As usual, bad publicity. The cuts affect only people under the age of 62 who are working another job.
You can retire after 20 years, and many people retire at the age of 40, get their full pension, and of course go on to a second career. This is also true in many civilian jobs, too (law enforcement, education, etc.).
Paying these employed people a “pension” takes money away from the elderly or from lifers, that is, people who actually stayed in the military or job until retirement age.
The vast majority of retired military MUST go on to a 2nd career...the pension for many enlisted folks, going back decades, would not be enough for many to live on in this economy.
How do you propose an E7 retired in 2003 live on ~ $1200 a month in retirement income after taxes?
What you are proposing has been actually proposed in the past...that military retirees of “working age” (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean) do not collect their pension until they “retire” (retirement age to be decided by some cabal of REMF’s and useless political hacks). The underlying intent there is to hope that the vast majority die off before reaching that magical age.
Yeah, whatever...
“You can retire after 20 years, and many people retire at the age of 40, get their full pension, and of course go on to a second career. This is also true in many civilian jobs, too (law enforcement, education, etc.).”
It’s a shame, isn’t it, that it’s so hard to get a pension of any kind in the non-governmental sector of the economy. The private sector said it costs too much and just bailed, leaving most of us facing a precarious old age. Nice to see that Washington continues to look after its own.
The spending, deficit and debt is at a point where I’m not going to complain about any cuts of any kind. The debt is our greatest national security crisis and national security takes precedent over everything else the government does. My complaint is that any budget that raises taxes or fees and/or increases spending is absolutely unconscionable and unacceptable given our situation.
“Paying these employed people a “pension” takes money away from the elderly or from lifers, that is, people who actually stayed in the military or job until retirement age.”
Take the example of an average officer. He has a bachelors degree, and, if he’s anything past a captain, which, if he’s retired, he certainly is so, he has a masters. Rare exception not to.
He’s made, on average, an enormously less amount of salary than his civilian counterpart, for instance a pilot or a doctor, and certainly much less so for his education. A civilian pilot, logistics expert, civil engineer, communications specialist, does not require a masters.
He lives (and this goes for girls too) in, often, a remote city/town. His spouse scrambles for a lifestyle every three or so years, ditto kids. And she can forget about a continuity for a career. Very rare when moving around so.
When he gets out of the military, finding a job at 40 plus years old that appreciates the experience, expertise in logistical, communication, leadership, teaching and life skills is almost out of the question, yet he’s only 40 with kids in high school, on way to college; a house to purchase and a whole new life to set up.
He’s been on call 24 hours a day for at least 20 years, if not 28. He’s spent years, many years, months at a time, years at a time, away from home.
The divorce rate is high. Post trauma is high, and that’s if he’s not wounded and disabled.
A lot of the pull is not the salary, which is low, again, in comparison, it is the pension. THese guys are not thinking, gee, how about a welfare scheme, in which I can collect for doing nothing, it’s what can I do for my family and my community by doing a job which gets me potentially getting bombed by an IED while my family fends for themselves during the winter so I can always at least provide for them while being a productive citizen through later years.
I’m sure most of them would take a much lower salary after retirement, or a lower retirement, than they have, all things being equal, and, in case you don’t know it, a lot of them took a 20% hit on salary, lifestyle changing, due to the sequester, which most people only think they themselves took a hit on, not realizing the military WAS, by far, hardest hit.
You don’t hear them complaining.
Read the Kipling Poem above. He had it right, as he has a lot right, having seen action in India.
But when people mistake the military as greedy, lazy, undeserving, they just don’t know what they’re talking about, they don’t know.
But they ought to. Because, whether the military goes into some lame brained LBJ/kennedy Aisan Jungle scheme, or a Bushy Saudi deal, they are prepared to protect this country against all enemies.
Neglect them and underappreciate them at your peril, they take only so much misunderstanding and lack of appreciation.
They are people, and the hardest working, most societally conscientious kind.
all these gyrations to save maybe 23 billion over TEN years. Smoke and Mirrors redux. If this passes the Senate with GOP support I will be a sworn enemy of the GOP.