Mullen Says Pay, Benefit Cuts 'On the Table'

[funkfool]

PAY CUTS NECESSARY & VETERAN & ACTIVE SERVICES TO BE CHOPPED $1/2 TRILLION

• Posted by Jeff Scism on April 19, 2011 at 7:07pm in Elections,

UPDATE: June 6, 2011(D-day anniversary)


Mullen Says Pay, Benefit Cuts 'On the Table'
The Pentagon's top officer said Thursday that service members will likely see cuts in pay and benefits as the military plumbs its budget for nearly half a trillion dollars in savings over the next 12 years.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen warned against taking the "relatively easy" choice of cutting hardware while maintaining the increasing costs of paying and providing ongoing health care to troops and retirees.

"Two of the big places the money is, is in pay and benefits," Mullen told defense reporters at a June 2 breakfast meeting in Washington. "And so when I say all things are on the table, all things are on the table.".....

Read more at:
http://www.military.com/news/article/mullen-says-pay-benefit-cuts-o...


Healthcare Cuts Loom For 130,000 Vets, doctors and nurses and services pending cuts.

The House Bud­get Com­mit­tee recently announced plans to cut $6 bil­lion from VA Health­care for 1.3 mil­lion vet­er­ans who are in Pri­or­ity Group 7 and 8. Roughly 10 per­cent of these, some 130,000 vet­er­ans, will be forced out of the VA sys­tem with no avail­able alter­na­tives. Vet­er­ans from Group 7 & 8 have either a 0 per­cent service-connection or no service-connected rat­ing. While this does not mean the vet­eran is fit as a fid­dle, it does imply they do not need the amount of care needed for other vets. These vet­er­ans [already] pay co-pay and have incomes over $32,000 and net-worth under $80,000, depend­ing on geog­ra­phy. In other words, they aren’t dirt poor but cer­tainly not wealthy, either.

The Con­gres­sional Bud­get Office believes the U.S. can save $62 bil­lion over the next 10 years by remov­ing ser­vices for these vet­er­ans alto­gether. Accord­ing to the agency, 90 per­cent of the vet­er­ans in ques­tion have access to some form other health­care other than VA funded. How­ever, the CBO does not com­ment on whether the alter­na­tive health­care is afford­able.

Read more at Military.com

http://tinyurl.com/3jhx3au

Great... on D-Day anniversary no less...
Mods: Should we have a place for "Military Issues" or something?

[Scanker19]

Glad I'm exiting this cluster fuck of a military when I am.

[Ronin13]

Glad I'm in the 50%+ group of DVs... but still this is BS. Pentagon officials and law makers always lobby for us to not "leave our veterans behind" with that always shameful reminder of what happened to our Vietnam vets, but then they go and pull some really shady stunts while trying to hide from the public eye. Such as the "shutdown" that nearly happened back in April (VA would have shut down too)- no pay for the troops, but God forbid if Congress and Mr. Obamie stopped getting paid. Mullen of all folks should know that if you stop raising military pay to meet the civilian sector, all their service members are just going to leave and get employed by private companies or start their own. It's already crummy enough pay for enlisted, let's not make it worse.

[Pancho Villa]

$41.3 billion a year for the next 12 years, on a budget that tops $700 billion, not counting supplementary spending for Iraq/Afghanistan.

I think they are being exaggerated to stir up opposition to any cuts.

Also: who wants to bet me $100 that the "cuts" are like the Paul Ryan "cuts" - ie, the military's budget will be growing less fast than planned?

Edit: Also, remember what I said some time ago about everyone having a piece of the pie? The budget isn't going to be balanced without major cuts to the military, or simply dumping everything else the govt does outside of the FBI and federal courts. Claims to the contrary are fantasy.

[sneakerd]

How about cutting pay and benefits for all of the elected TRASH in Washington with their big houses, limosines, drivers, office staff, etc?

[trlcavscout]

Complete BS! They are the last people that should take cuts. Let's cut welfare and all the county and state programs that breed obese unemployed people. Cut pay from all the politicians and their bs spending. Quit giving money to everyother country in the world save America!

[Ronin13]

I hate to interject with the leftist hippie view, but maybe now, more than ever, would be the best time to legalize industrial hemp- I'm not saying make marijuana legal, I'm saying use hemp for other uses than for the THC... plenty of jobs would be created, new textile plants, construction, even clothing. It would boost the economy and really help us so we don't have to take $1/4 of a Trillion to balance the budget. And stop giving money to countries we have no vested interest in- sorry to say it, but if you can't afford to feed yourself and your family, you shouldn't try to feed your neighbor.

[Guylee]

Glad I'm exiting this cluster fuck of a military when I am.

Glad I'm just entering this cluster fuck of a military.

Oh well, it was never about the money...

[Irving]

How about cutting pay and benefits for all of the elected TRASH in Washington with their big houses, limosines, drivers, office staff, etc?

Because there are only hundreds of well paid politicians.

[cebeu]

"Oh well, it was never about the money..."

I grossed $7,683 dollars in tax year 1984. Signed-up for a green suit in mid 83’, DEP’d in early 84’ and worked “for Sam” for 10 months that year…made fuckin’ $7ish grand...BBBWWAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Did my 4 active and 6 total and ETS'd (worked my plan). Spin forward a quarter of a century (~28 years in my case) and...best motherfuckin' decision / move I ever made. I'll just say this...life is good...the money will come.

Re: entering the service today, any branch, nope, I'd rather do 4 years in Pelican Bay than tolerate the current social experiment called "the military." In my case its that generational "dumb-ass disconnect thing though" I'm sure but...the world really has changed. To you I say "Do well."