House Republicans make video plea to Obama to avoid automatic defense cuts

Ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union address, House Armed Services Committee Republicans released an online video urging President Obama not to veto attempts to prevent $500 billion in automatic cuts to defense spending.

“Tonight, instead of a veto threat, we ask you to embrace our solution,” said Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.).

Republicans have vowed to consider measures to block the automatic cuts triggered by the deficit supercommittee's failure from taking effect. The administration has said the president will veto any legislation that does away with the trigger without finding necessary deficit reduction.

The committee’s solution comes from Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), who does not appear in the video. McKeon introduced legislation last month that would undo the first year of the sequestration cuts to both defense and domestic spending by reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent over the next decade.

Four Armed Services Republicans make the plea in the video, which features a soft acoustic guitar riff as the members speak.

Democrats have panned McKeon’s proposal, however, saying that Republicans need to embrace a “balanced” solution and support adding some tax increases in order to find the $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction needed to undo the sequester trigger.

Senators on the Armed Services Committee have also said they will soon be proposing legislation to change the sequestration cuts.

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