Defense Budget Cuts of $45 Billion Seen by Pentagon

The Pentagon faces a reduction of as much as $45 billion this fiscal year if automatic spending cuts take effect March 1, its comptroller said.

That level would be 27 percent less than the $62 billion in reductions the Pentagon would have confronted if the automatic cuts known as sequestration had begun last week as scheduled, Robert Hale told an audience at the Brookings Institution in Washington today.