Posted on 04/28/2013 5:16:48 AM PDT by SkyPilot
SEOUL — The Army’s chief of staff has warned Congress that steep military budget cuts and canceled training exercises are hurting the Army’s readiness, including the ability to respond to a potential conflict on the tense Korean peninsula.
While troops in South Korea are “obviously at a high state of readiness,” Gen. Ray Odierno told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that sequestration has led to a reduction in training for 80 percent of the Army.
Among the cuts: 37,000 flying hours, impending furloughs for civilian workers, and six brigade maneuver combat training center rotations.
The cancellation of the six rotations “is having an impact on our ability to potentially respond to the Korean peninsula, because those decisive action rotations would have helped them to prepare for this eventuality,” Odierno said.
In an exchange with U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Odierno agreed that the rapidly enacted sequestration measures would lead to a hollow Army without experienced leadership.
“Because we’re still involved with some heavy issues in Afghanistan…the full impact of not having the money to train has not fully hit yet. It’s just beginning to hit,” he said.
But the impact of the cuts is particularly worrisome with tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang rising to their highest level in decades. North Korea has made a number of threats, even raising the possibility of a nuclear strike against the United States.
There has been widespread speculation that the North might be preparing to conduct a fourth nuclear test or a missile launch. South Korea has vowed to respond decisively to another provocation, prompting fears that a relatively small incident could escalate out of control.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
The Tea Party isolationists and the arm chair warriors are in for a wakeup call if almost anything goes wrong internationally, because our military is being hollowed out as I type this.
The US military was drastically cut before Sequestration, the military takes 50% of all Sequestration cuts - the largest by far of any agency or group. Exploding entitlements (63% of all spending) are exempt from Sequestration.
Odierno is a large man, standing about 6'6" tall. He is a decorated combat veteran.
This week, Rep Duncan Hunter (R-CA) decided to throw a verbal hand grenade accusation against Gen Odierno and the Secretary of the Army while they were testifying.
This isn't the first time in the last few months that Hunter has done this. During the House Armed Services Committee hearing in February regarding Sequestration, he all but accused the 5 members of the Joint Chiefs of lying to the committee - apparently what he wanted to hear was Congress could cut $650 Billion from the military over 10 years and it would have zero affect on readiness, modernization, infrastructure, military healthcare, personnel strength, and morale.
In this video, Oiderno has had enough. If Rep "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) had not stepped in, Hunter would have looked like a greater idiot.
Video of the Day: Rep. Duncan Hunter vs. Gen. Ray Odierno
Our military has been betrayed by Republicans in Congress who have sacrificed it as a hostage in the budget debacle we find ourselves in.
Either reign in Entitlements, or tell the military to disband.
Hunter is going “quack quack quack” aren’t I a genius. No Hunter you are an impediment to progress and make me want to throw up
How do you propose entitlements get cut with a Harry Reid Senate and an Obama White House? They have no intention of any reforming any of these programs. Simply cutting benefits to today’s seniors who paid in isn’t something I am interested in as a conservative. Reforming the programs to fix them for future recipients is the only realistic, politically feasible and ethical option. The left wants no part of this.
Plenty of money for illegal immigrants, billions to the muslim brotherhood, public union goons and transgender education.
Cutting the military - that is easy! And most of them don’t vote democrat anyways...
The whipping boy for SS question is always about the OAS part of the OASDI FICA law. Add to that the SSA administration of the heavy SSI outgo and you have a financial disaster in the making.
Last time I checked, the DI and SSI outlays were one quarter of all SSA outlays, and these two categories are only going to increase - significantly.
well I know a couple of the old folks “paid in” and the accounting should be done to pay them the value of their investment, not more. And the unemployed may have “paid in” a couple dollars and the value of their investment should be figured and they should be able to have access to that. The immigrant population has not paid in and should not receive any payouts. The multiple others who are claiming funds, therein lies the propblem, none of them have “paid in”. Yes, we should assist the disabled somehow, but to have the government acting like the big trough is unsustainable.
I’m willing to bet that Odierno lashes out at Duncan Hunter (the second) in a way that he is unwilling to take Obama and his minions to task. After all, Obama is the author of the sequestration and Reid, in particular I believe, loaded 50% of the cuts on the 18% of the budget that goes to Defense. But state propaganda has a far reaching influence as you come here and blame the Tea party. Oh, by the way, if you have a video of the day where Odierno does squawk about OBAMA’s sequestration cuts , I will retract everything I’ve said with an apology.
We’re already starting to see it down at my level. My unit performs a major intelligence mission for the Army, and they’re gutting us. Priorities are out of whack with regards to what’s left, but, the fact is we still have a hugely important mission, and we have a fraction of the funds to do it with now. Naturally, the mission set won’t ease up. “Do the same (or more) with MUCH less” is now the order of the day.
I can’t wait ‘til it all blows up in our faces and TPTB wonder why.
Here are Obama’s remarks yesterday about replacing the sequestration cuts with “smarter cuts.” I f you see anything about military preparedness, let me know, because I missed it. I’m sure these “smarter cuts” will satisfy General Odierno as well.
Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
April 27, 2013
Hi, everybody. Our top priority as a nation must be growing the economy, creating good jobs, and rebuilding opportunity for the middle class.
But two months ago, Congress allowed a series of automatic budget cuts to fall across the federal government that would do the opposite. In Washington-speak, these cuts were called the “sequester.” It was a bad idea then. And as the country saw this week, it’s a bad idea now.
