Secretary of Defense told employees not to worry about sequestration

“Our civilian employees should keep in mind that the Administration remains focused on working with Congress to reach an agreement on a balanced deficit reduction plan that avoids such cuts,” he wrote.

Even the worst case scenario — the cliff — seemed tame in Panetta’s memo.

Panetta wrote that most civilian DoD employees would not face furloughs or other “personnel actions,” and if that eventually became a reality, the employees would receive advance notice of the changes. Any personnel actions would also be cancelled immediately should an agreement be reached that restores original department funding.

The memo noted that military personnel funding would be exempt from the cuts, thanks to Presidential action.

Yet as the DoD Buzz reported on Wednesday, going over the cliff would mean the Budget Control Act of 2011 would require a 10 percent cut from the Defense budget, amounting to roughly $500 billion over the next decade — which would translate to $50 billion yearly. Panetta isn’t too worried yet, however.

“Theses cuts, while significant and harmful to our collective mission as an agency, would not necessarily require immediate reductions in spending,” he wrote.

But in the next sentence, it sure sounds a lot like spending cuts.

“Under sequestration, we would still have funds available after January 2, 2013, but our overall funding for the remainder of the year would be reduced,” Panetta wrote.

Panetta’s memo was incredibly similar to a Treasury Department memo also telling employees not to be too concerned about the fiscal cliff.

But with the days for negotiating a solution getting fewer and fewer, the optimism of the DoD and Treasury Department might have been a little premature. It seems that the cliff can no longer be avoided. And with $500 billion in cuts to swallow, DoD employees might not be able to keep calm.