Four Crisis On The Horizon Related To The Military

Military Officers of America (MOAA): The New Year’s Eve “fiscal cliff” scare might have passed, but any relief will be brief.

Over the next three months, the military community and the nation face four new and likely even more threatening fiscal confrontation deadlines:

• 1. Sometime in February: the president will send Congress his FY 2014 budget submission — we don’t know what to expect, but it could include proposals for significant new troop, pay, and benefit cutbacks.
• 2. Late February: the country is expected to hit the statutory ceiling on the size of the national debt. Many in Congress adamantly oppose an increase, but absent a deal to raise it, America would default on its debts; the last time Congress had a debt ceiling fight, America’s credit rating was downgraded, which tightened credit limits for individuals and companies. Any deal almost certainly will require more spending (including defense) cuts.
• 3. March 1: Sequestration (a $1 trillion, 10-year, across-the-board budget-cut) will go into effect unless Congress adopts an alternative for spending cuts/revenue increases. DoD would be required to absorb $41 billion in cuts before the end of October (a devastating cut in so short a time) and $450 billion more over the next 9 years.
• 4. March 27: The continuing resolution under which the federal government now is operating expires. Without an extension, the government will shut down. Here again, many legislators are talking about accepting a shutdown unless major spending cuts occur.

Any one of these problems would be a challenge for our rancorous Congress to address, but combine all four events converging in such a small amount of time, and it greatly increases the likelihood Congress and the administration will fail to reach agreements to successfully navigate all of these major pitfalls.

The consequences could be dire. Default on our debt, a government shutdown, or massive and immediate defense spending cuts could have a prolonged and negative effect — not just for currently serving and retired servicemembers and federal civilians — but also for America as a whole.

We have a seriously stormy few months coming before we learn whether increasingly fierce partisan acrimony can be overcome in the national interest or whether the divide is so severe our elected officials actually find “shooting the hostage” preferable to negotiating compromise solutions.
------------
MOAA is the nation's largest and most influential association of military officers. It is an independent, nonprofit, politically nonpartisan organization.

---

Tags: military, crisis on horizon, funding, sequestration, pay, benefits, MOAA, To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!