Posted on 08/12/2010 7:59:31 AM PDT by pabianice
On July 22, the Defense Business Board task force recommended that the Secretary of Defense reduce the DoD civilian workforce by more than 111,000, and laid the groundwork for potential future recommendations to cut spending on military retirement, health care, family support, and other programs.
Additionally, the task force recommended drastic reductions in combatant command staffing, hiring freezes, and elimination of organizational duplication. These preliminary recommendations will be followed in October by additional cost-cutting proposals.
For the last year, the Defense Business Board has predicted major problems for the Defense budget as the nation deals with deficit reduction efforts, the economic slowdown, escalating health care and personnel costs, and the potential exit from two wars.
Board members believe that avoiding a looming fiscal crisis will require cutting the Defense budget beyond Secretary Gates’ recently announced target of a $100-billion reduction in “overhead” spending.
The Board’s “Initial Observations” briefing devoted an entire section to costs for military compensation, retirement, health care, veterans affairs, concurrent receipt, commissaries, dependent education, and military family housing. It particularly highlighted costs associated with TRICARE For Life.
A page titled “The ‘Military Retirement’ sacred cow is increasingly unaffordable” cites increases in the number of military retirees since 1980 (as if this weren’t the direct result of decisions by every administration and Congress since the 1950s to induce a large standing career force to protect America and the world) and criticizes the 20-year retirement system (as if the military could have sustained the force over the last 10 years of repeated wartime deployments without it).
Another cites personnel cost growth since 1998 – conveniently overlooking that 1998 was the nadir of two decades of erosion of military pay, retirement, health care, and other benefits and that the resulting retention problems of that era were what sparked Congress to embark on an extended program to fix them.
Unfortunately, the Defense Business Board report is only one of the early shots in what likely will be years of budget battles to reconcile military and other needs with truly daunting deficit projections.
/s
It is expensive...but no more than say...union or teacher pensions or gasp...a Congressional pension. Why single out the military? / rhetorical question...
But UAW retirement is no problem whatsoever.
Go back to "Public Service" being a limited-term position, eliminate Unionization of public sector employees, and limit hiring and wage increases to Government agencies, without SPECIFIC approval of The People.
Because the military will follow orders and actually make reductions. In the meantime, fraud is rampant in the entitlement programs that consume almost half of the federal budget.
What about the rest of the Government?
FUBO
FUBO
Won't be long before we have attritted down to an effete "by-all-means-DO-show-and-tell" military.
Leni
Well what do you expect? After all, military folks are usually REPUBLICAN donors!!!
Instead we will fund UNIONIZED teachers and ALL GOVERNMENT workers. Gee, I though our MILITARY worked for the GOVERNMENT? Guess Obama REALLY HATES our military.
But the Mongrel can cut the food stamp program to pay teachers & replenish their pension accounts.
my new policy is...take yer dough up front—at the end of each day—cuz uncle comrade ain’t good fer it...
Semper U2!
They mostly vote Republican? Just guessing.
Retired Air Force pilot
LOL! Where are all the latrine commandoes on FR who attack LTC Lakin and defend Obama?
The saudi agents job is to get as many American troops killed to entertain the Saudi king.
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