Pentagon braces for ‘devastating’ sequester budget cuts

>>> we are on top of several live events related to the sequester deadline. right now at capitol hill , art tea talking about the impact of the budget cuts on the pentagon. in the senate they are expected to finally clear the way for confirmation vote to chuck hagel who will inherit this budget mess. janet napolitano , you see her on the right there, also speaking live at the brookings institution . and then just moments ago, we heard from a fired-up john boehner who blames the stalemate on the president and the senate.

>> we have moved a bill in the house twice. we should not have a move a third bill before the senate gets off their ass and begins to do something.

>> i'm joined by military analyst jack jacobs . good to see you.

>> good morning.

>> if lawmakers can't make this march 1st deadline, $43 billion or 8% will be slushed from the pentagon budget. they have used words like devastating, dire. are they right? how significant would this be?

>> very serious indeed. these are across the board cuts. i mean, there's no intelligence or intelligent decisions made on what is going to be cut. so in addition to fact -- and there's plenty of fact -- you are going to cut ammunition, fuel, repair parts for aircraft, training time.

>> let's look at other things. 800 million sif general furloughs, reduced western pacific navy operations by up to one-third. what concerns you the most?

>> between army readiness, which is in dire straits as a result of these cuts, and moving a carrier battle group , another carrier battle group to the middle east . we are withdrawing under pressure of afghanistan and the worst situation would be not to be covered by aircraft.

>> afghanistan might be part of the problem. a watchdog group says their accounting is so opaque, we don't know how this millions of dollars is being spent. a retired commander in afghanistan says that it's egregiously inefficient and leaking money.

>> well, he's right about that. 25,000 or more people work there every day. there are repetitive bureaus and bureaucracies that do the same thing from office to office. a lot of time is spent trying to woo congress, fighting each other to get money and all the rest of it. there's plenty of fact there and somebody with some brains ought to go over there and cut the fat there for sure.

>> colonel jack jacobs , thank you.

>> good to be with you.