Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Washington lawmakers’ inability to resolve thorny issues, like thwarting unpopular defense budget cuts, is threatening this country’s security.
“One of the national-security threats is the question of whether or not the leaders we elect can, in fact, govern and can, in fact, deal with the challenges that face this country,” an exasperated Panetta said during a Nov. 20 address to the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington.
Panetta was responding to a question about the Senate’s failure to pass the Law of the Sea treaty, an ongoing frustration for Pentagon and State Department leaders. Yet he used the opportunity to vent abut a topic that was sprinkled throughout his speech on the military’s future and fight against al Qaeda: sequestration. That’s the $500 billion across-the-board cut to decade-long defense spending that will start in January unless Democrats and Republicans can agree on an alternate plan to reduce the federal deficit.
“I just came back from Asia and I was meeting with the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Nations) defense ministers,” Panetta said. “And one of the defense ministers said, ‘You know, it’s great that you’re rebalancing to the Pacific, but can you sustain that when you have a Congress that is prepared to do sequester or walk off a fiscal cliff?’”
“That issue of whether our Democracy can truly function and have leaders that are prepared to make the decisions that have to be made, in order for this country to govern itself, is I think, you know, the issue that will determine ultimately whether we have national security,” Panetta said.
Lawmakers returned to Washington the week of Nov. 12 for the lame-duck session of Congress following the Nov. 6 elections. During that week President Barack Obama met with Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress about sequestration and other year-end budget battles known as the “fiscal cliff.” Yet observers question if they can reach consensus, with Obama and Democrats demanding the end of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and Republicans wanting reductions in entitlement programs, and the two sides clashing over the extent and type of revenue-generating tax changes they’d allow. Lawmakers could potentially delay the January start of the sequestration cuts and return to the debate later in 2013.
Panetta also called for Congress to pass a defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2013, which started Oct. 1. The Senate was poised to begin debating it this week, but Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stopped it from moving forward on the Senate floor before the Thanksgiving recess because he wanted a commitment that a detainee-related amendment of his would be weighed.
Addressing Congress’ unfinished business, Panetta said the “worst thing that can happen, frankly from my perspective, is if they just kick the can down the road.”
“All that would wind up doing is continuing to present a shadow over the Defense Department, and for that matter, the rest of government as to what ultimately will happen, and that’s the last damned thing I need,” he said.
The defense secretary reminded the audience during his nighttime address that the Pentagon’s new strategy, while calling for a smaller and more-agile military, also recognizes the need to “be on the cutting edge of technology.”
This can’t just be about (budget) cutting, it’s got to be about investing,” he said. “Investing in space and cyber. Investing in unmanned systems. Investing in the kind of capability to mobilize quickly if we have to….And most importantly, maintaining our defense industrial base in this country. So that…we are not in a position where I’m forced to contract out the most important defense capabilities that I need. I can’t do that. I can’t just contract those out to another country, I’ve got to have that capability here in the United States.”
The Pentagon is expanding its fleet of Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft over its current size, Panetta said during the speech in which he discussed the ongoing and morphing battle against al Qaeda. Such “enhanced” capabilities “will enable us to be more flexible, and agile against a threat that has grown more diffuse,” he said.