CSBA in the News

The failure of the supercommittee to reach a deficit deal will likely trigger what Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called a “doomsday” scenario for the Pentagon: sweeping cuts that would reduce military spending by a total of around $1 trillion over the next decade. But if it’s an apocalypse, it will be one in slow motion. Defense officials and budget experts say the stage is now set for a prolonged fight in Washington over the specific items to be cut. And the Pentagon has room for some creative accounting that could help soften the impact of the across-the-board budget cuts.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned that possible budget cuts triggered by the breakdown of the congressional “supercommittee“ would have devastating consequences, but many skeptics question whether such dire predictions are an exaggeration.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the cuts would terminate the military’s next generation fighter jets, cut the submarine fleet, and leave America with its smallest ground force since World War II /…/

The congressional supercommittee has only a few days left to come up with a plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit. One of the areas on the chopping block is the nation’s defense budget.

A breakdown in high-stakes budget talks in Congress could threaten plans for a missile defense shield in Europe.Negotiators have shown little sign they will be able to meet next week’s deadline for reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion. If they fail to agree, a new law mandates cuts throughout the federal government, including a big slice of the defense budget.

It’s hard to miss the irony: Leon Panetta, as President Clinton’s budget guru, backed billions of dollars in Pentagon cuts. Now, as secretary of defense, he’s warning that the U.S. could become a “paper tiger” if his department’s budget is further reduced.On Monday, Panetta warned members of Congress that if the bipartisan budget supercommittee fails to agree on a plan, a set of automatic cuts would amount to “doomsday” for the military/…/