Pundits and spin doctors are racing to parse the potential impact of the so-called congressional "Super Committee's" abject failure to meet its task of coming up with a package of recommendations to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years.
The blame game is in full swing as each party tries to deflect blame on the other for this miserable example of how political partisanship stymies reasonable legislative action.
But there's no spinning away from the reality that the Super Committee’s absolute refusal to put America's needs ahead of partisan dogma will impose a double punch to the Defense budget.
And that's very bad news for members of the military community.
It means a sequester will kick in imposing $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts, starting in January 2013 – with half of that total coming from the defense budget.
Added to the $450 billion in cuts already imposed on the Pentagon, that's a trillion-dollar cut that will devastate weapons and people programs alike.
It will mean massive and stupid manpower cuts that Defense Secretary Panetta has acknowledged will hollow the force and undermine national security.
And while VA healthcare and other programs are protected from sequestration, military health care programs are not. Draw your own implications for what that likely means for military beneficiaries of all ages.
In effect, by declining other options, Super Committee members are saying they’d rather hit the military community that already has borne 100% of the Nation's wartime sacrifice with a new round of unfair and disproportional sacrifices through force cuts, more family separations, pay and benefit cuts and more.
It's an appalling and disgusting abdication of their collective responsibilities for rational governance.
