Saw on FNC Special report the cut for the first year would be $110B, half of that for Defense. So $55B cut out of a $1T defense budget, that's a 5% Cut. Is that slashing?
Obama got House Republicans to agree to completely exempting medicaid , entitlements and poverty programs from the cuts when THEY passed this bill.
I know these budget numbers are off slightly, but...
The annual budget was roughly $660B in FY2012 ($55B/mo). FY2013 already has roughly $110B cuts built in, thanks to Panetta. For the first 3 months of FY2013, the spending will continue at $550B rate, so $135B will be spent by Jan. So there would be $415B left, but they must cut $55B, so $360B remains over 9 mos ($40B/mo).
FY2012 = $55B/mo
Jan 2013 = $40B/mo
If this math is correct, DoD/Intel is facing a 30% cut. No change in mission, according to BO yesterday. Also, cuts of this magnitude inherently distract from the missions, as organizations take time to adjust to the losses.
We’re all in favor of DoD/Intel taking its share of cuts, but the mission and the foreign policy must change in a rational way.
These are very dangerous. Enemies will do this math too.
Let me put it this way:
About seven years ago, my husband and I were broke. We weren’t even making it paycheck to paycheck. We were having to use credit cards to close the gap at the end of the month. Every month, we dug ourselves deeper.
We started Dave Ramsey. Now, on average, we were underwater by about 15%, so we had to slash our spending by that much.
Now imagine if I just said “we’re cutting 15% off of every expense.”
So we’re dropping groceries, fast food, the mortgage payment, our phone payments, our clothing budget by 15% each.
Well, that would be stupid. There are things that we could’ve cut by 100% (fast food) without any real issues. Clothes by 75%. Groceries by maybe 30%.
But if we only paid 85% of our mortgage, internet and phone bills - we’d have been out of a house. Those particular things had to remain fully funded.
It took me a full 6 months to find ALL of the ‘holes in our bucket’ and stop the leaks. (By then I was working on home-made cleaning products. Saving $3-5 here an there was worth it to me.)
Sequestration is exactly this scenario. Just slash 11% across the board with no rhyme or reason. No thought. It’s jaw-droppingly irresponsible.
IMHO, we could cut 25% of the military budget without compromising national security - with thoughtfulness and care.
When has the Defense budget ever hit one trillion dollars?