The Pentagon's top officer said Thursday that servicemembers will likely see cuts in pay and benefits as the military plumbs its budget for nearly half a trillion dollars in savings over the next 12 years.Reporter Christian Lowe, writing for Military.Com gives us the bad news.
"Two of the big places the money is, is in pay and benefits," Mullen told defense reporters at a June 2 breakfast meeting in Washington. "And so when I say all things are on the table, all things are on the table."I am thinking that one of the places they will be looking is in retired medical care, which would impact my wife and me and several of my friends and their spouses.
The blunt truth is that we are overspending and to get this overspending under control cuts are going to have to come from many places, nee, from all places.
With the economy looking like it is going into a second dip recession (DOW Jones down 54.16 as I type, only 46.32 as I edit my typing), the Department of Defense can cut pay and benefits without having a major impact on recruiting. As for retirees, they are locked in. It is the question of long term retention of Service members that will be impacted by reductions in retirement benefits and with Medicare looking shakey ten or so years out, even reduced military medical benefits may look attractive. The inability of anyone except for Paul Ryan (R-WI) to come up with a proposed solution to the Medicare problem only adds to the attractiveness of staying in the Service until retirement.
As an aside, there are seven uniform services, not just the four in the Department of Defense. The other three are small, but they are still important to the nation. They are the US Coast Guard, the Public Health Service and NOAA, all of which have uniformed and civilian personnel. They are easy to miss in public, since they dress like Navy people, well except for the Coast Guard, which dresses like former Air Force Chief of Staff Tony McPeak would have liked the Air Force to dress.
Regards — Cliff
Well...as the old saying goes..."Nothing is too good for the troops....."...especially if you are retired! All those promises made for decades and decades??? Oh, well, those were only if we could afford them, but since we are blowing the money on other things, sorry, the deal's off.
ReplyDeleteMEMO to young people: "Never, EVER trust the government to do anything but lie through their teeth."