Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pledged yesterday to fight against significant Pentagon funding reductions in a second round of government spending cuts a new committee will weigh later this year under the new deficit-reducing plan.
His comments, in a message to all Department of Defense (DoD) personnel, came as multiple defense-related parties weighed in the makeup of the forthcoming 12-member Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday a federal deficit-reducing bill that calls for raising the nation’s debt ceiling and cutting defense-related spending by $350 billion over 10 years. During a second phase of the plan, the new bipartisan legislative panel will decide on additional federal budget cuts that could rise to $500 billion or $600 billion for defense-related accounts over the next decade.
Of concern to Panetta and Pentagon advocates is a provision in the new debt plan that states if the new committee can’t come up with a plan to cut up to $1.5 trillion in federal spending that passes Congress by the end of the year, a so-called a sequestration process would be triggered that would cut at least $1.2 trillion overall. The defense-related share of those cuts could be as high as $500 billion or $600 billion.
The language is expected to compel Congress to act, and Obama spokesman Jay Carney said the president does not want to see the defense budgets cut that much in the second phase of cutting.
“Indeed, this outcome would be completely unacceptable to me as secretary of defense, the president, and to our nation’s leaders,” Panetta said in his message yesterday. The “potential deep cut in defense spending” under that sequester mechanism, he sought to assure Pentagon employees, is “designed to be unpalatable to spur responsible, balanced deficit reduction and avoid misguided cuts to our security.”
Panetta pledged to “do all I can to assist the administration and congressional leaders to make the commonsense cuts needed to avoid this sequester mechanism.”
The new law calls for the committee, with three Republicans and Democrats from each chamber, to be created no more than 14 days after its enactment.
Hawkish lawmakers such as House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.) have insisted the panel have strong national-security voices. Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) want members who are open to entitlement cuts.
Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) President and CEO Marion Blakey argued the committee should have “bipartisan representation” from the Senate and House armed services committees defense appropriations subcommittees.
“We will need thoughtful, knowledgeable members on the committee who understand the impact of defense reductions on the nation’s future national security capabilities,” Blakey, the head of the industry trade group, said in a statement. She maintained additional deep cuts to defense would hamper investments in battlefield technology and modernization of worn-out equipment, while weakening the defense industrial base.
A group calling itself the Armed Forces Tea Party, meanwhile, called yesterday on lawmakers to ensure the troops “are not part of the cuts” coming after the new committee meets.
“After 10 years of war and veteran unemployment well above the national average we cannot accept cuts to people at the expense of waste and contractors looking to save programs with aggressive lobby tactics,” it said yesterday in a statement.
The group is led by a veteran and sees its views in line with the Tea Party movement that generally advocates smaller government and fiscal austerity.
The Armed Forces Tea Party “is adamant that we don’t allow aggressive lobbyist for defense contractors be the loud voice in the room or drive the train on this issue,” it said, advocating a “’people first’ approach to DoD budget cuts.”
Meanwhile, Panetta downplayed the impact of the $350 billion in defense-related cuts, which will stretch beyond the Pentagon, slated to start next year under the first phase of the deficit plan. The Pentagon already has been conducting a roles-and-missions review intended to find $400 billion in long-term savings that Obama proposed back in April.
“The reductions in defense spending that will take place as a result of the debt ceiling agreement reached by Congress and the president are in line with what this department’s civilian and military leaders were anticipating, and I believe we can implement these reductions while maintaining the excellence of our military,” Panetta said.
While Panetta acknowledged “the current budget constraints will make it all the more challenging to modernize and recapitalize the force,” he said aging platforms must be replaced and units and equipment stressed by combat must be reset. Thus, he called for “redoubling our efforts to enforce procurement discipline.”