So there are NO Republican voices you could have quoted to refute the nonsense coming out of the White House?

Maybe you should do a story on baseline budgeting, but then that would be honest and fair reporting instead of just mindless dissemination of Washington propaganda.

Nothing has been cut, except borrowing.

Nothing’s been cut?!? As a government employee my pay would be cut 20% due to furloughs. 20%!

It’s easy to make "tough" cuts and talk about "hard" decisions when they don't impact you.

Please thank that obama administration. Always blaming others and playing class warfare - purposely dividing this country. That's what the Vacationer-in-Chief does best. Fyi, this sequestration is his baby!

sequestration is what this country needs. it is the only action to force the hand to stop government spending growth. government is fearful of this because they have never had to worry about controlling expenses. when costs rise you simply ask the taxpayers for more. as a business when my costs rise i can't ask my customers for more. as a taxpayer and a household manager when my costs go up i have to spend less. it is as simple as that.

a study released just in last week hypothesizes that as much as 10% of the pentagon's $650 billion annual budget can't even be accounted for. if even close to accurate that is $50 billion+ per year that just falls through the cracks.

and the author's comment suggesting to 'ask the wealthy to pay a little more' is ignorant left wing propoganda. why not just take all of the money from those who have earned it to pay for all of the social program handouts. then there will be no incentive to build business, or create jobs, or pay for taxes and the left wing mooches will soon have their piggy banks busted. just three numbers to think of: Took 200 years for national debt to hit 1 billion dollars in early 1990's; then only 15 years to hit 8 billion and now it is doubled to 16 billion in 4.5 years. Who is going to pay this back?
this is not about talking head presidents where blame is always assigned. it is about both branches of Congress that have created this problem and now just don't know how to stop. in late March they will ask once again to raise debt ceiling. i say phooey.

Hey todd, as a Federal Employee I get 10 paid days of holiday a year. I belong to the largest union in the country and cannot strike. When I retire I will have to pay 100% of my medical insurance. Have not received a raise that keeps up with cost of living increases for 10+ years. I also work at a salary level that is and has been well below the public sector. I work for the Army to make a difference for our soldiers and our nation.

todd b,
As a parent of a child in the military, aren't you at all concerned for his safety?
Hundreds of civilian military employees who work at TARDEC are the engineers, designers, prototype builders, and testers for every new vehicle and/or improvement to existing vehicles (such as the motorized HMMVV turret that used to be turned by a hand crank).
Do you really want them to have forced days off (without pay) leaving the soldiers in the field without added safety for longer periods of time?
As far as economic downturns and layoffs, Owen is 100% correct. NO cost of living increases for several years.
The union exists, but it is almost impossible to fire the dead-weight employees because of it. These are the people that are just taking up space and doing nothing.
I'd like to see how you'd feel about getting a 20% paycut.

You need to do some research and talk to real people before you shoot your mouth off.

whatthefrack- here is some personal research back at you. i was laid off for 2 years (2008-2010) while many folks in government ran up the debt with their comfy government jobs, making military hardware, so i had a 100% pay cut for 24 months and 15 days to be exact. that is 100% a true story. and i also refused to collect any unemployment in the process because i don't believe in handouts. now i am not saying it is your turn for what we went through but all parts of government and suppliers need to get a reality check on what lean living really means. hopefully that will come with attrition and not layoffs but things have to change. and if you want to blame someone look at at whatever union represents you instead of people that know this pain all to well.

forgot one thought. correct me if i am wrong but TARDEC has a lead role in the Abrams tank; is that assumption correct or wrong. the pentagon should consider cutting that whole program to save money. IMO we no longer live in a world that needs this type of weapon and many others that have been outdated by the new war on terrorism. perhaps the pentagon can then channel funds into the type of vehicles you were referencing which i know little about. but my point is to spend on what is needed and not on all the hardware that exists simply for all the fiefdoms run by generals at the Pentagon to serve their own misguided interests. just a thought.

