[Vision2020] Defense Cuts in Benefits and Personnel Proposed

[Tom Hansen]

As members of congress lap up the luxuries of their health packages,
anticipating fat retirement benefits (after merely ten years in office),
they consider reducing and, for some retirees, eliminating health care,
and handing out pink slips as some service members may find themselves
short of retirement.

Courtesy of the Army Times.

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Budget analysts propose cuts in benefits, personnel
By Rick Maze, Army Times

A Senate committee looking to hold down federal spending is being advised
to consider cutting the size of the military, ending careers short of
retirement and reducing post-service benefits for veterans.

Bringing about such changes would be politically difficult. But two
analysts with extensive expe­rience in the federal budget process argued
in a Feb. 23 hear­ing before the Senate Budget Committee that capping
growth in military personnel and health care costs is key to reducing the
pace of increases in the defense budget.

Military health care expenses have jumped from $19 billion in fiscal 2001
to almost $51 billion this fiscal year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has
said — a pace well ahead of inflation.

If nothing is done to control costs, health care expenses will at least
double again by 2028, said Cindy Williams, a research scientist in
security studies at the Massa­chusetts Institute of Technology.

Williams, formerly a defense analyst with the nonpartisan Congressional
Budget Office, sug­gested lawmakers could:

■ Save money on health care by increasing enrollment fees,
deductibles and co-payments for the military’s Tricare program.

■ Cut long-term health care costs by allowing fewer people to stay
in the military until retirement.

■ Pay working-age retirees not to sign up for Tricare and instead
get health insurance from their post-service employer.

Gordon Adams, an American University international relations professor who
was the top defense expert at the White House’s Office of Management and
Budget dur­ing much of the Clinton adminis­tration, agreed that health
care costs need to be capped, but he also suggested the size of the Army
and Marine Corps could be cut to save money.

“Forces deployed in Iraq are cur­rently declining. Forces in Afghanistan
are due to begin to fall in fiscal 2011,” Adams said.

Both Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., the budget committee chairman, and Judd
Gregg of New Hampshire, its ranking Republican, said they see national
security as a top budget priority — but that does not mean they are
unconcerned about continued increases in mili­tary spending.

“A dollar wasted on an ineffi­cient defense program is still a dollar
wasted,” Conrad said.

Adams said he foresees no sce­nario that would require major ground force
deployments for counterinsurgency or stabilization missions, and suggested
that “future force planning should examine the opportunities to limit
force growth or even reduce num­bers to reflect this declining requirement
for ground forces.” He also recommended a defensewide rebalancing of
com­bat and non-combat billets so more people are available for com­bat
missions.

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This is absolute BULL SH*T!

Seeya round town, Moscow,

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown