Virginia Lawmakers Make Efforts To Protect Defense Budget

For more than a year, contractors and defense officials have had to plan without knowing their budget outlook. Last week's budget deal didn't make their jobs any easier. More than half a trillion dollars in spending cuts are hanging over the Pentagon for another couple of months unless Congress diverts them.

Virginia Republican Rob Wittman says the recent tax package didn't solve the problem for the region.

"It puts us right back in a situation of trying to find out how do we put in place balanced reductions in spending, not putting all the onus on defense spending," he says.

Wittman says the math just doesn't add up. "It's unfair to say 50 percent of theses sequester cuts are going to occur in 20 percent of the budget, which is what's being proposed now."

Wittman and other Republicans argue entitlement reforms can stave off the Pentagon cuts, while many Democrats say the military can absorb deep cuts. Even so, neither side likes the indiscriminant nature of the pending budget cuts, but thus far, finding a compromise has remained elusive.