Sequestration scare tactic failed

Congressional leaders appear to have reached consensus that it is safer politically to allow deep and arbitrary cuts to military budgets than it is to negotiate a large debt-reduction deal that would have names attached.

With Republicans and Democrats unwilling to make difficult decisions to address budget deficits in a balanced way, the military is being forced to cut training, cancel construction projects, defer maintenance of ships, aircraft and vehicles, cancel professional conferences, halt most temporary duty assignments, and interrupt supply and equipment purchases.

Quality of life for the military also is being impacted as dependents lose jobs, local economies and businesses lose contracts, and base operations, including family support programs, take immediate budget cuts.

The entire Department of Defense has imposed a civilian-hiring freeze. At least 46,000 temporary employees are getting pink slips and many more employees under "term" contracts won't see those contracts renewed.

Gordon Adams, a national security policy specialist with the Stimson Center and a senior White House budget official in the last Clinton administration, said he is "amazed" to watch congressional leaders, in effect, "fold their hands" on trying to prevent deeper defense cuts this year.

With the Iraq war ended and U.S. combat forces scheduled to leave Afghanistan in 2014, defense "is not the centerpiece" of the Capitol Hill budget argument.

"The centerpiece is the overall federal budget and (tax) revenue... This is leadership driven. The armed services committees are almost irrelevant, which is very unusual."

Even as Defense officials and military leaders ordered commands to take broad cost-cutting actions, they held out hope Congress will come to share their concern and take two remedial actions.

One is to pass a defense appropriations bill for the fiscal year that began last October, thus removing spending caps imposed by operating through March under continuing budget resolution. The resolution freezes their budgets just below 2012 levels.

Service officials now fear Congress intends to extend the continuing resolution through September. If so, at a minimum, they seek authority to "reprogram" or transfer money between accounts to fully fund their highest priorities to sustain operations and protect readiness.

Second, Defense officials want Congress to swiftly reach a deficit reduction deal and avoid budget sequestration, which as adjusted during the Jan. 1 fiscal cliff deal, would still impose an 8 percent cut across 2,500 separate defense programs.

Sequestration was a scheme Congress concocted in 2011 to scare itself into a debt deal. It has failed.

Tom Philpott can be contacted at Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, Va. 20120-1111, or by e-mail at: [email protected]