Sen. Sessions supports effort to avoid defense cuts

The top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee said Tuesday that Congress should re-examine the $500 billion in Defense Department cuts that have been triggered now that the congressional supercommittee has failed to come up with a recommendation on how to trim the deficit.

"I believe it will go too far in cutting the Defense Department," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said on CNN. "We need to re-look at this sequester, make sure that the cuts are across the board far more, and not so heavily directed toward the Defense Department."

Sessions joins Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in opposing the sequestration of defense funding. On Monday, those two senators released a statement that said the cuts "cannot be allowed to occur."

McCain in particular has argued that the required cuts would come on top of the $350 billion in cuts that Defense already faces, and nearly $200 billion in other reductions that former Defense Secretary Robert Gates imposed.

Sessions said that the Defense Department makes up about one-sixth of the federal government, and therefore should not have to shoulder half of the $1.2 trillion sequester. McCain and Graham said they are looking for ways around these cuts, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) said he is preparing a bill for that purpose.