The 2013 Pentagon budget reflects the Obama Administration's unwillingness to embrace strategic change that would allow far larger cuts. And by failing to propose such cuts, the Pentagon is refusing to avoid sequestration, the across-the-board cut of roughly ten percent from its accounts required under the Budget Control Act (BCA).
In proposing a military budget about six billion dollars lower than last year's, the Obama Administration has for the first time proposed a real cut in the non-war military budget, but much of that cut likely shifted to the war budget. The administration has also said that the Pentagon should spend less over the decade than previously planned, which would cause an eight percent cut to non-war spending—in the unlikely event that the plan holds. If we include war costs, the military budget has been falling since 2010 when war costs peaked. But keep in mind that the defense budget grew by over seventy percent in real terms since 1999, with the non-war portion roughly doubling.
The BCA requires a $54 billion cut to Pentagon spending in January 2013, applied across spending accounts, with the possible exception of personnel costs, which the president can elect to shield. That sequestration is a consequence of the super committee's failure to produce a deficit reduction plan. After sequestration, Pentagon spending (leaving out the wars and other defense-related costs outside DoD but counted in the national defense budget function) would be $478 billion, about what it was in 2007 in real terms.
The text of the BCA suggests that sequestration occurs regardless of the size of the budget Congress passes. That would mean that the Pentagon cannot distribute the 2013 cuts according to a strategy and thus avoid sequestration. In the remaining eight years the law covers, by contrast, the Act imposes a Pentagon spending cap and sequesters appropriations above that level.
As the year goes on, Pentagon leaders will increasingly complain about what the Secretary of Defense calls the "goofy meat axe approach" of sequestration, which supposedly prevents them from making intelligent choices. Those hearing the complaints should be aware that while the BCA makes the size of the cuts inevitable, their manner is not fixed. The Pentagon could have smart cuts, but it prefers to push for none by pretending dumb cuts is the only alternative.
Full Text: http://feeds.cato.org/~r/Cato-at-liberty/~3/BSVNBXBnW7M/
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