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Overseas Contingency Operations

The Sequester: Massive Cuts or The Dog That Didn't Bite

on Wed, 07/16/2014 - 15:07

Hardly a week goes by without either the Pentagon itself or some establishment figure bemoaning the fiscal cliff deal and sequester whose cuts to the military budget began in 2013. Media outlets amplify and blindly parrot these dire warnings regarding the U.S. military's ability to keep America safe if the sequester cuts are not rolled back.

But how bad have these cuts really been?

A recent look at the numbers suggests not bad at all.

For instance, according to the Government Printing Office the original 2011 Budget Control Act (popularly known as the fiscal cliff deal) promulgated cuts of