Virginia Republicans are taking aim at President Barack Obama, after he made his latest campaign stop in Norfolk Tuesday. They say the president's political games could cripple Virginia's economy, as billions of dollars in defense cuts loom on the horizon.
Those cuts are part of a deal struck between Congress and the White House last year, designed to force the House of Representatives and Senate to cut another $1.2 trillion from the national deficit during the next decade. But if lawmakers fail to make those cuts before January 2, $1.2 trillion in automatic sequestration cuts will go into effect.
A sequestration cut is an automatic spending cut that will go into effect in the event Congress fails to reach a consensus on deficit reduction by the beginning of January. The cuts include more than $500 billion from defense spending that neither party wants to see.
Virginia Republicans say those cuts would cripple the state's economy, costing the commonwealth around 120,000 defense jobs, according to a July 2012 study by George Mason University. It will take bipartisan agreement, and further compromise on taxes and entitlement reform to avoid those cuts.
But Lt. Governor Bill Bolling says President Obama is to blame for playing games. "It's the president who is using the nation's military as a pawn in this high stakes game of poker, to try to get the Congress to blink on approving massive tax increases on families and businesses in our country that would have a devastating impact on the broader economy," Bolling said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning.
According to a recent study by the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade organization representing U.S. aerospace and defense manufacturers, 80 percent of swing state voters - including those in Virginia - want to see a resolution to the sequestration cuts before Election Day. But analysts say, given such a divisive election atmosphere, that is very unlikely to happen.
