I am up in Washington, D.C. tonight for President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Prior to the speech I caught up with some the Virginia's congressional delegation. Both Republicans and Democrats want a path to an end to the sequestration budget stalemate.
Here is my report for NBC12:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (WWBT)- Virginians from ever corner of the Commonwealth will be keeping a close eye on one particular issue in tonight's State of the Union address.
Sequestration, set to take effect on March 1st could mean huge cuts to defense and government jobs throughout Virginia. In fact, there may be no state in the union with a more at stake than Virginia when it comes to the sequester, and the entire congressional delegation knows it
"Virginia families are going to be disproportionately hurt," said Sen. Mark Warner (D) this afternoon. "Sequestration basically says we are going to chop every part of government whether it is working or not and as a former business guy that is not the smart way to do budgeting."
Warner understands that the idea of lopping off funding to almost all of government without any plan won't work. He isn't alone, this weekend Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Henrico) gave similar sentiments on NBC's Meet The Press.
"These indiscriminate reductions do not make sense and we are going to hurt a lot of people and it is up to the President to act now," said Cantor.
And even though Cantor is a republican. Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine, who played no part in the sequestration being implemented agrees with the Henrico Republican. Tonight the president needs to lead the charge to solve the problem.
"I want the president to talk to tough to all of us," Kaine said. "Republican, Democrat House, Senate about finding the alternative to sequester."
NBC's live coverage of the State of the Union starts at 9pm. You can also join our livechat and watch the speech streaming on NBC12.com.
I'll have another live report tonight at 11 on NBC12.
Comments