The House Armed Services chairman said Friday that sequestration is inevitable at this point.
“I think it is going to happen. Both sides have fixed themselves into positions and are locked," said Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
McKeon met with reporters at the Defense Writers Group breakfast meeting a day after his committee held a hearing with all four service chiefs on sequestration as well Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. During the hearing, Pentagon brass explained the devastating effects that sequestration will have on the military.
The committee chairman predicted that sequestration will stay in place only a few weeks or months before Congress comes to an agreement and passes a bill to stop the sequestration cuts.
"I think maybe when there is enough pain, there might be an agreement," McKeon said.
The sequestration cuts will amount to about $500 billion over ten years for the Defense Department. The deadline to avert the cuts is March 1. McKeon said both sides of the aisle are too dug in on their views that he doesn't foresee an agreement coming.
"Both sides have fixed themselves into positions and are locked," McKeon said.
