In separate, highly detailed memos sent to Congress, the military services described widespread civilian furloughs, layoffs and hiring freezes that will hit workers all around the country. Overall, the military will furlough 800,000 civilian workers for 22 days, spread across more than five months, and will lay off as many as 46,000 temporary and contract employees.
The Navy says it will cease deployments to South America and the Caribbean and limit those to Europe.
The Air Force warned that it would cut operations at various missile defense radar sites from 24 hours to eight hours. The Army said it would cancel training center rotations for four brigades and cancel repairs for thousands of vehicles, radios and weapons.
“These steps would seriously damage the fragile American economy, and they would degrade our ability to respond to crisis precisely at a time of rising instability across the globe,” Panetta said, adding that the self-made crisis “undermines the men and women in uniform who are willing to put their lives on the line in order to protect this country.”
So be it. Panetta plays the same game as the City of Detroit, etc., warning that by not increasing taxes they will face having to lay off cops and fire fighters and cancel essential services, blah blah blah.
The Senate hasn’t produced a budget in 4 years.
Unacceptable.
And how long would it take to re-active all of these assets if/when needed? I feel sorry for the next POTUS - this may be a lost decade. I hope we survive.