Romney hits Obama's jobs killing defense policies

The Hill:

Mitt Romney slammed President Obama on Thursday over proposed defense cuts that would occur because of sequestration, calling the legislative deal a "strange proposal" and warning the proposed Pentagon cuts were a "kind of a gun-to-your-head opportunity."

"It's a strange proposal in the first place, it's even stranger that it's put in place," Romney said while speaking to military veterans at an American Legion post in Springfield, Va. "136,000 jobs will be lost in Virginia because of the move."

Sequestration is a particularly potent issue in Virginia, an important battleground state. Major defense contractors and the Pentagon are based in the state's Washington-area suburbs, while the Norfolk-Virginia Beach economy is largely based on federal spending. Nearly a fourth of the nation's active duty military personnel are stationed in the state.

The Republican presidential nominee said that while he knows "there is waste in the military," he wants to use money saved from finding inefficiencies "and take them to care for our veterans."

"I'm concerned about the future. I'm concerned about America. I'm concerned about the direction is headed," Romney said.

Romney traveling press secretary Rick Gorka noted that the job loss resulting from the defense cuts would be the equivalent of laying off the entire populations of Springfield, West Springfield, Fairfax and McLean — major Virginia suburbs close to Washington, D.C.

... 

This is a fertile area for attacking Obama policies.  It is one that cannot be fixed with free cell phones.   Virginia has been infested with liberals of late in the DC area as Maryland residents flee high taxes and Obama brings in more government workers.  But the job losses in the defense industry would be devastating to the economy of the state.