October 04, 2011

Command Post: "What's This 'Super Committee' and Why Is the Pentagon So Scared Of It?"

By Nora Bensahel

There have been lots of rumbles rolling from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the White House about this so-called "Super Committee" of 12 lawmakers – officially the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction – designed to bring some fiscal order to the federal budget. It petrifies the Pentagon, and with good reason. John Nagl, of the Center for a New American Security, and I discuss the topic with Todd Harrison, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and Nora Bensahel, a defense analyst at CNAS, to try to figure out what's really at stake.