Cornyn: Defense Cuts Would Be 'Arbitrary And Reckless'

By Adrianna McGinley

At the Hudson Institute Wednesday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) warned that sequestration following a possible supercommittee failure would have a disastrous impact on national security.

“I worry that our strategic thinking is being driven by dollars and cents more than common sense,” Cornyn said. “If this process fails, and I hope and pray it does not, then … the base defense budget would be cut 14 percent in real terms over just three years.”

Cornyn cited that the sequestration cuts would be in addition to $489 billion in defense cuts under the Budget Control Act and roughly $180 billion of efficiency cuts recommended by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“This should really be a time for rebuilding and retraining and not retreating,” Cornyn advised. “But retreat is the only way to describe what would happen if our military forces are required to live under this sequestration process.”

Cornyn said military leadership is trained not to panic, but “you can hear their frustration and you can hear grave concern in their voices that America’s strategic commitments are being defined not by the requirements but by budgets. They’re frustrated that under the sequestration process the cuts would be arbitrary and reckless.”

The Senator said however that concerns over how the Pentagon spends money should not be disregarded. Rather waste, fraud, and abuse should be aggressively fought. He specifically alluded to financial mismanagement at the Department of Defense citing that it has not been able to produce an “auditable financial statement,” and although the department is not required to do so until 2017, he said it was “shocking” that it could not do so now.

Cornyn joked that the twelve members of the “Super Committee” have more power than any group of Americans since those who wrote the constitution and said they must make use of that power.

“Failure really should not be an option,” Cornyn said. “What would it say to not only the American people…what would it say to the markets, what would it say to the world about America’s seriousness of dealing with these problems?”