|
Military Pay, Pensions, and Health Care or Weapons, Gates Warns
This month Robert Gates, Barack Obamas outgoing defence secretary, launched a review of Pentagon spending. He warned in a speech on May 24th that pay, pensions and health care would all need to be restructured, or they would crowd out the purchase of vital new weapons. Military benefits, from subsidised food and education to free college tuition, have traditionally been used to enhance the appeal of a job that involves, at the best of times, limited freedom and frequent moves and, at worst, being killed. But with the exception of the army during the worst years in Iraq, the armed forces consistently meet or exceed their targets for recruitment and retention. Indeed, Robert Hale, the Pentagons comptroller, says the department now has the opposite problem: with unemployment around 9%, fewer soldiers are quitting, pushing up costs. Some branches are moving to force people to leave. The real budget-buster is health care, which, Mr Gates says, is eating the Defence Department alive. Since 2000 its annual health-care bill has shot from $17 billion to $49 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office reckons it will reach $65 billion, or 11% of the defence budget, by 2015. Congress seems to be starting to get the message. Three times it ignored George Bush juniors proposal to raise Tricare fees; this year, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is on the verge of granting Mr Obamas request for a (much more modest) 13% increase. The premium would then grow, though only with inflation rather than the higher health-care inflation rate Mr Obama had asked for. Even if the Senate agrees, the savings will be trivial, at less than $7 billion over five years. But it is a sign of the times that, for the first time in memory, military compensation is no longer untouchable. Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-05-29 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=323607 |