Gingrich: 'Automatic [Defense] Sequestration Is Absolutely Irrational and Puts America at Risk'

Bluffton, S.C.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich called plans to sequester $600 billion from the defense budget “totally destructive” and “very dangerous to the survival of the country.” The cuts, scheduled to begin in 2013, will automatically occur because of the supercommittee’s inability to cut $1.2 trillion over the next ten years from the federal budget.

Speaking to reporters this afternoon outside a new campaign office, Gingrich said that President Obama should intervene.

“I think, as commander in chief, for this president to say he would veto an effort to fix it is unconscionable,” Gingrich said. “The defense of the United States should be a function of what we need to be safe as a country, and to suggest an automatic sequestration is absolutely irrational and puts America at risk.”