Santorum in his birth state helped put the primary election away for good. But Democrats have carried Michigan in every election since 1988, and President Obama won the state by a stout 17 points in 2008.

Romney's advisers remain confident of their ability to challenge Obama here, however, noting the power of Romney's last name -- Michiganders are used to voting for a Romney, one top adviser explained -- and the success of the state's popular Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, whose "tough nerd" persona and fiscal focus has shown the state a brand of Republicanism they can embrace.

But Romney faces significant challenges here as well, including his opposition to the president's bailout of Detroit automakers. During the primary campaign, Romney regularly mentioned his opposition and said Obama ultimately resorted to a managed bankruptcy for the automakers, which Romney claims was his plan all along. Today, he did not mention the bailout at all.

Instead, Romney made mention of free trade as a lever with which to prop up the auto industry.

"If I'm president, I want  to open up new markets for American goods, make sure that places that won't take our cars, they finally knock down those regulations to let our products go in there" Romney said.