Roger Campos, Washington, D.C.
Everyone in Washington opposes "sequestration," which includes a blind $500 billion to the defense budget that would shrink our ground force to is smallest size since World War II, our Air Force to its smallest size ever, and slash funding for technologies like reconnaissance satellites and drones. If Congress had passed cuts like these five years ago, the Osama Bin Laden raid or the successful Libya air campaign might have been impossible. Moreover, studies predict it would lead to one million lost jobs, devastating the small businesses that are the backbone of our industrial base.
Yet leaders in Washington want to wait until after the election to stop sequestration. They don't seem to realize that the harm is already being done.
Pentagon planners have slowed or halted programs because the funding might disappear. And instead of developing smart military strategies to counter a nuclear Iran or an ascendant China, Pentagon leaders are busy developing scenarios to deal with doomsday budget cuts. Defense companies are laying off workers and small suppliers are closing down simply because of the threat of sequestration.
The closer to sequestration we get, the worse these effects will become. If Congress and President Obama haven't stopped sequestration before November, our national security will already be cooked to death like a frog in boiling water.
(Campos is president & CEO of Minority Business RoundTable)