Defense, retirees focus of Senate candidates

U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen spent time on Tuesday talking with voters on issues related to defense and veterans issues.

Kaine stopped in Ashburn at MVM Inc., a security and logistics contractor for various branches of the military and government agencies, on his two-day swing through Virginia with U.S. Sen. Mark Warner. During the discussion with MVM employees, Kaine outlined his strategies to create Virginia jobs and his plan to avoid sequestration.

“First, we should find a middle ground on the Bush tax cuts,” said Kaine, who is pushing a compromise that would extend the Bush tax cuts for taxpayers who earn $500,000 or less, raising the threshold for the cuts from the current $250,000 in annual income.

The plan would raise $500 billion in new government revenues. That, coupled with an end to the prohibition on prescription price negotiation in Medicare, which Kaine said would yield up to $240 billion in additional revenue, and repealing subsidies for the big five oil companies, which would produce $24 billion in revenue, would go a “long way toward blunting the effects of sequestration,” Kaine said.

“This isn’t the time for partisan games and ideological demands. These cuts are too dangerous for a no-compromise attitude, and we will only find a workable solution when both sides are willing to give a little,” Kaine said.

Allen was also in Northern Virginia on Tuesday, meeting with military retirees and seniors at The Fairfax at Fort Belvior, a military retirement community of nearly 500 residents. At a meeting of more than 70 seniors, Allen discussed issues such as TRICARE and Medicare, high energy prices, the economy and the sequestration issue.

“I want to be the deciding vote to repeal the health care tax law that cuts Medicare and replace it with more affordable patient-centered solutions,” Allen said. “I’ve committed to our veterans that I will work diligently to ensure that America keeps its promises to our veterans and their families for the benefits they have earned. And I will defend our military from these devastating cuts that would hollow out our military under a deal that risks over 200,000 Virginia jobs. America can begin to ascend again when the federal government is reined in to focus on its primary responsibilities and our economy is free from excessive taxation and regulation to provide the investment and innovation that will create new jobs.”