Panetta renews warnings to US lawmakers against slashing military's budget

US Defense Secretary Leon has continued in recent days to alarm congressional members on “what will happen if Congress does not do something by March 1,” to avoid government spending cuts, under which the Pentagon would have to slash its budget by USD43 billion by the end of the fiscal year in October and by as much as USD500 billion within the next decade, The Washington Post reports on Sunday.
 
In a Wednesday speech at Georgetown University, Panetta attempted yet another plea to the US Congress “to come to Pentagon’s rescue”, warning lawmakers that they will risk “a voter revolt” if the spending cuts go through, recalling the public outrage against “the legislative gridlock that briefly shut down the federal government in 1995 and 1996,” the report says.
 
“Same damn thing is going to happen again if they allow this to occur,” he said during the event in Washington, DC.
 
    Panetta, the report adds, further told congressional lawmakers last week that the budget cuts would turn the US military “into a second-rate power,” pushing the Obama administration to “throw its entire national-security strategy out the window.”
 
 
According to Panetta, who is due to retire later this month, US “naval operations in the Pacific would shrink by a third, all military training would slow to a crawl, and almost every civilian employee at Defense [department] could be furloughed as much as one day a week for the rest of the fiscal year.”
 
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama praised Panetta at a farewell ceremony at Fort Myer military base near Washington on Friday, saying, “No one has raised their voice as firmly or as forcefully on behalf of our troops as you have.”
 
Obama further called on US legislators to figure out “a new deal” with him to avert what he described as “massive, indiscriminate cuts that could have a severe impact on our military preparedness.”
 
    However, US analysts believe the Pentagon “may have made things more painful for the military by refusing to plan for the worst,” the daily notes.
 
 
Throughout Panetta’s tenure, it adds, military authorities “have assumed that Congress would eventually overturn the automatic [budget] cuts, so they kept spending at their usual rate instead of saving.”
 
“Now, with the federal fiscal year almost half over, the Pentagon might have to slash $43 billion from its annual budget by the end of September instead of having a full year to absorb the reductions.”
 
The development comes as the Senate Arms Services Committee continues to delay the confirmation of former Senator Chuck Hagel, Obama’s nominee to succeed Panetta at the Pentagon. Hagel has been accused by staunchly pro-Israeli member of the US Congress of not being pro-Israeli enough.
 
Hagel has emphasized during his career as a Republican Senator from Nebraska that he represents the interests of American citizens and not those of the Israelis.