US Defense Cuts Coming

Their plan may have backfired. A plan heavily favored by Republican leaders to cut 8 percent of the Pentagon’s budget effective Jan. 2 now has them scrambling to undo their own handiwork. The effects on the military as a result of the 10-year, $600 billion round of cuts remain unclear, but Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other legislators have said that the belt-tightening measures, which would rein the defense budget back down to its 2007 level, would force the armed services to make choices that would affect local communities. “The soft underbelly that I’m trying to exploit is, what does this mean to your state?” Graham told reporters.