Priorities USA Action, the Democratic super PAC run by two former White House aides, has launched the first advertisement of the 2012 cycle targeted at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R).

The spot comes in advance of Romney’s visit to South Carolina this weekend and presses him on the Medicare changes currently being debated in Congress.

The ad also knocks another GOP presidential hopeful, former Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.), who was publicly admonished by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) for his criticism of House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget plan over the weekend.

“Newt Gingrich says the Republican plan that would essentially end Medicare is too ‘radical,’“ an announcer says in the spot. “Gov. Haley thinks the plan is courageous, and Gingrich shouldn’t be cutting conservatives off at the knees. Mitt Romney says he’s ‘on the same page’ as Paul Ryan, who wrote the plan to essentially end Medicare. But with Mitt Romney, you have to wonder … which page is he on today?”

Two former aides for President Barack Obama, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney, are heavily involved in Priorities USA Action — a connection that a Romney spokeswoman seized upon in her official reaction to the buy.

“President Obama’s first campaign ad is an attack ad,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a statement. “President Obama and his team are desperate to change the subject to anything other than jobs and the millions of Americans out of work. With 9.6% unemployment in South Carolina, voters are looking for a jobs plan not a smear campaign.”

Democrats have been using the Ryan budget plan to whack at GOP White House contenders. Earlier this week the Democratic National Committee needled Gingrich in a Web ad.

Watch the video: