Last year Republicans and Democrats agreed to increase the debt ceiling and part of the deal was across the board spending cuts, including $500 billion in cuts to the Defense Department, in the event Congress fails to act by January 1, 2013. It doesn’t appear that Democrats care to do anything about this, seeing that Harry Reid recently said the Senate will not put forth a budget because the debt ceiling deal counts as having already passed a budget.
Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) told the Heritage Foundation that the impending defense cuts are in addition to nearly $500 billion in cuts already slated, and that these cuts will have dire consequences when it comes to national defense.
Asked in our exclusive interview what might happen if the impending automatic sequestration cuts slash $500 billion from the defense budget – in addition to the $487 billion dollars already slated to be cut over the next ten years – Kyl said it would amount to “shooting ourselves in the head,” a reference to a metaphor first offered by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.
“You can save the money in other ways,” Kyl explained. “We’re not talking about not saving the money. Were talking about doing it in an intelligent way, by setting priorities, reducing spending elsewhere so that you don’t have to have the across the board cuts.”
He also expressed concern about a rising tide of isolationism in the United States, even among conservatives. Kyl insisted that America “cannot just retreat behind fortress America.”
Defense is the only spending Democrats don’t like.
H/T The Other McCain
Update: No wonder Americans can’t stand Harry Reid. The only person more unpopular than the Senate leader is Nancy Pelosi.
…meanwhile, hundreds of billions of dollars of wasteful gov’t spending remains in place.
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Why not? The Australian government has already drastically cut our defence spending to try to balance the budget after 4 years of wanton waste. Meanwhile, China keeps on spending more…..
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This will not gut our military defenses. Take a look at the prices for our f-22 program and our proposed missile shield in western europe. Every area of government must be downsized. Don’t worry tho these cuts will never take place. The military budget only gets bigger and bigger. A lot of that spending is welfare for defense contractors so of course the politicians they pay for are going to fight the cuts tooth and nail. Let’s be honest, america has a war economy. Our number one export is weapons and warfare. These interests have become entrenched and they aren’t going anywhere under the current system.
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Oh yes, let’s be honest. You couldn’t be more off the mark, Jeff. According to latest data, the U.S.’s largest export is fuel.
http://www.pressherald.com/business/fuel-is-now-leading-export-of-united-states_2011-12-31.html
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Michigan you are right and wrong. Economists only count exports when a transaction is made. I meant export in the most literal sense. 88 billion in exports is a drop in the bucket compared to how much tax payers fork over for these wars abroad as well as the ridiculous amount we give to rich arab countries. For pete sakes 2.3 trillion dollars from the pentagons sheets were unaccounted for says donald rumsfeld the day before 9/11. Look it up. he said himself the bloated military complex was our biggest threat. I agreed with him. Giving weapons and money away to saudi arabia or going to war in iraq doesn’t count as exports bc there is no transaction. That doesn’t mean it isn’t costing us money hand over fist. Good article btw. Really makes you wonder why we prop up arab oil barrons when we have all we need at home…do you think maybe those petrodollars are actually bribes to keep anti american countries from trading their oil in foreign currencies? I do.
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