[Infowarrior] - Gates, Mullen slam Congress, call on lawmakers to act like 'adults'

[Richard Forno]

(c/o JH)

Gates, Mullen slam Congress, call on lawmakers to act like 'adults'
By Jeremy Herb - 09/17/12 04:48 PM ET

http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/budget-appropriations/249917-gates-mullen-lash-out-at-congress-over-budget-impasse

Two former top officials in the Pentagon slammed Washington on Monday
for its inability to grapple with the budget and debt problems facing
the country, calling on “adults” to come back to Washington after the
election in order to compromise.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Joint Chiefs Chairman
Adm. Mike Mullen delivered a stinging indictment of Washington
politics — and in particular Congress — during an event on national
security and the debt Monday, hosted by the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS).

Gates and Mullen echoed warnings from their successors in the Pentagon
that the sequestration cuts to defense would be devastating and lead
to a hollow force, as they pleaded for more compromise in a political
atmosphere that has become hyper-partisan.

“The inability of so many political leaders today to step outside
their ideological cocoons or offend their most partisan supporters has
become the real threat to America’s future,” said Gates, who was
speaking at the event via satellite.

“Too many politicians are concerned about winning elections and
scoring ideological points than saving the country,” he said. “My hope
is following the presidential election, whatever adults remain in the
two political parties will make the compromises necessary to put the
country back in order.”

Both Republicans and Democrats are opposed to the sequestration cuts,
which would reduce the Pentagon budget as well as domestic spending by
$55 billion in 2013 and nearly $500 billion in the next decade. But
the two sides have been deadlocked since the supercommittee failed
last year to find a solution to fix the problem, and there have not
been any proposals that received bipartisan support.

At the same time, both sides are using the cuts to attack one another
in the election, including Mitt Romney and President Obama.

The former Pentagon leaders did not exclude the administration from
their criticisms, but their ire was primarily directed at Congress.

Gates said that Congress had failed to rise above its “parochial
interests” and blamed gerrymandering, wave elections and the loss of
deal-making committee chairmen as some of the biggest problems
plaguing Washington.

While American politics has always been “a shrill and ugly business,”
Gates said. “we have now lost the ability to execute even the basic
functions of government” due to polarizing trends.

Gates lamented that nothing seemed to get done without a gun to
lawmakers’ heads, which was the purpose behind the across-the-board
sequestration cuts in the first place.

Mullen said that individual lawmakers want to get things done, but
that collectively the “leadership piece of this” in Congress has
prevented things from being properly executed. He spoke of his
inability for years to get Congress to agree to small health fee
increases despite spiraling costs.

Mullen also sounded a particularly pessimistic tone on the ability of
Washington to avert the sequestration cuts.

“I’m not as hopeful as others that we won’t drive off this cliff,”
Mullen said. “I’m worried sick about it, quite frankly.”


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