Rep. Roe says cuts to hit the military hardest
ROGERSVILLE — U.S. Rep. Phil Roe warned Saturday the military would bear the brunt of automatic spending cuts called for in a budget control measure passed by Congress last year.
The so-called “Budget Control Act of 2011” included “sequestration,” or $1.2 trillion in automatic deficit reduction through 2021 unless Congress adopts a different plan from a Joint Select Committee of lawmakers.
The cuts would be triggered in the 2013 fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Roe, during his annual talk to a Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast, predicted the cuts would be real and hit the military harder.
“We will have the smallest Army we’ve had since 1940,” Roe, R-Tenn., said of the cuts to about 140 people at the event held at the Hawkins County Education Training Center. “We will have the smallest Navy we’ve had since 1917. And we will have the smallest Air Force since it became the Air Force. ... We will have some real issues with protection of this nation.”
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We can defend ourselves just fine and have the world's finest standing professional military. We just spent 10 years and trillions of dollars fighting two wars that we could not really win and that is not a slight on our troops. The politicians that decided to fight those two wars are to blame. We should maintain a smaller military force in peacetime and I have no doubt that Americans will volunteer in large numbers the next time we need a large force.
It would be nice for Phil and those other people who can't seem to represent anything other than their own self interest to cut their pay, to cut the President's pay, to cut his wife's staff money, to cut out the per diem for Washington DC, to cut out the travel allowances, etc that are afforded to them, free limo services and such. It would be really nice if we as a people could simply dissolve the current House, Senate and White House due to lack of faith. In ohter countries, the governments resign due to lack of faith our's unfortuneately, only is considerate of "what can I make, how long can I milk this cow?" etc.