House Armed Services Committee chief Rep. Buck McKeon (R – CA) is demanding specific details from the chiefs of the various US military branches in upcoming testimony, warning that he was no longer willing to accept “generalities and percentages.”
“I expect to hear – in very clear terms – what elements of that security you will no longer be in a position to provide,” McKeon said, noting that two solid years of testimony on sequestration hadn’t answered any of those questions.
All the testimony about budget cuts has centered on predicting imminent, but extremely non-specific calamity for the various military branches, and have been reluctant to offer anything in the way of details about what they are planning.
Rep. Adam Smith (D – WA) criticized McKeon for his comments, saying Congress was partly to blame for the military’s inability to plan for sequestration by allowing sequestration to actually happen.
Buck McKeon taking the Pentagon to task? Hmmm, me thinks he doth protest too much. I wonder what his real game is since he's so deeply invested in giving the Pentagon whatever they want whenever they ask, generally speaking. I agree that the Pentagon has been allowed to be ambiguous in their complaints and should be tasked with providing facts.
Time to watch the hand behind his back.