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Obama says compromise can be found on sequester
President Obama said Monday that he thinks both parties can compromise and avert the across-the-board spending cuts under sequestration that could take a chunk out of both defense and domestic spending.
In an interview with The Virginian-Pilot’s military editor that focused on the sequester — the 10-year, $500 billion cut to both defense and non-defense discretionary spending set to hit in January — Obama said that both Democrats and Republicans have to give to reach a deal.
"The numbers work as long as each side recognizes they’ve both got to give," Obama said. "Democrats have to understand we’re going to need some additional spending cuts, and Republicans have to understand we’re going to need some additional revenues."
Virginia has become the focal point of Obama and Mitt Romney campaigns’ battles over sequestration, as the state has a heavy military presence and is one of the key battlegrounds in the November election. The cuts have prompted the defense industry to warn of more than 1 million job losses, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said they would be "devastating" to national security.
“We ran two wars on a credit card and that contributed to our deficits. We had, at the same time, big tax cuts, many of them going to the wealthiest Americans,” Obama said.
Despite the president’s call for compromise on sequestration, the two parties remain deadlocked on a solution to avert the cuts, which both parties consider bad policy.
Obama and Democrats have said that Republicans are protecting tax cuts for the wealthy over the defense cuts, while Republicans say that Democrats are holding the military hostage to force tax increases.
With his Virginia audience in mind, Obama also reassured the paper that even if the cuts took effect, they would not cut into special operations teams like the Navy SEALs.
“We’re going to do what we need to keep our SEALs operating. They are the point of the spear in our battle against terrorism,” Obama told the paper. “We’re not going to see our SEAL teams impacted. We need them to keep us safe.”
