We began Battleland’s countdown to sequestration a month ago. As of Wednesday, we’re 11% closer to the end of the Pentagon as we know it. That’s slated to happen, according to this provision of the so-called Budget Control Act:
…because Congress and the White House can’t get their act together and come up with $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction spread over a decade. “Most of the cognoscenti in Washington say, `Of course they’ll reach an agreement because they can’t not reach an agreement,’” congressional scholar Norm Ornstein said last week. “Get inside the belly of the beast and you realize these days they can not reach an agreement.”
That means the Pentagon would have to cut another $500 billion out of its spending plan over the coming decade, resetting spending back to Cold War levels.*
*Joke: spending actually would return to the 2007’s total, well above the Cold War average.