Obama lays down new marker in Defense spending debate

President Obama on Friday laid down a key marker in the debate over paring Defense spending, saying a $1 trillion reduction over a decade would cut too deep.

"On defense spending, a huge amount of their savings on the discretionary side came out of defense spending," Obama said during a press conference, referring to cuts proposed by his Fiscal Commission in December. Many of the commission's proposed cuts would have come from terminating or truncating several big-ticket weapon systems, like the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft, F-35 fighter and a Marine Corps amphibious vehicle.

"I think we need to cut defense, but as commander-in-chief, I've got to make sure that we're cutting it in a way that recognizes we're still in the middle of a war, we're winding down another war,” Obama said. He also made clear he believes the nation must spend enough to care for military service members as they return home from a decade of war.

Obama in April called for $400 billion in national security cuts by 2023 to help with deficit-reduction efforts. During White House-congressional debt-ceiling talks, sources have told The Hill bigger cuts -- up to $700 billion over 10 years -- have been seriously discussed.

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