Pentagon may lay off thousands if defense spending cuts go through [View all]

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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/pentagon-lay-thousands-defense-spending-cuts-article-1.1123053

WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of civilian employees in the Defense Department could receive warnings about potential layoffs four days before the November election if impending spending cuts aren’t averted, hitting presidential battleground states such as Virginia and Florida hard.

The alerts would come in addition to any that major defense contractors might send out at the same time to their workers under an often-overlooked law, a prospect that is unnerving the White House roughly three months before voters go to the polls....

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday that any deal to stave off the cuts would require tax increases on high-wage earners, which Republicans oppose.

“You know we have a situation where defense cuts that the president believes are much too deep, that Republicans and Democrats believe are much too deep as well as non-defense cuts. Republicans would allow those to go into place rather than asking millionaires and billionaires to pay a little bit more,” Carney said.