With no sign of compromise on Capitol Hill for a deal on the budget deficit and debt, National Journal‘s National Security Insiders are hedging on whether the across-the-board defense cuts that Pentagon officials have warned would be devastating to the military’s capabilities will actually happen.
Amid talk that members might punt a budget deal into next year, 49 percent of Insiders said the so-called sequester mandating $600 billion in cuts over the next decade is “somewhat likely” to take effect.
Others were less sure of Congress’s capabilities–and doubted its commitment to finding a solution. “The current Congress has consistently shown an inability to perform even the most basic tasks of governing. Both sides seem content to score points and [settle] scores rather than solving problems,” one Insider said. “Sequester would be devastating, but I have no confidence in the Congress and the administration’s capacity to fix it.”