Gates, Mullen slam Congress, call on lawmakers to act like ‘adults’ on budget

Two former top officials in the Pentagon slammed Washington
on Monday for its inability to grapple with the budget and debt problems facing
the country, calling on “adults” to come back to Washington after the election in order to compromise.

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Joint
Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen delivered a stinging indictment of Washington
politics — and in particular Congress — during an event on national security
and the debt Monday, hosted by the Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) and Bipartisan Policy Center.

{mosads}Gates and Mullen echoed warnings from their successors in
the Pentagon that the sequestration cuts to defense would be devastating and lead
to a hollow force, as they pleaded for more compromise in a political
atmosphere that has become hyper-partisan.

“The inability of so many political leaders today to step
outside their ideological cocoons or offend their most partisan supporters has
become the real threat to America’s future,” said Gates, who was speaking at the event
via satellite.

“Too many politicians are concerned about winning elections
and scoring ideological points than saving the country,” he said. “My hope is
following the presidential election, whatever adults remain in the two
political parties will make the compromises necessary to put the country back
in order.”

Both Republicans and Democrats are opposed to the
sequestration cuts, which would reduce the Pentagon budget as well as domestic
spending by $55 billion in 2013 and nearly $500 billion in the next decade. But
the two sides have been deadlocked since the congressional supercommittee failed last year to
find a solution to fix the problem, and there have not been any proposals that
received bipartisan support.

At the same time, both sides are using the cuts to attack
one another in the election — including Mitt Romney and President Obama.

The former Pentagon leaders did not exclude the
administration from their criticisms, but their ire was primarily directed at
Congress.

Gates said that Congress had failed to rise above its
“parochial interests” and blamed gerrymandering, wave elections and the loss of
deal-making committee chairmen as some of the biggest problems plaguing
Washington.

While American politics has always been “a shrill and ugly
business,” Gates said, “we have now lost the ability to execute even the basic
functions of government” due to polarizing trends.

Gates lamented that nothing seemed to get done without a gun
to lawmakers’ heads, which was the purpose behind the across-the-board
sequestration cuts in the first place.

Mullen said that individual lawmakers want to get things
done, but that collectively the “leadership piece of this” in Congress has
prevented things from being properly executed. He spoke of his inability for
years to get Congress to agree to small health fee increases despite spiraling
costs.

Mullen also sounded a particularly pessimistic tone on the
ability of Washington to avert the sequestration cuts.

“I’m not as hopeful as others that we won’t drive off this
cliff,” Mullen said. “I’m worried sick about it, quite frankly.”