Posted on 06/12/2011 4:30:21 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
WASHINGTON—The coming round of Pentagon budget cuts will force lawmakers to consider reducing military pay and benefits, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, raising an issue that could prove politically sensitive in a time of war
In what was billed as Mr. Gates's last major policy speech, the outgoing Pentagon chief said the government would have to "re-examine military compensation," consider altering the retirement system to bring down costs, and address spiraling health-care costs.
Trimming Pentagon spending, Mr. Gates said, "will entail going places that have been avoided by politicians in the past."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Thirty years ago I agreed with the above statement. I was in the U.S.Navy and we were in the middle of the Cold War. The 1980s are gone, and so is our ability to make domestic steel. Now, we no longer have an industrial base. Our Treasury is empty. We are being attacked over our southern border and millions of Americans are unemployed.
Projecting military force is great when you’re a rich and powerful nation and foreign enemies are threatening. Our enemies have shifted south, and make up the OAS.
We must bring our troops home to Fortress America.
cut everywhere else and increase pay and benefits in the military.
** Sell all unused military bases.
** Get completely out of the Pell Grant and college loan business. Return this responsibility to the states.
** Sell the National Institutes of Health
** Return all park land to the states. Fire all the employees.
** Return all BLM lands to the states.
** Sell advertising on all interstate highways. ( Instead of I-95 and Delaware Memorial Bridge. It would the Staples Highway and Southwest Air Bridge!)
** Close down TSA and return all security to the airports to be managed privately.
** Completely defund the National Endowment of the Arts and National Broadcasting.
Right on. In fact how much would we have to pay politicians to serve for a year to 18 months in Iraq then six months later send them to Afghanistan then back to Iraq. Then don’t forget yeman and Libya, possibly east Africa in the future. End between tours they can serve in either Korea or Europe.
We used to pay 25% for tricare Gates wants to increase that and the joke is doctors and hospitasls don’t want to accept it anymore because they don’t get reimbursed or it takes up to a year to get paid. VA will only pay for approved disability if it is service connected.
Not there to defend Europe? I spent time in Europe in the military and it was exactly the reason we were there. Now it's our interest to be in Europe because of interest outside of Europe?
What are we defending? Considering our navy and long reach weapons, specifically what interest is that? BTW, in war, an airport can easily and quickly be seized and utilized.
Please don´t try to tell me that lets say 30.000 US soldiers (+ a US military hospital “where all wounded from iraq and afghanistan are brought too) in germany defend “europe”.
What babble...Ya think we don't have military hospital ships? Ya think Europe is the only ground base in that part of the world.
Who is it that is going to attack us in the region where we need a base in Germany, simply to take the injured? Who is the big military power in the Mid East who is going to threaten our interest? Is it the Palestinian gangs running through the dusty back alleys? Is it the Turks? Egypt? The street gangs in Libya? Is it Pakistan, where we can perform raids their country while their sleeping?
What's this big military threat outside Europe? Who is going to attack the United States over there?
;>)
The little secret is you are paid very well in the military.
Dunno, the people bitching about pay, but anyone who has served recently has been paid. I can go on this one for a while.
We are broke, we need to start looking out for Americas interest. Enough babysitting the world, anyone who thinks we can continuing spending overseas on the military is living in a fantasy or has no concept of the spending problem.
“We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.
“We were able to verify that all this was true, and because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and even to vilify our actions.
“I cannot believe that all this is true, and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.
“Make haste to reassure us, I beg you, and tell us that our fellow citizens understand us, support us, and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.
“If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the fury of the Legions.”
Centurion Marcus Flavinius, Second Cohort, Augusta Legion to his cousin Tertullus in Rome. No date given.
They will have a new army, one that is more in tune with their agenda.
$68.00 a month when I first enlisted, it was a survival wage, but we all got by fine because we had food and shelter.
The SecDef, is only doing what the CIC tells him to do.
It's exactly what is happening to private sector America.
Lost jobs, cut hours, cut pay, lost businesses, investments decimated, slashed and reduced medical benefits, then throw in soaring sky high prices of everything.
You can thank your leadership in D.C. and their globalist adventures all over the planet for this. It's all but left America broke and dead on the floor. The U.S. government spending like a drunk lotto winner, while shipping trillions into overseas endeavors has left us crippled, broke and vulnerable right *here* in our own homeland.
Ok what is the big military treath in europe?
Please explain!
What do the 30 K US troops in germany defend?
(btw. US troops in germany are not allowed to take their weapon of base nor are they allowed to fullfill any operation outside of the military base.)
So again what do they protect?
Germany has no enemys near by and even IF so (which is not the case 30 K US troops would make NO difference)
Btw. germany alone has about 300.000 - 500.000 troops of its own (+ NO ENEMY IN RANGE).
Bevore you mention the “evil” russians i should let you know that England, france and germany ALONE (this means every country on its own does spend more then russia) do spend more money on their millitary every year.
So please don´t tell me that those soldiers protect germans against the russians (which are about a 1000 miles away).
But OK i admit if it would not be for those 30 K americans russian/Iranian or what ever thanks would roll into europe.
Yep...
Those 2 million troops the EU countries have under command
would be totally worthless when those 30 K americans are gone.
Yeah i agree eurofighters would fall out of the sky.
The europeans troops in afghanistan (more than the US has deployed in europe) would commit suicide.
Leopoard 2 tanks (btw. the US abraham uses an old gun from germany) will lose against and iranian (who will run out of fuel about 1500 miles before he can even reach europe) t 60.
Our apaches would get shot down from a AK 47 (because you know european are flying it).
But thank god “we” have those 30 K americans deployed in germany.
They will rescue us.
What 2 million soldiers thousands of modern combat aircraft and tanks, nukes, submarines, or what ever... will not achieve, those 30 k Americans (some of them serious wounded because of iraq and afghanistan) will do.
Yep as said THANK YOU for protecting my a$$ in this evil world.
(even the “evil” is thousands of miles away).
What a bunch of convoluted garbage.
Yes, that really makes frigging since Gates you dumb-ass, what about the money you have helped piss away in an illegal war against Libya.
“Everything has to be on the table when it comes to cutting the budget.”
Everything IS NOT on the table. Only the military.
Have they cut PBS (giving you 151 stations instead of just 150)? Have they cut support for Planned Parenthood? Have they cut support of illegal aliens? Have they cut the Dept of Education, which teaches no one anything on a budget of $51 Billion?
Are they cutting support to the UAW via government handouts to the car companies? What about the EPA? Any proposed cuts there from Obama?
The ONLY thing this administration is willing to cut is the military.
I spent half of my career TDY. I went places people don’t like to go and was shot at by people who hate us. My final combat tour was supporting the US Army in Afghanistan in 2007, and I worked with guys on their third tour back then.
Retirement pay is not a gift. It is delayed compensation. It is paying for services on the installment plan. When my daughter needed dental work, the dentist did the work and agreed to let us pay over a couple of years. Did I have the right to stop payment after 6 months, and tell him he finished the job earlier? I think not.
“The little secret is you are paid very well in the military.”
Spoken like someone who doesn’t know what that pay is buying. Or what will happen to the serving military if the Administration decides to cut retirement pay.
What a bunch of convoluted garbage.
According to the Constitution, national defense is a specified part of the federal government's responsibility.
The rest of it isn't.
Seems like the "want tos" need to go before the "have tos" are touched..
Some things are worth paying for. Freedom is one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.