Kelly Ayotte actually said...

"The Marine Corps has forgone some investments to maintain near-term readiness."

"The Marine Corps cannot absorb estimated reset and retrograde liabilities within our baseline budget levels."

"We need Congress to intervene and provide us the flexibility to determine where those reductions are made rather than the mandatory across the board cuts that the law requires."

"As we continue to face the possibility of further budget reductions under sequestration, we may be forced into adopting some variation of a less ready, temporarily tiered status within the next few ye..."