Presidential Debates – On Sequestration

Sequestration is set to take place a little more than two months from now.  Both President Obama and Mitt Romney have gone on the record with their intent to prevent sequestration from occurring.  Here’s what each of the candidates said regarding the topic on the third and last presidential debate held on October 22, 2012.

President Obama: “First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen.  The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending.  It is maintaining it.”

Governor Romney:  “Former chief of the -- Joint Chiefs of Staff said that -- Admiral Mullen said that our debt is the biggest national security threat we face. This -- we have weakened our economy. We need a strong economy. We need to have as well a strong military. Our military is second to none in the world. We're blessed with terrific soldiers, and extraordinary technology and intelligence. But the idea of a trillion dollar in cuts through sequestration and budget cuts to the military would change that. We need to have strong allies.”

“Our Navy is old -- excuse me, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now at under 285. We're headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That's unacceptable to me.”

It remains to be seen how the result of the election, if any, will factor into the impending January 2, 2013 sequestration.