mr. o'keefe? >> sure. i think the choice of revenue and spending is entirely the prerogative of others. >> would you be willing to forgo your savings it the bush tax cuts were made permanent in lieu of sequestration? would you rather undergo sequestration, or what is your position? >> my opinion of the priority is far less significant than yours. >> you are not going to give me an answer. >> that is a prerogative that is really important for you to make those choices. >> i got you. how about you, ms. hess? >> i will do the same. >> all right, nobody wants to give up their 4% or 5% that they would save it the bush tax cuts were made permanent. that is exactly the sentiment that is being represented by the republicans here in congress. they will not impose any taxes, any tax increase on the as you can afford to bear it, because of the grover norquist pledge, and my time has expired. >> my time has expired. >> a justin upton on how we got here. we had last year, an opportunity to do the reconciliation or shut

mr. o'keefe. >> yes, sir. no, i concur entirely with your question that yes, indeed, we will be compelled to do something, yes. >> mr. hess. >> we would certainly abide by the requirements of the warn act. we have certain advantages in our business that mr. stevens doesn't have. mr. stevens' business, roughly 80% of it is defense. at pratt-whitney, roughly 75% of our business is defense. so depending what's happening in other elements of the business, the commercial environment, we might have the potential, the opportunity to redeploy people. but it's far from certain and certainly when you're looking at budget cuts of the order of magnitude that sequestration would involve, potentially another 10% to 14% on top of the 10% budget reduction that's already being implemented today, certainly there would be scenarios where we would be looking at proportional head count reductions. >> thank. ms. williams. >> i don't believe we are covered under the warn act because we are less than 100 employees. however, if that ch

mr. o'keefe? >> much as you have heard from others here, absent any specific guidance on how this should be applied, we will be compelled as a matter of compliance in the spirit of the laugh -- all following on warren act provisions. we have begun that process. we have notified many members of congress that represent constituencies and districts in which we operate, as well as the governors of the states, that this provision will have applicability. we are assessing at which point we have to make that determination. as you heard from bob stephens, we will have to make that choice as we see time on fault, absent any guidance, sooner or later. again, the determination from the office of management and budget and dod prescribed it. what we have heard -- 70% of what we do is commercial. we will have options and alternatives, but they will be very specific contracts and programs that will be effected. federal contract across the board. once we get those more specifically targeted, that will be the focu

mr. o'keefe? >> sure. i think the choice of revenue and spending is entirely the prerogative of others. >> would you be willing to forgo your savings it the bush tax cuts were made permanent in lieu of sequestration? would you rather undergo sequestration, or what is your position? >> my opinion of the priority is far less significant than yours. >> you are not going to give me an answer. >> that is a prerogative that is really important for you to make those choices. >> i got you. how about you, ms. hess? >> i will do the same. >> all right, nobody wants to give up their 4% or 5% that they would save it the bush tax cuts were made permanent. that is exactly the sentiment that is being represented by the republicans here in congress. they will not impose any taxes, any tax increase on the as you can afford to bear it, because of the grover norquist pledge, and my time has expired. >> my time has expired. >> a justin upton on how we got here. we had last year, an opportunity to do the reconciliation or shut

mr. sean o'keefe, chairman and ceo of eads. david hess, and della williams, president and ceo of williams. i should note that mr. o'keefe also chairs the national defence industry association and mr. hess chairs the aerospace industries association. ms. williams is on the board of the national association of manufacturers. barring a new agreement between congress and the white house on deficit reduction, over $1 trillion in automatic cuts known as sequestration will take effect. although the house has passed a measure that would achieve the necessary deficit reduction to avoid sequestration for a year, the senate has yet to consider legislation. the president's budget submission which saw $1.20 trillion in alternative deficit- reduction through increased tax revenue was defeated in a bipartisan and bicameral manner. this impasse has created a chaotic and uncertain budget environment for industry and defense planners. while the cuts are scheduled for implementation, companies are required to assess and plan according to the law

mr. o'keefe? >> sure. i think the choice of revenue and spending is entirely the prerogative of others. >> would you be willing to forgo your savings it the bush tax cuts were made permanent in lieu of sequestration? would you rather undergo sequestration, or what is your position? >> my opinion of the priority is far less significant than yours. >> you are not going to give me an answer. >> that is a prerogative that is really important for you to make those choices. >> i got you. how about you, ms. hess? >> i will do the same. >> all right, nobody wants to give up their 4% or 5% that they would save it the bush tax cuts were made permanent. that is exactly the sentiment that is being represented by the republicans here in congress. they will not impose any taxes, any tax increase on the as you can afford to bear it, because of the grover norquist pledge, and my time has expired. >> my time has expired. >> a justin upton on how we got here. we had last year, an opportunity to do the reconciliation or shut

mr. sean o'keefe, chairman and ceo of eads. david hess, and della williams, president and ceo of williams. i should note that mr. o'keefe also chairs the national defence industry association and mr. hess chairs the aerospace industries association. ms. williams is on the board of the national association of manufacturers. barring a new agreement between congress and the white house on deficit reduction, over $1 trillion in automatic cuts known as sequestration will take effect. although the house has passed a measure that would achieve the necessary deficit reduction to avoid sequestration for a year, the senate has yet to consider legislation. the president's budget submission which saw $1.20 trillion in alternative deficit- reduction through increased tax revenue was defeated in a bipartisan and bicameral manner. this impasse has created a chaotic and uncertain budget environment for industry and defense planners. while the cuts are scheduled for implementation, companies are required to assess and plan according to the law

o'keefe and white house correspondent amy parnz. good morning. >> good morning. >> amy, i'll begin with you. as you know, mr. romney, he rarely sits down for these kind of interviews but did five in a row to talk about this bain controversy. how unprecedented is this for him? >> it's pretty unprecedented actually. i've heard grum bling from my friends at the romney campaign covering him complaining he doesn't do much of these an they want to see more of them. like the old political addage when you have to explain you're losing, he felt like he had to explain. that's what the obama campaign wants him to do, they want to take him off message and anything that they can do to prevent him from talking about the down economy, they'll keep doing. >> a lot of media strategists suggest he do that, get right at this, ed. do you think this is going to help put the issue at rest orphan the flames even more? >> more than likely going to fan the flames for the weekend, maybe into early next week. you combine the ads that the obama campaign has running now with five television interviews where he essentially had to defend