DoD Official: Odds Of Sequestration Happening ‘Much Higher’ Than Previously Thought -- Defense News
After avoiding planning for automatic defense budget cuts throughout the fall, the Department of Defense (DoD) now sees the cuts as probable, and is rapidly preparing, a senior pentagon official said Feb. 6.
Speaking at the Cowen Aerospace and Defense Conference, Frank Kendall, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, said that despite the catastrophic nature of automatic cuts, they’re likely to happen.
“As we read the tea leaves right now, the odds of sequestration happening, at least getting implemented initially, hopefully not for very long, are reasonably high,” Kendall said. “My guess right now, and it’s just a guess, is that we’ll probably have to implement it for some time. But as the magnitude of the impact gets more and more evident, hopefully people will come to their senses and get down to a deal and get this over with.”
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My Comment: It appears that U.S. defense officials are confident that even if sequestration happens .... a deal will then be done quickly and the crisis will fade. I do not share in this optimism. Both sides have positions that are irreconcilable .... and even if a deal is done (i.e. the Republicans cave again), the budget deficit is still north of a trillion dollars a year and entitlements are still growing at unsustainable levels. We will be revisiting this issue again by next year. Bottom line .... the U.S. government is spending too much money .... time to reign in the spending and live within one's means.