Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert testify before the House Armed Services Committee on sequestration in Washington, D.C., Feb. 13, 2013. Sequestration is a maneuver contained in the Budget Control Act of August 2011 under which across-the-board spending cuts would occur if Congress does not pass targeted cuts aimed at reducing the budget deficit. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Teddy Wade
Sequestration Will Leave Pentagon Cash-Strapped But Operational -- Stars and Stripes
WASHINGTON — “Doomsday” is here.
That’s how recently retired Defense Secretary Leon Panetta described the massive, government-wide spending cuts set to take effect Friday, slashing $46 billion out of the Pentagon’s coffers for the remaining seven months of fiscal year 2013.
Unless a bitterly deadlocked Congress takes unexpected, last-minute action and stops the automatic cuts known as “sequestration,” President Barack Obama will issue the order triggering cuts before midnight Friday, as required by federal law.
This apocalypse, however, might arrive more with a whimper than a bang, especially for a Defense Department conditioned by recent preparations for barely averted federal government shutdowns. As one defense department official put, the threat of sequestration is closer to a spreading “fiscal cancer” than sudden cardiac arrest.
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My Comment: This is not how you run a country.