WASHINGTON (AP) — There is plenty of blame to go around for the pending automatic budget cuts that have put the U.S. military on the brink of a readiness crisis, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon said that neither Congress nor the Obama administration has "clean hands." The debt crisis forcing the cuts was decades in the making, yet both sides opted for the easy path "when we should have explored the bravery of restraint," he said at a committee hearing.

While McKeon struck a balanced tone, other Republicans on the panel weren't as diplomatic. They complained the White House and the Pentagon waited too long to plan for the impact of the cuts and didn't warn Congress and the American public of the consequences until now.