During the third and final presidential debate last October , President Obama made a promise to the American people . Sequestration , a package of forced budget cuts , `` is not something I proposed , '' he said . `` It will not happen . '' What a difference 100 days make . The military , fatigued after a decade of war , has already endured three rounds of budget cuts during the president 's first term alone . It now finds itself little more than a week away from another $ 500 billion in budget cuts under sequestration , an outcome that would have a profound and lasting impact on the readiness and capabilities of our military for years to come . Rather than exhibit the leadership required from our commander in chief , the president has been missing in action . With just weeks to spare , the president has belatedly come forward with a proposal based on higher tax revenues and cuts in defense and discretionary domestic spending . Last week 's offer from Senate Democrats holds fast to the president 's preferred model and proposes a significant tax increase while asking our military to cut tens of billions more . Despite claims to the contrary , this approach is neither responsible nor balanced and should be deeply troubling to the voters who took Obama at his word during the campaign . Let 's be clear : Defense spending is not what 's driving our indefensible national debt . We spend less than 18 % of our budget on the military , while mandatory domestic spending accounts for 60 % . Despite this fact , the president has refused to consider reforms to mandatory spending -- the real driver of our debt crisis -- while using our troops as a piggy bank to keep unsustainable spending programs on life support . Borger : President ca n't kick his legacy down the road . There is a growing concern that the president will not seriously negotiate with Congress on a compromise to sequestration until after it takes place on March 1 and each member of Congress hears of the pain affecting his or her constituents . But the real pain will be felt by the men and women serving our country , who will see arbitrary cuts to the resources they so desperately need . They will be asked immediately to do more with less and accept greater risk in a world that is becoming more dangerous by the day . This is an unconscionable position and a dereliction of duty . Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently stated , `` If sequester happens , it is going to badly damage the readiness of the United States of America . We have the most powerful military force on the face of the earth right now . It is important in terms of providing stability and peace in the world . If sequester goes into effect , and we have to do the kind of cuts that will go right at readiness , right at maintenance , right at training , we are going to weaken the United States . And make it much more difficult for us to respond to the crises in the world . '' Gen. Martin Dempsey went further in recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee and stated that sequestration would put our military on a path where the `` force is so degraded and so unready '' that it would be `` immoral to use the force . '' Two weeks ago , the Defense Department announced its decision to indefinitely delay the deployment of the Truman carrier strike group to the Middle East , denying our combatant commander in the most volatile region of the world the capabilities he urgently requires . The Air Force estimates that if the cuts go into effect , two-thirds of its aircrews will not receive the training hours needed to stay mission-capable . The Army says that an astounding 80 % of its combat brigades will be forced to skip necessary training . And nearly a quarter of a million troops could be forced out of the service as the result of layoffs . Such precarious times should spur meaningful action from the president . Yet every indication we 've seen , including his lecturing at the State of the Union address , suggests that his White House is more interested in disavowing responsibility and blaming others . While the president sits idly by , we have worked tirelessly to spare our military from these devastating cuts . The House voted twice for a proposal sponsored by Rep. Paul Ryan that would replace sequestration with reforms to mandatory spending programs and voted four other times in support of finding a solution to sequestration or forcing the White House to be transparent in how it would implement the cuts . Members of the Senate -- including most recently Sens . Kelly Ayotte , John McCain and Lindsey Graham -- have repeatedly put forth reasonable and common-sense proposals to the same end . We have pleaded with the president to , at the very least , accept our proposals as a starting point for a meaningful compromise agreement . We have held multiple hearings and passed the Sequestration Transparency Act so that Congress , the president , and every American would fully understand the truly shocking consequences of sequestration . Though the hour is late , we remain hopeful that this president will set aside political posturing and finally get serious about working with Congress to find a lasting solution to sequestration . The men and women in uniform deserve nothing less .
Republican legislators : President Obama said forced budget cuts would n't happen . They say we are now little more than a week away from such cuts . The military , which already has been cut , will be dealt a harsh blow , they say . Comment: