Cutting Costs Cutting CostsCutting Costs
Inside the effort to improve the efficiency of federal operations.

Obama in Debate: Sequestration 'will not happen'

SHARE
ARCHIVES
During Monday night's debate, President Obama stated that sequestration "will not happen." Obama made the statement in response to attacks from Mitt Romney criticizing Obama for allowing the proposed $1 trillion in cuts to potentially reduce the size of the military to a historic low. 

Read the exchange below:

Romney: Our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now at under 285. We're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me . . . I will not cut our military budget by a trillion dollars, which is a combination of the budget cuts the president has, as well as the sequestration cuts. That, in my view, is making -- is making our future less certain and less secure.

Obama: Bob, I just need to comment on this. First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.

Mark Micheli writes Excellence in Government’s Promising Practices blog and serves as the program manager of the Government Business Council. Prior to his current roles, he worked as a management consultant on national security and emergency management issues with the US Treasury Department. He’s worked as a political research analyst, a reporter for the Des Moines Register at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and is a graduate of the Coro Fellows Program in Public Affairs. He studied at Drake University where he has degrees in Magazine Journalism, Political Science and History.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION
Close [ x ] More from GovExec