Hagel: Budget Cuts Could Harm Nation's Defense

[LondonReign2]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Wednesday that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order additional sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress doesn't act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, and indirectly to Congress, Hagel said that the full result of the sweeping budget cuts over the next 10 years could leave the nation with an ill-prepared, under-equipped military doomed to face more technologically advanced enemies.

In his starkest terms to date, Hagel laid out a worst-case scenario for the U.S. military if the Pentagon is forced to slash more than $50 billion from the 2014 budget and $500 billion over the next 10 years as a result of Congressionally-mandated automatic spending cuts.

http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-budget-cuts-could-harm-nations-defense-184803002.html

To put it in perspective, $50B is about a 6% reduction. Oh horrors!

[NightWatcher]

1. Who the hell is going to attack us?

Aside from independent actors, we face no true (notice "true" does not mean the little boy in Pyongyang who shoots missles 30' before they crash) threats.

I think we'll be ok if we trim a few billion from a bloated, contractor heavy "defense" budget.

[SummerSnow]

2. Didn't Romney say we have bayonettes?

[grilled onions]

3. and the budget cuts could harm

infants,children.seniors,chronically ill,those that USED to have Meals-On-Wheels.the working poor,the homeless who count on a roof at night or a meal during the day,those who depend on food pantries,those who get breaks with utility bills and on and on...yet we fret over the war games with not a thought of the war on the home front that people battle every day!

[City Lights]

4. Bite me, Chuckles.

The "defense" budget is already waaaaay tooooooo biiiiiiiig. I would be happy if your budget were so small you had to go door-to-door selling wrapping paper, pop corn and baked goods to help fund your programs.

Suck it up, Chuck.

[DJ13]

5. So we could only destroy the world 10x over instead of 15x?

Thats a damn shame.