Budget Cuts Damaged US Air Force Readiness Training - GAO's Report

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The 2013 spending cuts, or sequestration, imposed on the US government forced the US Air Force to scrap or reduce most of its planned training exercise that year, a new Government Accountability Office report, released on Wednesday, said.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The military services' accounts absorbed about 76 percent of the Defense Department’s reduction relative to other defense accounts, the GAO stated.

“[T]he Air Force cancelled or reduced participation in most of its planned large-scale Fiscal Year 2013 training events, and expects delayed achievement of longer-term readiness goals.”

In March 2013, US President Barack Obama ordered across-the-board spending reductions for all US federal agencies and departments because of spending limits imposed by the Republican-controlled Congress.

“As a result, the Department of Defense's discretionary resources were reduced by about $37.2 billion over the remainder of FY 2013.”

The Government Accountability Office is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress and investigates how the US federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

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U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets wait to take off from a runway during a military exercise at the Osan U.S. Air Base in Osan, South Korea - Sputnik International
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