The debt deal President Obama signed into law yesterday may bring about the end of years of huge Pentagon budgets. The Pentagon will need to slash $350 billion from the defense budget over the next decade, and that number could potentially increase to $600 billion. If the joint bipartisan committee created under the debt plan fails to reach an agreement on future spending cuts, a “trigger” mechanism will force across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade. While supporters say this is these cuts are overdue, critics and defense hawks argue they will undermine national security. Col. Paul Hughes, a retired U.S. Army colonel and director of special initiatives at the U.S. Institute for Peace, talks about trimming the fat at the Pentagon.
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