Retired Pentagon officials predicted yesterday that so-called sequestration budget cuts to the Pentagon would gut the National Guard and result in painful Guard-related job losses in congressional districts across the country.
While the defense industry and Pentagon-minded lawmakers have been holding events detailing the harm they say the potential across-the-board cuts would reap on the military, two former Pentagon leaders sought in Washington to highlight the impact they see on the Army and Air National Guard’s ability to respond to domestic disasters. And Paul McHale, a former assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and retired Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, suggested the reserve forces could be shielded in part by cutting weapons programs.
The sequestration process could trigger $1.2 trillion in federal budget cuts over the next decade, $500 billion of which would come from planned defense spending, starting next January unless congressional Democrats and Republicans can agree on an alternate plan to cut the federal deficit. The sequestration cuts, which come as a result of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and political stalemate, are opposed by President Barack Obama, Pentagon leaders, and many members of both parties in Congress.
McHale joined retired Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, the former United States Northern Command deputy commander and National Guard Bureau chief, at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington yesterday. On Tuesday both Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Michael Turner (R-Ohio) held events in their districts meant to drum up opposition to sequestration, and additional similar events are planned this month during the August congressional recess.
“As we look at this issue and realize that our warfighting capability in defense of our nation would be substantially and irresponsibly reduced by sequestration, so too must we recognize that our domestic security would be similarly impacted,” McHale told the Heritage gathering yesterday.
Blum warned that sequestration would “gut” the National Guard, leaving it underequipped, less-trained, and with less money for operations and maintenance.
“You will find how painful this will be because when they start closing 600 armories and shutting down 1,800 construction projects that are on the books, you’re going to find that these armories are in congressional districts that people care about,” the retired general predicted. “You’re going to find that it will literally kill all small businesses that are dependent on–and have waited for, (have) competed for, and have been awarded–(a) contract that will no longer be there to build an armory, build an annex, build a maintenance facility, build a readiness center, repair and refurbish some of the older things that haven’t been looked at for years.”
Blum described a dire scenario where a chlorine tanker falls off railroad tracks. He said the National Guard, if diminished by sequestration cuts, may take multiple days to respond.
McHale further warned of sequestration hurting border security, critical-infrastructure protection, and chemical-biological-radiological-nuclear response efforts.
Asked where he would cut the Pentagon budget as an alternative to sequestration reductions, McHale said “there are a number of weapons platforms that I think are highly questionable and we ought to take a hard look at some of those systems that are enormously expensive.”
McHale also said he would like to see a “very thoughtful” reduction in the overall force following the near-term drawdown from Afghanistan.
“Choices consistent with budgetary constraints need to be made,” he said. “And responsible judgments need to emanate from the Congress in coordination with the executive branch, so that we decide to build one weapons platform and not build another. We decide to drawdown the force to a certain degree but in a way that makes sense in terms of continuing defense of our nation.”
Under the Budget Control Act, the sequestration cuts would trim the same percentage from every applicable defense program, project, and activity (PPA). The Obama administration has said some parts of the Pentagon budget, including military-personnel funding, would be exempt from sequestration.