now, with that said, what can, you know, what can you do to avoid the messiness of that and the unstrategic nature of these across the board cuts? you need the cooperation of congress to do anything, or they can submit a budget amendment that comes in at the 52 billion reduced number. f for '13 it will take the money under the cap. you write the appropriation bill so it comes in at the lower number and you say at the bottom, increase every account in here by 11%, then you cut it by 10% and you end up where you want to be. i know it's a game but this is how you have to do it. the idea is you get to target the cuts. it's a 10% reduction. okay. what are some other alternatives if you want to avoid that, well as the president said, he will not take the pressure off the congress to handle the deficit, so what can you to make it easier for dod, reallocate thenf coming down suddenly and staying flat at the lower level the rest of the decade, you can make it a gradual decline, that achieves the same amount of savings over the decade. i ran calculations, you would have to decline the defense budget

now, with that said, what can you do to avoid the messiness of that and the untargeted and unstrategic nature of these across-the-board cuts. well, you're going need the cooperation of congress to do anything. first of all, the pentagon could submit a budget amendment, if you will, that comes in at the $52 billion reduced number. now, technically, the way the law is written for fy-13, the sequester is a little bit different. it's going to take the 52 billi billion, no matter how much you approa appropriate below the cap. so you write your bill so that it comes in at the lower number. at the very number, you say increase every account in here by about 11%. and then you end up where you want it to be. what's the advantage of doing that? i know it's a game, but it's how you have to do these things. you got to target the cuts. that's better than untargeted. but it's still going to be tough to do. it's about a 10% reduction. what are some other alternatives? well, as the president said, he's not going to take up the pressure -- take off the pressure of the congress to handle the deficit. so