Panetta Condemns Automatic Cuts to Defense Budget

The U.S. Congressional Budget Super Committee announced Monday it had failed to agree on budget cuts to reduce the national debt, triggering automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion in defense and non-defense programs.

The automatic cuts, beginning in 2013, are due to a Budget Control Act stipulation. However, they exclude veterans' benefits and health care.

Panetta: Troops deserve more

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called the Super Committee's failure a detriment to national security and said the automatic cuts would be "devastating" and "tear a seam in the in the nation's defense."

"The half trillion in additional cuts . . . would lead to a hollow force incapable of sustaining the missions it is assigned," Panetta said in a press release, and "would also jeopardize our ability to provide our troops and their families with the benefits and the support they have been promised."

"Our troops deserve better, and our nation demands better," Panetta said.

For more information, see the press release.

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