Senator Coburn on Defense Department cuts

[emptystep]

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) held a press conference to unveil his new report that outlined ways the Defense Department could save $67.9 billion over ten years.

Senator Coburn on Defense Department Budget Cuts - C-SPAN Video Library

Another c-span video. 16 minutes. This guy really knows his numbers and understands the material. I would love to see his ideas included in budget talks.

on the fiscal cliff:
"In the long term we are going to fix the problem, because people are going to stop lending us money."

 

[waltky]

Panetta gettin' ahead of defense cuts...

Panetta orders defense cuts before Congress does
January 10th, 2013 - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has ordered the military to begin implementing cost-cutting measures aimed at mitigating the risk of significant budget cuts should Congress fail to reach a deal in coming months to avert or soften them.

"We have no idea what the hell is going to happen," Panetta said Thursday. He has asked services to begin "prudent" measures, including curtailing maintenance for non-critical activities and delaying hiring. The measures must be "reversible" and minimize harmful impacts on military readiness, Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon. Military departments have also been told to report on how they would implement deep automatic spending cuts, called sequester, and enforce unpaid leave for civilian employees should the reductions occur.

Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey have warned Congress that uncertainty over the absence of a long-term spending agreement, debt-ceiling concerns and the lack of a full congressional budget process is extremely harmful. While the fiscal cliff compromise in early January in Congress put off the sequester, the issue is coming around again in February and March and lawmakers and the White House are bracing for another bruising political fight.

Panetta, who in the past has said nearly $500 billion in mandatory defense cuts over 10 years under sequestration would be a "meat ax" approach to budget-cutting and would "hollow out the force," took a different spin in a memo in late December. Panetta wrote in the memo to troops and civilians in the Defense Department that overall funding for the fiscal year ending in September would be reduced, but sequestration would not necessarily mean immediate spending reductions.

He tried to reassure troops that President Barack Obama "indicated his intent to exercise his legal authority to exempt military personnel" from the cuts. But the same promise couldn't be made to the Defense Department's civilian employees. Instead Panetta said the agency may "have to consider" furloughs should it have to operate under reduced funding levels for "an extended period of time."

Source

 

[RoadVirus]

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) held a press conference to unveil his new report that outlined ways the Defense Department could save $67.9 billion over ten years.

Senator Coburn on Defense Department Budget Cuts - C-SPAN Video Library

Another c-span video. 16 minutes. This guy really knows his numbers and understands the material. I would love to see his ideas included in budget talks.

on the fiscal cliff:
"In the long term we are going to fix the problem, because people are going to stop lending us money."

Obama will ignore Coburn's suggestion. Obama wants our military gutted so his masters in China can become the Alpha.

 

[emptystep]

Check out my thread:
http://www.usmessageboard.com/politics/272133-shortsighted-irresponsible-and-reckless.html

 

[mjollnir]

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) held a press conference to unveil his new report that outlined ways the Defense Department could save $67.9 billion over ten years.

Senator Coburn on Defense Department Budget Cuts - C-SPAN Video Library

Another c-span video. 16 minutes. This guy really knows his numbers and understands the material. I would love to see his ideas included in budget talks.

on the fiscal cliff:
"In the long term we are going to fix the problem, because people are going to stop lending us money."

Obama will ignore Coburn's suggestion. Obama wants our military gutted so his masters in China can become the Alpha.

^^^^^