Inhofe worries budget cuts will hurt U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, Iran

At a Senate Armed Services hearing today, Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe voiced a wide range of concerns about last week's sequestration budget cuts and how those cuts will affect the U.S. military.

Among other things, he quizzed the top U.S. military commanders in the Middle East about Iran and how they think Iran's behavior would change if it succeeds in developing a nuclear weapon.

Gen. James Mattis, the head of U.S. Central Command, told Inhofe he thinks Iran would be "emboldened" to behave more as a "revolutionary cause" instead of a "responsible country".

Inhofe said he agreed.

"Their emerging capabilities, their nuclear capabilities, delivery systems, it's getting worse all the time and I just think we need to keep talking about that," Inhofe said.

In his opening statement at the hearing, Inhofe voiced concerns about the sequestration budget cuts, saying they would hurt the military's flexibility to respond to threats.

He's been working on a bill that would give military commanders more leeway to make targeted cuts, instead of across-the-board cuts.