The Romney campaign is airing a television ad in Florida, and similar ads in other states, accusing President Obama of pushing “defense cuts” that “threaten thousands of jobs.”
“Romney’s plan?” the narrator continues, “Reverse Obama’s defense cuts, strengthen our military, create over 700,000 jobs for Florida.”
PolitiFact decided to run Romney’s claim that Obama bears the blame for sequestration through their Truth-o-Meter. Their conclusion: Half true.
I agree. As I explained to PolitiFact researcher Angie Drobnic Holan, “The logic that lays the blame for sequestration at Obama’s feet, because he negotiated the [Budget Control Act] with GOP leaders in Congress, could just as easily apply to those other negotiators or, indeed, any member of Congress who voted for the BCA in August 2011.”
Although a majority of Republicans voted for the BCA, some members were opposed to raising the debt ceiling under any circumstance. Still others thought that the cuts were not deep enough. Notably, a few members of Congress voted against the BCA because they opposed even the possibility of Pentagon spending cuts. Those Republicans who voted in favor and are now having a case of “buyer’s remorse” can’t reasonably claim that they didn’t know that such cuts were possible, nor that the cuts are “Obama’s cuts.”
I wish that the PolitiFact folks had focused on Romney’s jobs numbers (they still might, I’m told) because they are grossly inflated. Under the sequestration provision of last year’s BCA, domestic discretionary and defense spending will each be cut by about $54 billion in FY2013. The claim that these cuts will result in massive job losses derives from several flawed studies commissioned by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) that have been discredited, including here, here, and here.