Virginia remains key to the road to 270

>> the republican chances in his state . thank you very much, mr. leader. thank you for being with us. what are you seeing in virginia ?

>> well, andrea , i have been with mitt romney and paul ryan over the last week be here in virginia and the enthusiasm is off the charts with republicans and people who want to see mitt romney elected because he's actually got a plan to create jobs to make this economy come roaring back and people that really are dissatisfied with the way things have been over the last four years. i think that's what it comes down to. i think you're going to see a win in virginia for mitt romney a lot wider than what people are expecting to see and a win for george allen here in the commonwealth.

>> the nbc news/" wall street journal "/marist poll had it at a one point race within the margin of error, 48 to 47. shouldn't mitt romney be doing better than that in virginia , shouldn't he have a comfortable margin given the advances you have, strong military presence, the rural communities . why is it as close as it seems to be?

>> well, as you know, andrea , this state of ours has been a growing state , increasingly diverse, and a state whose economy has actually done a lot better than the economy nationally. and it has been a competitive race since the very beginning as you know. this state went for president obama last time for the first time in i think 44 years that our state went for a democratic nominee for president. i think what you're going to see this time, virginia come to the center right, common sense conservative vision that is prevalent throughout the state and large metropolitan areas as well as the rural areas of the state . you hit on the issue of defense , andrea , and it's an extremely important issue here. and voters especially in the areas of hampton roads , which is the home of the world's largest naval base in norfolk as well as the defense community up around the pentagon and northern virginia , are extremely worried and concerned about the president's defense cuts. mitt romney has said that he would have and will avoid those defense cuts so we don't see a loss of 100,000 jobs in the commonwealth, an issue --

>> defense cuts sir, republicans, paul ryan voted for the sequester, those were agreed to in the agreement on the debt ceiling and whoever is elected --

>> you know, you know the origin of that. the origin was the white house and the president said he wouldn't sign the debt ceiling increase unless we went along with it and when we found out that our trust in the process was misplaced what we did in the house and paul ryan joined us in the house and substituting those defense cuts with cuts that are more appropriately placed across the budget arena and no so disproportionately aimed at our defense --

>> let me ask you --

>> that is the issue and those are the jobs at stake in virginia .

>> let me ask you what happens after the election. mitt romney has been talking about bipartisan, harry reid has been criticized by many for saying he would not work with mitt romney if he is elected. will you work with president obama if he is re-elected on his agenda, which is raising taxes on the wealthy, draw down the deficit and pay for some of the programs that need to be preserved for the middle class ?

>> andrea , this election is being fought on the issue of taxes and it is my position and mitt romney 's and paul ryan 's and our party now is not the time to raise taxes on anybody when we have an economy where you're seeing almost 8% unemployment, where you're seeing at least 8 million people under employed or a part-time working because they can't find anything full time . we don't think that taking more people's money right now is the answer. and it is the prospects of seeing tax rates for everyone go up. it is seeing the prospects of the marriage penalty being implemented. the fact that the death taxes will go back up. all of these things are what is at stake this election which is why i believe strongly mitt romney will win big here in virginia and win nationally tomorrow night.

>> and --

>> and if for some reason that doesn't occur, of course, we will always work with whoever is elected and really must all come together. i mean that's been the issue that we've seen that's been the real problem over the last four years with this president. had he has been and demonstrated in either an inability or unwillingness to bring both sides together. and that's the difference you see in mitt romney . he is a proven leader when he was a republican and probably the most democratic state in the country, massachusetts, and was able to work with both sides of the aisle bringing them together to produce results for the voters there. that's what i believe the voters of virginia want right now and america is to see everyone understanding you're not going to agree on everything, but setting things aside so we can get results and people back to work.

>> thank you very much, eric cantor , majority leader, thank you