As Congress bickered toward a debt limit deal, the price for compromise included $350 billion worth of defense spending cuts over 10 years, an amount Pentagon officials said they could live with, without putting national security at risk. That figure could yet grow as a congressional panel looks to find additional cost savings.
Several of President Barack Obama’s handpicked crop of new top military officers have in recent weeks sought budget-cutting immunity for special operations forces and counterterrorism operations across the Middle East. But the budget deal Obama signed on Wednesday leaves most of the Special Operations Command budget exposed to the proposed cuts.
The bill is supposed to protect war funds contained in the special “overseas contingency operations” account, but only 34 percent of SOCOM funds requested for 2012 fall under that account.
Vice Adm. William McRaven, Joint Special Operations Commander and Obama’s choice as next SOCOM commander, told the Senate in June that any budget cuts “would severely impact my ability to meet the demand for [special operations forces] and significantly increase the risk to our nation’s security.”
“Since 9/11, SOF manpower has roughly doubled, the budget has roughly tripled and the overseas deployments have quadrupled. Demand is outpacing supply,” he said. “The pace of the last 10 years is indicative of what we expect for the next 10 years.”
