Gen. Livingston on Sequestration: ‘It’s personal’

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — President Obama says communities near military bases will take a serious blow, due to the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration. That, of course, could mean the Midlands. Adjutant General of the South Carolina National Guard, Maj. Gen. Robert Livingston, is not happy about it. “This is personal,” says Livingston. Fighting back tears of frustration, an even more determined, Major General Robert Livingston, South Carolina National Guard, prepares his employees for yet another battle: sequestration. “This is personal because you’re hurting people that care so much about our nation, hurting those that have given so much already and now you wanna hurt ’em so more.” That hurt translates into more than 1,000 military technicians ordered to take a 22-day furlough, losing income, Livingston says, directly affecting their livelihoods. The general claims sequestration–which is the federal government’s way of forcing $85 billion dollars in spending cuts–will also degrade facilities and jeopardize equipment quality. However, in spite of looming automatic spending that will be seen and felt from the grocery stores to airports, the SC National Guard has a four-point plan of defense already in place. “Number one is we have to have mission support. If there’s a hurricane that hits South Carolina, we will do whatever necessary to respond. Number two is we will make sure we take care of our families by making sure they have employment. The next thing is to make sure we take care of safety. We won’t have put anything out there that will harm anyone. We won’t put have aircraft falling out of the sky or anything like that. The last thing is prioritize and make sure we’ve got readiness, that we are ready as possible to do missions necessary.” General Livingston says those mandatory furloughs for the South Carolina National Guard take effect beginning April 28th.