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Democrats are in terms of talks coming out of the hill on a way forward. to clarify, jay carney said that, essentially, if it was required to get a major deal done, the president would agree to a bit of an extension, but there have been questions about whether there s time to get something major done like this gang of six plan we ve been talking about for the past day or so. as for where things stand here at the white house, here s spokesman jay carney. again, i m not going to make a declaration about the specifics of what the gang of six has put forward in part because all the details aren t even known yet. you know, there s this is not a piece of legislation, it s not even written as a bill, so we would not issue a statement of administration policy based on an outline. what he does wholly support is the approach that they ve taken. reporter: that does open the white house and president obama up for some criticism because some republicans on capitol hill say, mr. president, ....
but secretary robert gates says the defense budget can t keep getting bigger. if cuts have to come, better the pentagon use a scalpel now than congress sweng ting the ax late we have to demonstrate a compelling argument that we have, in fact, tackled the things that worry them excessive reliance on contractors, waste, abuse. pentagon officials tell me it s their call whether to close the command. virginia congressmen here on capitol hill say, not so fast. as a member of congress, we have a role in the process of deciding how defense dollars are spent and that will impact any proposal that they make here. representative glen nye says the state s democrats and republicans will fight to keep those jobs. an off the top of the head proposal by the secretary. just isn t going to fly in this environment. what is this environment? high unemployment. election 12 weeks away. try going back to the voters ....
Congress swing the ax later. we have to demonstrate a compelling argument that we have in fact tackled the things that worry them excessive reliance on contractors, waste, abuse. reporter: pentagon officials tell me it is their call whether or not to close the command. and virginia congressmen here on capitol hill say, not so fast. as a member of congress, we have a role in the process of deciding how defense dollars are spent, and that will absolutely impact any proposal that the secretary makes here. reporter: representative glenn ni says that they will fight to keep those jobs. i have a off of the top head proposal by the secretary won t fly in this environment. reporter: what is this environment? well, high unemployment and an election coming up in 12 weeks. try going back to your voters with a few thousand job losses. now, the pentagon is saying that some of the money that is going to be saved, wolf, can be put back into the individual ....