Service chiefs paint bleak budget picture under sequestration

The heads of the four military branches on Wednesday implored lawmakers to find a way to reverse sequestration, arguing that continued budget cuts would further cripple military readiness.

{mosads}“We do not want to return to the days of a hollow Army,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Sequestration would force the Army to cut an additional 60,000 soldiers, 80,000 troops having already been cut in recent years, he said.

“We are now the smallest Air Force we’ve ever been,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. “We don’t have a bench to go to.”

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert echoed those comments, saying the nation’s fleet of ships is the smallest it has been since World War I.

Marine Corps Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford said that only half of his service’s “home station” units are at acceptable levels of readiness.

The doom and gloom comments came mere days before the Obama administration releases its fiscal 2016 Defense Department budget request.

The administration is expected to propose a base defense budget of $534 billion when it sends its 2016 spending blueprint to Congress next week, a figure that exceeds federal caps by $35 billion and could trigger automatic cuts.

Despite the dire predictions made during the nearly three-hour hearing, few solutions were offered.

Armed Services Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) pleaded with his colleagues to come up with a fix, saying the “quiet and cumulative disruptions” caused by the sequester’s return will leave troops undertrained, under-equipped and unprepared to defend the U.S.

“The sky doesn’t need to fall for military readiness to be eroded, for military capabilities to atrophy, or for critical investments in maintaining American military superiority to be delayed, cut or cancelled,” he said.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) stuck to his party’s position that if sequester is to be reversed, it must be across the entire federal government, a compromise the GOP has been loathe to make.

There “has to be a comprehensive solution to this issue, because it will affect you in so many different ways,” Reed said.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said “sequester is like invading Brazil after Pearl Harbor — it’s a vigorous reaction, but it’s the wrong target.”

Lawmakers should not focus on discretionary spending, he said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked the chiefs if President Obama has a plan to end sequester.

Odierno said that they had met with the president and that he expressed concern the military would be severely strained under the budget device.

Graham also faulted his fellow senators for the military’s predicament.

“I don’t mean to just beat on the president — this applies to us, too. We’re the ones who created this mess,” he said.