GOP backtracks on defense cuts in debt deal

Armed with an industry-backed analysis that shows the loss of 2 million jobs - particularly in the aerospace industry in California and the swing state of Virginia - Republicans are blaming Obama in an attack that stretches from Washington to the presidential campaign trail.

The House overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday that would require the administration to release a plan detailing its approach to the looming cuts.

The GOP strategy comes as Americans, after a decade of wars, are increasingly wary of more military spending and want job-creating investments at home.

Attempts Wednesday to criticize the president's leadership bumped up against the military successes Obama has achieved in the killing of Osama bin Laden and ending the war in Iraq.

"As commander in chief, the president has many responsibilities, but at the top of the list is to make sure that our country is secure," said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who is the liaison between Mitt Romney's presidential campaign and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

The White House and its Democratic allies in Congress have shown no interest in sparing the Pentagon at the expense of carving further into nondefense accounts, which already face cuts equal to those of the military as part of the summer debt deal.

As Obama met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, who has warned that the cuts would devastate the military, Democrats turned up the volume on their call for wealthy Americans to pay higher taxes to help balance the books.

Even though many Democrats are worried about Pentagon cuts, they prefer an approach to bolster revenue that would raise tax rates on incomes beyond $200,000 a year for individuals or $250,000 for married couples.

Neither Congress nor the White House expected that the $110 billion in cuts across most discretionary accounts in the federal budget would actually happen. When they agreed to the debt deal, they assumed an alternative would emerge.

But as Washington heads toward the year-end "fiscal cliff," compromise remains out of reach.

The stalemate is the same that has dogged lawmakers and the administration for the last 18 months. They are unable to devise a plan that would reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion over the next decade.

Source: http://www.tulsaworld.com/site/articlepath.aspx?articleid=20120719_13_A9_WASHIN725605&rss_lnk=16

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