Following up on yesterday's Senate appearance, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta detailed his department's proposed 2013 budget. Joining the Secretary before the House Armed Services Committee was Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.
The 2013 spending plan calls for $525.4 billion in discretionary funding for the base Department of Defense budget, a decrease of 1 percent, or $5.1 billion, below the 2012 enacted level. These savings are as a result of canceled or delayed department projects.
Both witnesses continue to cautioned Committee lawmakers against making deeper spending cuts than those already proposed.
On Tuesday, Secretary Panetta told Congress that the new budget comes with some risks. He said, “You can’t take half a trillion dollars out of the budget without risk” and called a potential sequestration a “meat-axe approach” that would severely affect the national defense.