The bottom line is that 'entitlements' are grouped together due to their financial similarity, not their moral ones.
That said, wither or not owed or earned, our entitlement culture is destroying America, and that includes things like military pensions. We simply can't afford for people to retire when they're 38, and live off with a full set of government provided benefits while they go off and have second careers with government provided skills, retraining, housing assistance, etc.
The military pension system was designed when the military didn't pay well, the skills taught didn't really apply on the outside, and people didn't live as long. These days, the military pays in the top quarter percentile for a high school graduate or college graduate. Those personnel costs are devouring the military budget.
And that's just one example of the most moral and valid entitlements. A huge amount of money the government doesn't have, paid out to people that don't genuinely need it.
If you look at other entitlements and cash handouts, it's not even trading valiant military service abroad for a comfortable retirement. BUT, the net effect is the same. A lot of small, noble sounding programs have grown and grown and grown. People come to expect them as groups, which layers heavy monetary demands on the state coffers forever.
Being former military, I understand the argument for military retirement, but none of these other programs are without much larger groups of supporters who all make their own cases for why they deserve their particular pet funding source, or what moral imperative a just society has to pay it. So, the idea that you can somehow get the government to start discerning between items on a budget due to a moral need and not a fiscal / political one is pretty much inoperative.
“....and that includes things like military pensions. We simply can’t afford for people to retire when they’re 38, and live off with a full set of government provided benefits...”
I’d argue with you there. A military life is extremely difficult for the member and his/her family. That 20 years is probably more like 30 years of wear and tear. I only spent about 4 yrs active and then 5 in the reserves and I can say that had I actually made it to retirement, it would have been a very long and difficult road. That was during peacetime, I can’t even imagine the toll it takes on today’s soldiers.....