Troops Not Safe From Sequestration
November 16, 2012
If Washington’s defense community has achieved one thing over the past year, it’s spreading the message of how the fiscal cliff could desecrate the military. Sequestration cuts of $55 billion would jeopardize weapons contracts, furlough civilian staff, and imperil national security, defense hawks say.
One glaring casualty has gotten far less notice: the military’s $37 billion health account. In designing the trigger mechanism, members of Congress were careful to make sure that the men and women in uniform wouldn’t suffer because of the cuts—but not careful enough. Now, without a compromise on Capitol Hill during the lame-duck session, the deal the committee crafted would cause a rollback in health benefits for active-duty troops, veterans, and their families.