House Armed Services Chairman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, a Republican from California, said the United States would suffer severe consequences if automatic defense cuts known as “sequestration” take place.
McKeon warned both Senate Democrats and the White House in a column published by Politico Monday that they need to rethink the how they are going to handle the pending crisis and look to House Republicans for ideas to resolve the pending crisis.
“Sequestration would mean a total of $1 trillion in cuts to our military over the next 10 years,” McKeon said. “America would have its smallest ground force since before World War II, its smallest Navy since before World War I and its smallest Air Force in the history of the service.”
Sequestration would limit America’s power and influence in the world and restrict the U.S. ability to defend interests and “would render any manner of strategy and planning in the Pentagon essentially meaningless,” he added.
According to McKeon the cuts would lead to the loss of approximately 1 million jobs in 2013 and 2014.
Sara A. Carter is The Washington Examiner’s national security correspondent. She can be reached at [email protected].
