Tag: Leon Panetta

6 reasons why sequestration should not occur

6 reasons why sequestration should not occur

Posted by zbigniewmazurak on April 14, 2012

Less than 9 months from now, on January 2nd, 2013, the sequestration of defense spending will kick in unless the Congress stops it.

The opponents of a strong defense are triumphing. They are this close to achieving what they’ve been striving to achieve for decades: completely gutting America’s defense, so they will be able to do what none of America’s external enemies have been able to accomplish: bring the US military to its knees.

So now, as the Congress mulls whether to save defense from sequestration, they are protesting and pressuring the Congress to allow the sequester’s deep, unjustifiable, disproportionate defense cuts to occur.

So I’d like to present the facts to the Congress and the public: 6 reasons why defense spending sequestration should not and must not occur.

#1: It would gut the military. Continue reading “6 reasons why sequestration should not occur”

Furlough Watch: Agency-by-Agency Impacts of Sequestration

Furlough Watch: Agency-by-Agency Impacts of Sequestration

  • March 5, 2013
Air traffic controllers are likely to be among the federal employees furloughed.
Air traffic controllers are likely to be among the federal employees furloughed. David Goldman/AP file photo

This report has been updated. 

The across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration now scheduled to hit in two days would have serious implications for federal workers, including mandatory unpaid furloughs for hundreds of thousands of employees, beginning in April. We have compiled a list of possible agency-by-agency effects, should Congress and President Obama fail to reach a deficit reduction agreement in time to avoid the cuts. We will update the list as more information becomes available. Please use the comment section below to let us know if you have additional information about your agency. Continue reading “Furlough Watch: Agency-by-Agency Impacts of Sequestration”

A Stampede of Hysterics

A Stampede of Hysterics

February 15, 2013

This article orginally appeared on ForeignPolicy.com.

I read two critically important reports this week on the impact that sequestration would have on national defense. That possible reduction in military spending — $48 billion, or 7.4 percent of the $645 billion currently appropriated for fiscal year 2013 — is being characterized by the stampede of hysterics who run the Pentagon as the virtual end of national security as we know it. What these two reports show is that we should now consider the Pentagon as morally and mentally broken as Congress.

The first report, by Chuck Spinney, who spent a few decades inside the Department of Defense evaluating budgets, weapons, and bureaucratic behavior, was published at Counterpunch and Time‘s Battleland blog. The second was a Congressional Research Service report by Amy Belasco, who has spent the last few decades at CRS and the Congressional Budget Office parsing defense budgets and their implications. Continue reading “A Stampede of Hysterics”

The $360 Billion Gorilla in the Sequestration Debate

 The $360 Billion Gorilla in the Sequestration Debate

February 11, 2013

 The Gorilla in the Room

The debate surrounding Pentagon sequestration—the planned reductions to Pentagon spending scheduled to go into effect in March—is raging.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said the spending reductions would lead to the U.S. becoming “a second rate power.” Chairman of the House Armed Service Committee, Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), said, “It’s going to start costing lives.” Continue reading “The $360 Billion Gorilla in the Sequestration Debate”

Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

Federal agencies bracing for cuts after ‘fiscal cliff’ deal

Video: President Obama is praising the bill that staves off the “fiscal cliff” tax hikes and spending cuts. The House of Representatives followed the Senate’s lead and passed the bill late Tuesday.

By and , Published: January 2

The fiscal pact Congress reached hours into the new year will delay $109 billion in automatic across-the-board spending cuts for two months. But it will make a down payment on those reductions that will affect federal operations this year and next.

The eleventh-hour agreement to avoid a “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes put off the major cuts known as a sequester until March 1, when another showdown is expected over the federal

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