Before its August recess, Congress passed the Sequestration Transparency Act, which gave the administration 30 days to provide a report
explaining how the cuts would be implemented. It received widespread support from
both parties.
{mosads}White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday that the report would be sent to Congress late next week.
While the sequester cuts would hit both defense and non-defense discretionary
spending, Romney has focused particularly on the defense cuts, tying them to Obama while campaigning in states
with a heavy military presence like Virginia, where he will be on Saturday.
The cuts, which are the result of the 2011 supercommittee’s failure to reach a deal on deficit reduction, have become a campaign issue
for both Romney and Obama. Romney and Republicans have accused Obama of harming the
military in order to raise taxes, while Obama says that Republicans are willing
to let the cuts happen to protect tax cuts for the wealthy.
The defense cuts have become part of a concerted effort from both campaigns to attract
veteran voters, and the Obama campaign made national security a major part of
its convention Thursday, particularly after Romney didn’t mention Afghanistan
in his acceptance speech.
Republicans, meanwhile, have sought to blame Obama for the sequester, although it was passed by a majority of both
parties in Congress before it was signed into law by the president.
In a Fox News interview Friday, Romney seized on excerpts of a new book from Bob Woodward that suggest the idea for sequestration originated in the White House, and he accused Obama of being responsible for cutting the military. Romney also defended his convention speech, saying that he described his commitment to a strong military even if he didn’t use the word “troops.”
“I opposed that idea,” Romney said of sequestration. “I think
it is absolutely wrong to cut our military as the president is doing.”
— Justin Sink contributed to this report.