Hagel: Cutting $52 billion from Pentagon next year would would have "severe*& unacceptable effects" [View all]

[Catherina]

Hagel warns lawmakers about effects of Pentagon budget cuts in 2014

By Ernesto Londoño, Wednesday, July 10, 4:13 PM

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned key lawmakers on Wednesday that slashing $52 billion from the Pentagon’s budget next year if across-the-board budget cuts remain in effect would have “severe and unacceptable effects.”

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We urgently need Congressional support in enacting difficult but necessary measures,” Hagel wrote in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), the panel’s ranking member. “If the cuts continue, the Department will have to make sharp cuts with far reaching consequences, including limiting combat power, reducing readiness and undermining the national security interests of the United States.”

The Pentagon’s proposed 2014 budget was drafted under the assumption that the drastic reductions known as sequestration, which requires even cuts across the federal budget, would be replaced by a more flexible, sensible plan. But an alternative to sequestration is appearing increasingly unlikely because the consequences of cuts so far have been less dire than the ominous predictions federal agencies made last year.

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The $52 billion cut would continue to take a toll on training and infrastructure, the Pentagon warned, and squeezing the budget further will lead to a loss of jobs and a disruption of “community life” in areas near military bases.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/hagel-warns-lawmakers-of-pentagon-budget-cuts-in-2014/2013/07/10/60bf953a-e997-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html