Even as the military announced that furloughs for over 650,000 civilian defense workers would end in coming days, top officials made clear that automatic budget cuts could still result in a return of furloughs in 2014.
"As we look ahead to fiscal year 2014," Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said in a memo, "the Department of Defense still faces major fiscal challenges."
"I cannot be sure what will happen next year, but I want to assure our civilian employees that we will do everything possible to avoid more furloughs," Hagel added.
Hagel then went on to say that if the sequester is not rolled back by the Congress, that would mean an additional $52 billion in cuts for the Pentagon, on top of $37 billion the military already went through in 2013.
But I'm not so sure about that $52 billion number.
For example, Pentagon budget documents released in June say the military was given almost $528 billion by Congress for Fiscal Year 2013 - that was then reduced by $37 billion under the sequester.
I know I shouldn't do something so simple, but if you subtract $37 billion from $528 billion, you get $491 billion, and that is the figure for the 2013 budget year cited as the post-sequester base budget for the Defense Department.
Under the sequester, the budget for the military is supposed to hit $475 billion in Fiscal Year 2014.
Again, I shouldn't do something so simple, but if you subtract $475 billion from $491 billion, you get additional cuts of $16 billion in 2014, not $52 billion.
But if you look at the fact that the Pentagon asked for $527 billion in its 2014 budget submission - and the sequester number is $475 billion - what is the difference between those two numbers?
$52 billion.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Here is how Secretary Hagel put it on Tuesday:
"If Congress does not change the Budget Control Act, DoD will be forced to cut an additional $52 billion in FY 2014, starting on October 1. This represents 40 percent more than this year's sequester-mandated cuts of $37 billion."
Again, I'm not sure about those numbers. I'm happy to be wrong, but I think this is budget double-speak from the Pentagon, as officials give an artificially high number on budget cuts.
And it's not the first time during this sequester debate.
Back when the Budget Control Act was approved in 2011, critics blasted the $487 billion in "cuts" in that plan for military spending over ten years.
But more than anything, the $487 billion "cut" was a reduction in the planned level of increase in the military budget.
I will grant you that the spending was originally in the ten year budget plans of the Pentagon - but it is hard to qualify that as an actual "cut" from current spending levels.
To most of us, if you had to cut $52 billion every year under the Budget Control Act, wouldn't you get to zero sooner or later?
That's not the case with the budget numbers for the Pentagon, which basically remain in the $470 billion area - even with extra sequester "cuts."
So, let's tie this blog up - could there be more furloughs in 2014 for civilian defense workers? Yes.
But could the Pentagon find other ways to offset the $16 billion in additional cuts - not $52 billion - that answer also seems to be 'Yes.'
If we could just agree on the numbers.
