, As fiscal cliff nears Panetta warns of furloughs

With the real possibility of massive military budget cuts just days away, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday told defense employees that staffing and program cuts will be considered if Congress can’t agree on alternative budget plans.

In a department-wide memo, Panetta wrote that he does not expect any immediate disruptions to military operations on Jan. 2 – the day the budget cuts are set to trigger – but warned that “should we have to operate under reduced funding levels for an extended period of time, we may have to consider furloughs or other actions in the future.”

Military pay and staffing are exempt from the cuts, and Panetta promised to provide “requisite advance notice” before any civilian employee actions.

“We will carefully examine other options to reduce costs within the agency before taking such action,” he wrote.

It’s the first formal warning to defense employees that their jobs could be lost to the two-year fight in Congress over the national debt, and a sign of how poorly last-minute negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders have gone.

On Thursday, the House abruptly adjourned for Christmas after failing to pass viable plans to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” – tax increases and $1 trillion in automatic spending reductions set to go into effect the first week in January.

House Speaker John Boehner, who has been sparring with the president behind the scenes over details of a compromise measure, also failed to get his caucus to adopt a “Plan B” which would have allowed tax breaks for millionaires to expire in exchange for cuts in entitlement programs.

The measure wasn’t expected to advance in the Senate, but was expected to provide some political cover in the event of a financial meltdown. Instead, it prompted questions about how deep the political divisions on Capitol Hill run, and whether any deal can possibly be reached in coming days. stripes.com

FACTS & FIGURES

Critics of American spending for military power often make three arguments: The U.S. spends more than a combination of the military budgets of the next 12, 15 or 17 nations, depending on who is counting and what is included; military spending drains funds from welfare, health care, education and other domestic programs; and, military spending is rife with fraud, waste and abuse, and should be rigorously scrutinized and scrubbed. scmp.com

The Pentagon’s budget accounts for about half of the government’s discretionary expenditure – spending that is not mandated under fixed government programs. As a result, defense budgets are set to fall 9.1 per cent next year, across all programs, if the automatic spending cuts come into force. ft.com

http://banoosh.com/2012/12/22/as-fiscal-cliff-nears-panetta-warns-of-furloughs/