Two senior Republican US senators pressed the Pentagon on Friday to release a detailed assessment of the impact more budget cuts would have on national security, saying Congress needs to hear specifics. Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham, two influential Republican voices on military matters, wrote a letter to Defence Secretary Leon Panetta urging him to "describe the specific options and types of actions" the Pentagon would have to take if forced to cut projected spending by an additional $600 billion over the next decade.
In doing so, they appeared to be trying to marshal evidence to argue against further cuts. Panetta has said the cuts, which would come on top of $450 billion in spending reductions already approved by Congress and President Barack Obama, would be "devastating." But he has offered no details. Obama and Congress approved the $450 billion in cuts in August in a deal aimed at reducing the $1.4 trillion deficit and $14 trillion US debt. They created a congressional "super committee" to find at least $1.2 trillion more in savings.
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