Todd,
The company I engineer for just got a government contract. We just put a lot of money into security and lock down. Getting every one involved cleared for security clearance. We do need tanks in some areas to back up the troops, although I do agree we don't need a lot of them. What needs to go are the hummers. Non protective. We did some contract work on them for another company. Cheap vehicle....the Pinto of the army. I beleive we should not cut from the military in the way the government sees it. We should close all overseas bases except what is necessary....keep the ones close to were we war open only. We get involved in too many middle eastern issues. They are tribal and always will be, the US needs to stay away. Use the military to patrol our own borders against drugs and illegals, and help out in disasters. I will congradulate you for having a son in the military. May he come back alive. They are all heros in my eyes.

Really Toddb are you dumb? In the real world? My brother happens to work for TACOM and he went to UOFM for 7 years and he served this country for 4. Real world ? So your saying my brother is t working in the real world? So because he worked his butt off serving this country and going to school he's not apart of the "real world" because he's smarter than you, and had a better job than you he's not in the real world? Give me a break

Todd sorry your not smart enough to develop defensive systems and weapons, and sorry your not brave enough to serve this country.

So todd, how can someone who has so many ties to the military, be so much against it?
Why do you wish the worst on everyone who is being sequestered? Are you that mean of a person? It's like you're laughing at people because they are losing their jobs.

What you may want to be concerned with is the recession that'll hit the trip county area. With 5000 fed employees like myself getting a 20% hit, hundreds if not thousands of GD, BAE, and Boeing employees locally facing layoffs you will see a crush on every industry in the area. forget home improvements, thoughts of a new home, vacations, lunches and dinners at restaurants, shopping at kohls, and other clothing stores. It'll all dry up. Then where are all these small businesses going to get money to survive? To top that off, you'll see all the young minds leaving for greener pastures. It takes a while to grow a govt employee to the point they're efficient. The people who will
Stay are the older people in the workforce. Who wants to hire an older engineer with 20 years of army experience?? This will devistate the army tech workforce for years. Its fiscal surgery by chainsaw. Everyone will feel the bite.

John D... thanks for article post as I read it and hopefully others have too; but did you notice NOT one idea was provided in this or other similar articles for HOW to cut back Defense spending-- just a whole lot of rhetoric as to repercussions if cutbacks move forward. It is so typical. Why can't anyone ever come up with solutions instead of being part of the problem? Towards the idea of reinventing the military to become leaner, I pose this fundamental question. We currently have an Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Multiple Guard organizations, Reserves Seabees, Seals, Border Patrol, Homeland Security, CIA intel ops, etc. to protect this country from foreign threats. What if defense reorganized into a Strategic Ops Group (combining Air Force, Navy); a tactical ops group (combining Marines, Seals, Army, ANG elements)... and just one Homeland Security Group (combining (USCG, Border Patrol, Some ANG components, CIA Ops and the bureaucracy now called Homeland Security to have full integrated responsibility for all borders and attacks on US soil.
The question is how much Pentagon overhead, procurement efficiencies, reduced redundancy of equipment needs and boots on the ground could be cut back with the same level of security provided. A pure SWAG of 10-20% seems a very reasonable assumption-at least reasonable enough to evaluate details.
Why do we never hear ideas like this to tackle the broad problem instead of 10,000 excuses as to why nothing can ever be done?

That is why sequestration makes sense. Problem-solving creativity always makes complicated problems easier when the money spicket runneth dry.

Now that the sequestration deadline has passed, if nothing else changes, I'll be hit with a mandatory one day off work with no pay per week for 22 weeks starting sometime in April. Meanwhile, federal legislators in both chambers of Congress continue to receive at least an annual salary of $174,000.00 with no interruption in their paychecks.

Article I, Section 9, of the U.S. Constitution requires that Congress pass a federal budget. Yet the U.S. Congress hasn't passed a federal budget since April 29, 2009; instead, they've opted for a Continuing Resolution year after year since then to avert a US Government shutdown.

Since April 29, 2009, which the was the last time the U.S. Congress passed a federal budget, the average U.S. Congressman, senators as well as representatives, has earned roughly $522,000.00 in annual minimum salaries. Yes, that's a half-million dollars. As a DoD Civilian, I haven't done one damned thing to earn a 20% furlough-induced pay cut. And I can assure you that I have not received a half-million dollars in pay since April 29, 2009. Yet the six-figure-a-year masterminds of the federal budget universe can go to bed each night safe in the knowledge that their pay will not be negatively impacted at all.

Can you sense my anger?