President Barack Obama has urged the Republican Party to stop playing politics with the US military in a battle over end-of-year budget cuts.
Republicans and Democrats are at odds over how to avoid triggering billions of dollars in federal budget cuts, resulting from a "sequestration" mechanism put in place by Congress in 2011 as part of its solution to break an impasse over the US Government's borrowing limit.
Mr Obama wants to end tax cuts passed under President George W Bush for very wealthy Americans to help reduce the US deficit.
In a speech to veterans that included a robust defence of his foreign policy achievements, Mr Obama painted himself as being on the side of the military.
He said Republicans were putting the armed forces in jeopardy by insisting on extending Bush-era tax cuts.
"Let's stop playing politics with our military," Mr Obama told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Nevada.
He also lamented the high suicide rate among US veterans.
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