Because of these reckless cuts, there are parents whose kids just got kicked out of Head Start programs scrambling for a solution. There are seniors who depend on programs like Meals on Wheels to live independently looking for help. There are military communities – families that have already sacrificed enough – coping under new strains. All because of these cuts.
This week, the sequester hurt travelers, who were stuck for hours in airports and on planes, and rightly frustrated by it. And, maybe because they fly home each weekend, the Members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them too.
Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they’ve decided it was a bad idea all along. Well, first, they should look at their own budget. If the cuts they propose were applied across the board, the FAA would suffer cuts three times deeper.
So Congress passed a temporary fix. A Band-Aid. But these cuts are scheduled to keep falling across other parts of the government that provide vital services for the American people. And we can’t just keep putting Band-Aids on every cut. It’s not a responsible way to govern. There is only one way to truly fix the sequester: by replacing it before it causes further damage.
A couple weeks ago, I put forward a budget that replaces the next several years of these dumb cuts with smarter cuts; reforms our tax code to close wasteful special interest loopholes; and invests in things like education, research, and manufacturing that will create new jobs right now.
So I hope Members of Congress will find the same sense of urgency and bipartisan cooperation to help the families still in the crosshairs of these cuts. They may not feel the pain felt by kids kicked off Head Start, or the 750,000 Americans projected to lose their jobs because of these cuts, or the long-term unemployed who will be further hurt by them. But that pain is real.
The American people worked too hard, for too long, rebuilding from one economic crisis just to see your elected officials keep causing more. Our economy is growing. Our deficits are shrinking. We’re creating jobs on a consistent basis. But we need to do more to help middle-class families get ahead, and give more folks a chance to earn their way into the middle class. And we can, if we work together. That’s what you expect. That’s what I’m going to work every single day to help deliver. Thank you.
The Pentagon budget right now is about $700 billion. A $650 billion cut over 10 years would amount to $65 billion per year. Let’s round it up to $70 billion for clarity.
That would be a 10% budget cut for the Pentagon from each year’s budget for 10 years.
Oh, and by the way, in 2000, the annual US defense budget was about $300 billion. With just non-war related increases, the defense budget by 2011 was about $550 billion. The wars added the rest of the balance, about $150 billion to $200 billion a year.
So in effect, the Pentagon is complaining that, since 2000, *increasing* their *basic* budget by an additional $150 billion has been essential, so much so that to cut $65 billion from that *increase* would be “devastating” to their readiness and morale.
Uh, b.s. They are lying. Hunter is right.
Well, that’s a real nice excoriation of Hunter, except Obama is the one doing the damage and everyone else is the boogeyman
Sure, cash me out for all my social security, but dont pay me in Obama Dollars. When I started paying in a dollar was real money. If I had all the money that was extorted from me, I would be on easy street for retirement. I, unlike the corrupt government, know how to get the value of a dollar I spend.
That was after Clinton had gutted the defense budget to achieve his phony surplus. It's impossible to prove, but very likely that contributed to the perception of weakness that brought about the wars you mention.
Not so much. Spending peaked during Reagan at $427.9 in ‘87, bottomed during Clinton at $296.7 in ‘98, recovering with the Republican congress to $311.7 in ‘00. Then with W. Bush it skyrocketed, not including the war costs.
$405 ‘03
$455 ‘04
$495 ‘05
$536 ‘06 (the peak)
$495 ‘08-’09
So the question becomes, having received *extra* hundreds of billions of dollars for some years now, how is a $65 billion *decrease*, still leaving them $100 billion a year ahead, going to ruin their preparedness or morale?
Personally, calling the Clinton years “gutted” is a real stretch.
It’s an easy experiment to run; give one third of your salary back to your boss, see if you feel gutted. Plus , do not factor in inflation; the military was gutted during the Clinton years and dollar for dollar accounted for the surplus that was shown in the progress made in reducing the deficit.
P.S.: At the time, it was called the “peace dividend” as Reagan’s policies of peace through strength had achieved a short-lasting peace.
Let’s continue with that analogy. Say you work for a company that pays you $30,000 every year for 10 years. Then, without a promotion, or you doing any other work, they give you $45,000 for five years. But then they say, “We are paying you too much, so we will now only pay you $44,500.”
How abused do you feel? Are you going to tell them that you can no longer do your job after having your paycheck “gutted?”
Then again, let’s say you’re making $42,700 in 1987 and $29,000in 1998, meanwhile , inflation has probably run at 2-2.5% per year, which is a lot more like what happened to the defense budget during the Clinton years, which is what we’re talking about. If you’re saying the current sequester need not be as draconian on military preparedness as Obama has tasked the Pentagon for it to be, I agree with you.
Given they have named Christians and Catholics domestic terrorist hate groups, I vote to disband our military before they murder us. We can have a mean and loyal machine to protect the homeland from FOREIGN attacks and keep the border secure.
I have had enough of the globalist army, tower of bable crap. I will never forget and never forgive the treason from the DOD under the Kenyan. Most Americans sign up to defend the constitution and freedom not to carry out the mentally ill slavery ideology and self serving desires of “citizens of the world” - globalists - to it’s lowest common denominator - Islam.
B.S. For once we have a congressman who is asking the right questions and you turn on him like a mindless idiot.
I worked for the DOD for a time and there is nothing wrong with congressmen and Senators keeping that beast of bureauacy hell accountable. Wish he would have asked the General if he agrees that Catholics and Christians are ;an enemy of the State and what he plans to do to remedy that homo bigotry. I hope he makes that smash mouth, disrespectful General’s life miserable under he retires. That is what Congress does to assholes.
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