“Why are we talking about raising taxes when there’s so much uncertainty out there in the economy,” West said, calling President Barack Obama’s call for higher taxes on the wealthy a “gimmick” that won’t produce much in revenues.

“There’s a lot of other places in Washington, D.C., where we can find the requisite amount of cuts,” West added. “I think we’ve got to get the federal government back in its right and proper roles and responsibilities.”

West’s Democratic opponent in his bid for a second term, Patrick Murphy, argues that West is responsible for the problem by vilifying Democrats as “communists” and backing Tea Party demands for deep spending cuts with no revenue gains.

A study commissioned by the Aerospace Industries Association estimates that the automatic defense cuts could ultimately lead to the loss of over 1 million jobs. Add non-defense cuts and the number grows to over 2 million.