Obama: Parties must cooperate to avoid sequester

President Obama says both parties will have to give something to avoid massive cuts in defense and other programs.

"Democrats have to understand we're going to need some additional spending cuts, and Republicans have to understand we're going to need some additional revenues," Obama told The Virginian-Pilot.

It was one of a series of local interviews Obama gave to discuss the so-called "sequester," a $1.2 trillion package of defense and entitlement cuts that will kick in if Congress doesn't develop a debt reduction package of its own. The plan is a consequence of the 2011 deal to increase the debt ceiling.

While calling on Democrats to give on spending cuts, Obama blamed most of the impasse on Republicans who refuse to agree to higher taxes on the nation's wealthiest Americans.

Obama has proposed that the George W. Bush tax cuts be ended for Americans making more than $250,000 a year.

"The only thing that's standing in the way of us solving this problem right now is the unwillingness of some members of Congress to ask people like me -- people who've done very well, millionaires, billionaires -- to pay a little bit more, in part, to preserve the freedoms that we hold dear," Obama told the The Virginian-Pilot, which serves the Norfolk and Hampton areas.

Obama also told television station WVEC of Norfolk, Va., that a deal is unlikely until after the November election.

Virgina is a key state in the presidential election between Obama and Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Republicans -- who say any tax hike would slow the economy -- criticized Obama for failing to lead on the sequester issue.

"President Obama has been AWOL in trying to avert the catastrophic impacts of nearly $500 billion in across-the-bard cuts in the defense budget," said a joint statement by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. (McCain lost the 2008 election to Obama.)

"President Obama either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the devastating impact that the defense cuts under budget sequestration will have on our national defense, which right now are set to kick in on January 2nd of next year," said the two senators.