Chiefs detail readiness crisis; Congress offers no relief

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/02/16/2477711/chiefs-detail-readiness-crisis.html

Chiefs detail readiness crisis; Congress offers no relief
TOM PHILPOTT; Contributing Writer
Published: Feb. 16, 2013 at 12:05 a.m. PST

Defense Department civilian and military leaders gave full details this week of the readiness crisis unfolding across America’s armed forces, and got back not a whit of reassurance from Congress that relief is on the way.

Members of the once-powerful House and Senate armed services committees spoke as though resigned to the notion that U.S. forces could be hollowed out over the next several years because of political gridlock and sequestration.

Despite hours of testimony by defense leaders and the Joint Chiefs that force readiness, including individual and unit training, depot maintenance, flying hours and ship steaming days, are about to take the deepest budget hit since the end of World War II, lawmakers offered no solutions. Many committee members merely continued to carp at one another, and at President Barack Obama, over who should bear the most blame.

“I used to say I was hopeful and optimistic,” said Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. “Then I said I was just hopeful. Now I’m not even hopeful because we are only two weeks away from” sequestration March 1, when the department will have to absorb another $46 billion in spending cuts through the final seven months of fiscal 2013, which ends Sept. 30.



unhappycamper comment: Just a reminder of what the 2012 Discretionary Budget looks like: