One-on-one with Mitt Romney

WAVY TV

Updated: Sep 8, 2012 6:11 PM

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Republican presidential candidate, Gov. Mitt Romney spoke with WAVY.com during his campaign stop in Virginia Beach Saturday. Romney vowed to cut inessential spending.

During the rally at the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, Romney told the crowd he would not stand for defense budget cut spending and sequestration. He told WAVY.com he would beef up the military.

"I oppose the sequestration the president is putting forward," Romney said. "I also oppose his defense cuts in addition to the sequestration. Rather than completing nine ships a year, I would complete 15. I would add more F-22s and add more than 100,000 active duty personnel to our military team."

Romney said President Barack Obama was responsible for the looming billions in defense cuts.

"The president in the sequestration bill he signed was responsible for laying out the cuts as of last Friday," Romney said. "He hasn't been willing to do that. That's a military secret he hasn't let out yet. It's time for him to come clean and let us know what kind of cuts he's putting in place."

Romney explained a five-point plan to fix the economy if he were elected.

"I [will] eliminate programs that are not absolutely essential," Romney said. "Obamacare is one of them. It cost $100 billion a year. Number two, I take other programs and send them back to the states with the dollars, like Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers. They go back to the states. That saves another $100 billion a year. I'm gong to hold down the growth of federal employees by holding the hiring by attrition I'm going to reduce the federal workforce by about 10 percent."

Romney said his campaign can be trusted in contrast with the past four years of Obama.

"The President spoke four years ago and laid out what he'd do for America, and he hasn't been able to do the things he said he he'd do," Romney said. "He said he would cut the deficit in half. He's more than doubled it. he said that he'd create jobs. In fact he said we'd be at 5.4 percent unemployment, instead we're at 8 percent. That's 9 million job difference. He also said he'd cause incomes to go up but they've gone down $4,000 a family."

Romney said he is confident he will be able to get the country on track.

"You know, I'm very pleased we're getting a lot of support from a lot of people across the country," Romney said. "The polls look about even. I expect over the coming two months 'I'm going to get the support I need to get elected."

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