Super committee GOPer: Automatic cuts must be reconfigured
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania says President Obama's threat to veto efforts to get rid of cuts was not "categorical."
President Obama's warning that he would veto attempts to undo $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts was vaguer than it seemed, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said on Sunday, implying that Congress might reconfigure the cuts before they take effect.
"I don't recall him having a categorical veto threat," Toomey, who served on the super committee, said. In a news conference last week, Obama said, "I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending."
Toomey, speaking on ABC's This Week, said that the cuts, half of which would affect the Pentagon, would hurt the country's ability to defend itself.
"I think there's a broad consensus that too much of the cuts are weighted on our defense's capabilities. And it would cut in deeply our ability to defend this nation. So, I think it's important that we change the configuration," he said.