President Obama and Congress should hold off on looming automatic defense cuts and create a one-year "runway" to give time for comprehensive tax reform, Mitt Romney said Friday.



"I would like to see the president and Congress come together and say we're going to put a year's runway from where we are now ... and give me or the next president the ability to reform the tax system," the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said in Nevada during a question-and-answer session with reporters. "Let's have a year of runway or at least 6 months of runway after the new president is elected."



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The possible solution, which appeals to some in both parties, would kick the can down the road until after the election — and whichever party wins to have a bigger say in the process rather than force Congress to deal with the problem during a December lame-duck session.

Romney said "the idea of massive cuts to our military is a terrible idea," and accused Obama of failing to lead on deficit reduction and tax reform, knocking him for not pursuing more aggressively a plan based on the bipartisan "Simpson-Bowles" deficit reduction plan.

Defense sequestration has become an issue on the campaign trail, both in the presidential race and in congressional races, with incumbents in both parties facing criticism for the debt-ceiling compromise that led to the pending automatic cuts.

