Former Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) is out with a new ad blasting former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) for supporting the bipartisan debt-limit deal that included $500 billion in planned defense cuts.
This is the first ad Allen has used to attack Kaine on this issue, though he ripped him in last weekend's debate for supporting the plan.
The highly unpopular compromise was reached at the last minute during the debt-ceiling fight by President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) last summer and is set to go into effect soon. It would cut military spending as well as other government spending — a move that could hurt the economy, especially in states with a large number of military bases and veterans, like Virginia.
Lawmakers are scrambling to undo the planned defense cuts, with Sens.
John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pushing hard to
replace the planned defense cuts with other spending cuts.
"We work hard in Virginia pulling our weight, making our way back. But a storm is coming," the ad's narrator says. "Last year Washington's supercommittee failed — a failure that could force over $500 billion in automatic defense cuts. Devastating job losses. Over 200,000 good-paying Virginia jobs at stake and a 10 percent reduction in our armed forces. But only one candidate for Senate will fight for Virginia jobs and America's security."
While Kaine supported the compromise as a way to avoid default, he said at last weekend's debate that he wanted Congress to repeal the cuts on the defense side.
Kaine's campaign pushed back against the attack.
"Let's be clear how we got here. As a U.S. senator, George Allen took a record budget surplus and turned it into a massive deficit, voted for trillions in new spending, and voted four times to raise the debt ceiling without cutting a dime in spending," said Kaine spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine. "He helped create the crisis and now, instead of joining a bipartisan effort to fix it, he's cheering on gridlock and opposing compromise. Just this past weekend, George Allen rejected a deal of ten dollars in cuts to a dollar in new revenue — a position so extreme that even leaders in his own party refuse to support his stance. Allen's approach would slash spending on key programs, including defense, that are vital to Virginia's economy and Virginia workers."
This post was last updated at 12:10 p.m.
