[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
United States News Title: U.S. Military Chiefs Warn Budget Cuts Will Cancel Weapons The chiefs of the U.S. military said they may have to end new weapons programs, close bases and cut civilian personnel as early as next year if Congress allows about $1 trillion in defense cuts during the next decade. The heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, in testimony today before the House Armed Services Committee, joined Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in warning against the reductions. Cuts of that magnitude might result in Marine Corps personnel levels that are below what is necessary to sustain “even one major contingency,” Marine Corps Commandant James Amos said in a prepared statement for the hearing. The Navy may experience decreases of as much as 25 percent to its procurement and readiness accounts if a special congressional committee fails to produce an alternative to automatic reductions, according to testimony prepared by Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations. The so-called supercommittee, set up by the Budget Control Act, is seeking a plan for at least $1.2 trillion in cuts across U.S. government spending by Nov. 23 to avoid the automatic cuts. The Army would have to “eliminate almost all” modernization programs and consider consolidations and closures of bases that would be “commensurate with force structure reductions,” Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno said, also in prepared testimony. Analysts such as CATO Institute’s Benjamin Friedman recommended caution as the public assesses the military’s warnings. “The services are special bureaucracies and they are trying to frighten us into preserving their budgets,” Friedman, a budget analyst, wrote in an e-mail. CATO, a policy center in Washington, supports reduced government spending. Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf told the supercommittee in Oct. 26 testimony that defense spending accounted for about 4.7 percent of gross domestic product -- the highest relative level since 1992, though well below the average for defense spending since World War II. Analysts Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and Russ Rumbaugh of the Stimson Center, policy groups in Washington, said if the automatic, government- wide cuts occurred, the fiscal 2013 budget would be reduced to about $472 billion, or the equivalent of the fiscal 2007 budget adjusted for inflation. The number would remain “near that level for the following eight years,” Harrison said. “A decline in the base budget of this magnitude -- returning to the same level of funding as FY 2007 -- does not have to be a disaster,” Harrison wrote in an e-mail. Rumbaugh said in a report that the U.S. since 2001 has spent roughly $1 trillion on procurement and “the military services used that funding to modernize their forces.” The Navy and Marine Corps said they are critical in carrying out U.S. strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. “Rising powers are rapidly modernizing their militaries and investing in capabilities to deny our forces freedom of action in vital regions such as the Asia-Pacific,” Greenert said. Amos said in his prepared testimony that it is “widely acknowledged that the Pacific is the future of our country from both an economic and military perspective.” The Marines are the only service capable of land attacks from the sea, Amos said. “If the nation lost its amphibious capability, it would have to pay for another service to provide it,” he said. The 12-member supercommittee is about three weeks away from its Nov. 23 deadline with no agreement in sight. If Congress doesn’t pass a deficit-cutting plan by Dec. 23, across-the-board spending cuts to domestic and defense programs would start in fiscal 2013. Increasing revenue is one of the biggest hurdles for a supercommittee agreement. Democrats insist on tax increases, and Republicans refuse to accept them.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Tell me about it.
|
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|