Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Tuesday continued to accuse President Obama of punting on dealing with the threat of Defense sequestration.
On the same day that former Vice President Dick Cheney is expected to tour Capitol Hill to talk with congressional Republicans about the negative effects of sequestration, Ayotte joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in urging Congress to quickly offset a looming sequester.
The New Hampshire Republican said that Congress should act before November’s election to deal with the issue, arguing that the threat of sequestration could lead to a rockier economic recovery.
“The American people expect us to fulfill our responsibility to make sure that this nation is protected, to make sure that we don’t exacerbate an already difficult employment situation and an election shouldn’t guide that,” Ayotte said. “We should be resolving this right now before the elections.”
For the Defense Department, layoffs require 60-day notices which would fall before the early November election for layoffs taking place at the beginning of 2013. Ayotte argues that this notion alone should be evidence enough for Congress to act on sidestepping Defense cuts sooner rather than later.
“I think it’s important that we not play chicken with our national security or our economy at this time,” she said.
