Image source: Department of Defense

BY ZACH TOOMBS

The $1.2 trillion in cuts triggered by the super committee’s failure this week were meant to be automatic, evenly divided between defense and domestic spending. But Republicans in Congress now say the cuts rely too heavily on cutting into the U.S. military.

On Sunday, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey, a member of the disbanded super committee, told ABC’s This Week that Republicans would work around the defense cuts however possible.

"I think there's a broad consensus that too much of the cuts are weighted on our defense's capabilities and would really, really cut in deeply into our ability to defend this nation. And so I think it's important that we change the configuration.”

But in a White House press briefing last week, President Barack Obama said the cuts planned in the summer’s debt ceiling deal and triggered by the super committee’s failure are coming whether Congress likes it or not. CBS has his comments.

"Already some in Congress are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts. My message to them is simple: No. I will veto any effort to get rid of those automatic spending cuts to domestic and defense spending. There will be no easy off ramps on this one.”

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer backed up the president Sunday, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that budget cuts will have to be painful for each party to encourage cooperation.

“The whole purpose of what was put in place in July with the debt ceiling was to have very sharp knives hanging over the heads of each party. And the fear that those knives would come into effect is supposed to bring us to an agreement, and I think actually we can get an agreement in 2012.”

Notable Republicans, including senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have promised to fight the military cuts, but there’s also been dissent in Mr. Obama’s own cabinet. Last week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned Congress in a prepared statement that the $600 billion in cuts would drastically cripple the U.S. military, saying:

"If Congress fails to act over the next year, the Department of Defense will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation's defense. The half-trillion in additional cuts demanded by sequester would lead to a hollow force incapable of sustaining the missions it is assigned."

Still, the president insists that Democrats and Republicans returning to the negotiating table is the only way to stop the $1.2 trillion in cuts scheduled to take effect in 2013.