Lawmakers React to Report on Automatic Budget Cuts

Republicans and Democrats alike are pointing to a new report estimating that automatic budget cuts will cost the economy 2 million jobs.

With five months to go before the across-the-board cuts kick in, the Aerospace Industries Association unveiled a report today that warned of job losses, billions of dollars in losses to the economy, and a blow to wages from the cuts in defense and domestic programs totaling $1.2 trillion over ten years.

There are still wide differences over how to avoid the cuts.

President Barack Obama and Democrats want tax increases on high wage earners to be part of any alternative to the cuts. Republicans reject that idea, arguing that it would be reckless to raise taxes as the economy struggles to recover.

Republican senators heard today from former Vice President Dick Cheney, who told them that the automatic cuts were a blunt instrument that would undercut the ability of the military to tackle unexpected threats.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says he hopes Cheney's comments will boost his efforts, along with a handful of other Senate Democrats and Republicans, to come up with an alternative to the cuts.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)