Kaine and Allen address defense cuts

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) - With election day just two weeks away, Virginia's Senate candidates know the voters want to hear the best plan to avoid a process that would not only jeopardize national defense, but also severely cripple the Hampton Roads economy.

Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) met in Norfolk Monday to meet with local veterans and discuss defense sequestration during a round-table discussion.

"To me, it's a microcosm of the bigger issue which is how are we gonna deal with very realistic challenging budget issues that we have?" Kaine said.

Kaine has a 3-point plan for reducing the budget by the Jan. 13 deadline in order to prevent across the board cuts to defense spending, beginning with the Bush-Era tax cuts. His plan would allow the tax cuts to expire for anyone making $500,000 or more per year.

"There's nothing theological about the number. It's a compromise," Kaine said.

Former Senator George Allen (R) says Kaine is only compromising the nation's economic future.

"The vast majority of those folks who would be having those higher taxes are small business owners and that's the last thing we need on job creators," Allen said.

"All [Allen] has said is,'We will avoid sequestration if we can repeal the Affordable Care Act,'" Kaine said.

Kaine says that would only increase the budget deficit while Allen says the Affordable Care Act is the multiplier, making government larger and quality health care more expensive.

"Increasing the size and reach of the government and indeed they've added trillions of dollars in taxes on everything from, from wheelchairs to insurance policies and a variety of other things," Allen said.

Sen. Webb says the biggest stumbling block for compromise in congress won't be removed until Nov. 6.

"There are a lot of people who have been betting on the results of the coming election in the next two weeks that have been holding back in terms of really trying to solve problems," Webb said.

Allen was speaking to veterans in Fairfax Monday.