McMahon: RAFB Could See Drastic Cuts If We Fall Off “Fiscal Cliff”

DUBLIN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The U.S. Department of Defense is still facing major cuts, and as lawmakers scramble to come to an agreement, Robins Air Force Base is at the epicenter of fiscal fears for middle Georgia.

Former commander of the base, retired Major General Robert McMahon, says regardless of what type of deal is struck, changes are inevitable at Robins.

Today, McMahon spoke to a crowd of business leaders in Dublin putting budget cuts into perspective for our area. He says we’re already facing nearly $500 billion in cuts across the military over a ten year period. If we go over the fiscal cliff and an additional $500 billion is slashed, the impact on Robins could be as drastic as thousands of jobs lost over the next few years.

As for the fiscal cliff, McMahon believes we’ll avoid it, but the military will be impacted by any deal leaders make.

“We could solve this in the next couple of weeks, which I’ve met know one who believes we are going to truly solve this near term… Congress could do nothing, which I don’t think will happen, but they’ll be some sort of intermediate decision made that will impact somewhere to the right 6, 12 months, and that will still drive some changes at Robins, some reductions at Robins, perhaps some layoffs so i think it will impact, just the size of it we don’t know,” says McMahon.”

Right now it’s just a waiting game. McMahon says if we go over the cliff, he’s worried our nation won’t have the military it needs to properly protect us.