"What we have under sequestration or a long-term continuing resolution is a strait jacket," Carter stated in a speech on Wednesday to the Air Force Association meeting at National Harbor, Maryland. "We would be forced to make irresponsible reductions when our choices should be considered carefully and strategically."
Carter hit out at the sequestration process designed in large part by Republican congressional budget guru, Congressman Paul Ryan, and enacted into law in 2011.
"Making these kinds of indiscriminate cuts is wasteful to taxpayers and to industry… dangerous for our strategy, unfair to our service members, and frankly, it’s embarrassing around the world," Carter stated.
The sequestration process, Carter explained, simultaneously crippled the US armed forces in their resources and planning, and made the United States look petty in the global arena.
"Much about the future is unclear, but not this: the self-inflicted damage from sequester, a long-term continuing resolution, and continued budget uncertainty would send the wrong message at the wrong time to the world," Carter warned.
"[Y]et again we face the real risk that political gridlock will hold us back," Carter said. "With only 14 days remaining in this fiscal year, Congress has yet to pass appropriations bills that will appropriately fund the government for the coming year."
The alternative to a budget deal, a long-term continuing resolution, would be just another version of sequester-level funding, and that would eventually result in a $38 billion deficit for the US military, Carter concluded.
