The Buck Stops Here

Many lawmakers have said they want to find a way to avoid defense cuts under the oft-cited "sequestration" mechanism of the Budget Control Act. Today, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-CA) went a step further, saying he would work against all the cuts required under the legislation.

"I held my breath and voted for the BCA, with the hopes that we could fix the serious problems with the bill shortly after,” McKeon said in a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. “That’s why one of my top priorities is getting that half a trillion dollars back."

Congress passed the BCA last summer as a precondition to raising the nation's debt limit. The law mandates roughly $500 billion in reductions to planned defense spending over 10 years. Because a congressional "Supercommittee" was unable to agree on deficit-reduction measures last fall, an additional BCA stipulation is now in effect, which says an additional $500 billion must be cut.

The Pentagon's fiscal year 2013 budget proposal begins the process of scaling back defense spending. The FY-13 request includes the first tranche, a reduction of $45 billion over projections last year, to a total of $260 billion over the five-years spending plan.