Fairly steep Department of Defense cuts announced

Hotair ^ | 10/01/2015 | Jazz Shaw

[SeekAndFind]

Congressional negotiators have come up with a plan to cut costs at the Department of Defense which represents a compromise between proposals from the House and the Senate. Assuming this comes up to a vote and is approved there’s going to be a 25% reduction in the civilian workforce in addition to the introduction of a new retirement plan for the troops. Government Executive Magazine has the details.

The 2016 defense authorization compromise bill would require $10 billion in cuts, half of which must occur by fiscal 2018. The one-quarter staff reduction was a compromise between the 20 percent cuts required by House-backed legislation and a 30 percent decrease approved by the Senate. Savings already realized by the Pentagon’s self-initiated cuts implemented in recent years would count toward the final reduction goal, which must be met in fiscal 2020.

The agreement, if approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama — who has threatened to veto a provision allowing Defense spending to sidestep sequestration caps by increasing the “emergency” Overseas Contingency Operations fund — would surpass the 20 percent cuts the Pentagon has imposed on itself.

There’s quite a bit more in the agreement to digest. The military would receive the same 1.3% pay raise which the White House proposed for federal civilian workers. That’s going to come as a disappointment to service members who were hoping for a raise more in the two to three percent range to try to catch up with matching civilian pay rates. (Military Times)

For an E-4 with three years of service who’s making roughly $28,000 this year, the White House’s 1.3 percent plan means a boost of around $360 for 2016. An O-4 with 12 years of service, making almost $84,000 this year, will see $1,100 more under the raise plan.

Typically, the pay raise is set to match anticipated growth in private-sector salaries, expected to be 2.3 percent in 2016. But the law allows the president to set an alternative pay plan in cases of a national emergency or budgetary constraints, something Obama has done for three consecutive years.

The changes to the retirement system will only affect new recruits who enlist after these changes go into effect. (Current members will be grandfathered into the old plan.) The Thrift Savings Plan – already available – will provide government matching funds to savings the troops put away toward retirement. In some ways this will be an improvement for service members who don’t stay in for a full twenty years, currently the threshold for getting any sort of serious retirement benefits. But they can also expect less generous terms if they do the full stretch.

This isn’t the most appealing set of options imaginable but since there was a general agreement that we have to trim costs across the board I suppose they had to come from somewhere. The worrisome aspect of all this is that it’s hard enough to attract and recruit excellent candidates to a life of military service as it is in a country which is pretty much perpetually at war. A solid retirement plan in an economy where many will have trouble keeping steady work in the civilian sector is one of the few features keeping us staffed up on the military front. These are tough decisions all the way around, but I hope these cuts don’t come back to bite us in the end.

[skeeter]

Down the home stretch. Gotta stick the shiv in deeper.

[CMailBag]

The whole world is on fire and we are cutting defense?

[SZonian]

And the cost of everything a servicemember purchases on or off post will rise by 1.4% at a minimum...

[ducttape45]

The whole world is on fire and we are cutting defense?

Isn't that how a nation usually destroys itself?

[DoughtyOne]

WWIII on our doorstep, and our reaction is to unlock the front door.

[Army Air Corps]

Meanwhile, nary a reduction in the payouts to the Gimmies.

[PeteB570]

Change the 20 years retirement and the government will find they have a retention problem of 6 to 14 year troops - about 15 years from now.

Of course the can will have been kicked way down the road - so who cares.

[arthurus]

Hell, what do we need a military for anyway? Why don't we just turn the rest of our military responsibilities over to the Russians and put all that money into more welfare and social engineering programs? With deficit financing that $500 billion or so could provide easily 10 trillion in new benefits and just oodles of new reliable votes!

Utopia here we come!

[arthurus]

Not usually but it is one of the several techniques being employed by our nation.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Student Loan Forgiveness and Free Tuition has gotta be paid for somehow, dontcha know.

[rawcatslyentist]

Surprise surprise. Hussein weakens us more every day.

I am not shocked when Hussein lies! I worry when he tells the truth !

[Dick Bachert]

We must IMMEDIATELY send a task force of these mighty vessels – now the standard warship in Obama's “New Navy” – into the Med to deal with those pesky Ruskies.

Armed with a single M2 .50 caliber Browning, this much feared naval vessel carries up to 30 rounds of full cardboard jacketed paper bag piercing ammunition. It is the first in an entirely new naval architecture class -- technically, “clitoral” (not to be confused with “littoral”) -- being pushed on the Pentagon by the defense minded wussies in the Obama Administration as a cost-saving measure. If you look closely, you can see the heavy-duty seat restraint which prevents the helmsman/gunner shown here – Seaman 4th Class Kenneth “Kamakazi” Kowalski – from leaping from the vessel prior to engaging the enemy. The 12 V trolling motor – which lacks a reverse function -- propels this sophisticated craft forward at a top speed of 4 knots. Reverse travel – at approximately 35 knots -- is achieved by firing the Browning.

The no-bid contract to build 300 of these fearsome warships was awarded to the Obama-Soros-Emanuel Shipbuilding and Stormdoor Manufacturing Company (formerly General Dynamics) and will be administered by trusted Obama associate, Chicago Mayor and former Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel who commented that, at $12 million each, they are a bargain. Constructed exclusively at the company’s facility in Kenya with major sub-component production (rivets and miscellaneous fasteners) at the company’s Harlem and Skokie plants. Delivery and sea trials of 100 of these began in 2013 with the remaining 200 to follow as soon as the subcontractors’ funds are safely in the contractor's numbered Swiss account.

[rhinohunter]

Where’s that graphic of Putin laughing?

[SeekAndFind]

[Sam Gamgee]

Some defender of Obamacare was on Stossel’s show. His talking point was the military is why we are in deficit. I give credit to Stossel for pointing out defense is only 20% of the budget.

I wonder if liberals really believe this, or just think the rest of us are too stupid to see through the argument.

[Sam Gamgee]

Didn’t Rome draw all its soldiers home leaving the regions of its empire to burn?

[Sam Gamgee]

Why is it that the Anglo world is so quick to humble itself into irrelevancy?