I’m eagerly awaiting the NY Times’ Editorial Board piece on putting teacher and other unionized public sector worker pay on the block. Think we’ll ever see it?
Putting Military Pay On The Table
Big-ticket weapons like aircraft carriers and the F-35 fighter jet have to be part of any conversation about cutting Pentagon spending to satisfy the mandatory budget reductions known as the sequester. But compensation for military personnel has to be on the table, too — even though no other defense issue is more politically volatile or emotionally fraught.
But don’t you crazy right wingers even think about touching any entitlement programs. Or Obamacare. That’s what they always tell us (wait till the end)
After a decade of war, the very idea of cutting benefits to soldiers, sailors and Marines who put their lives on the line seems ungrateful. But America’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is over or winding down, and the Pentagon is obliged to find nearly $1 trillion in savings over 10 years. Tough choices will be required in all parts of the budget. Compensation includes pay, retirement benefits, health care and housing allowances. It consumes about half the military budget, and it is increasing.
Many groups have called for modernization of the compensation packages military members.The Times even mentions the right leaning American Enterprise Institute. Except, AEI mostly just calls for reform of the post-service benefits, like Tricare, high retirement pay, base commissary discounts. They also mention the bloat in the civilian workforce that serves the military. They do think pay for active duty should track with inflation.
One problem is that unrestrained compensation costs will edge out funds for training, readiness and weapons. A recent Congressional Budget Office study said that between 2001 and 2012, when private-sector wages were effectively flat, basic military pay rose by 28 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. The study also said that cash compensation for enlisted personnel, including food and housing allowances, is greater than the wages and salaries of 90 percent of their civilian counterparts. And health care costs are projected to rise from $51 billion in 2013 to $77 billion by 2022.
Strange, because public sector workers have much higher pay and compensation packages than their private sector compatriots. Public sector workers, especially unionized ones, have very generous retirement packages, blowing away private sector workers. Why aren’t we talking about reforming them?
Ye Olde NY Times wants serious changes and reductions to military compensation. Do they have a point. Yes. Surely, though, they want draconian cuts for one of the few federal government programs specifically authorized by the Constitution.
Soldiers must be adequately compensated. But when programs across the government are being slashed, including those affecting the most vulnerable Americans, no budget account can be immune from reductions and reforms. It is a difficult balance to get right.
You heard it from the Times, folks. Nothing can be immune. So they can’t whine when Republicans go after the public sector unions, entitlement programs, government giveaways, nor others. Including Obamacare.
If we are intent on cutting Social Security, Medicare, education and Medicaid rather than reform the tax code, then of course we must consider cutting the pay and benefits of federal workers, including our soldiers. It’s all a form of societal self-mutilation. Notice that all the “cutting” affects the working classes and spares the Romney class, but this is the conservative America in which we live.
The wealthy are getting wealthier, and the working classes, poorer. How long do you think we can continue this downward spiral. We are a plutocracy.
We should revise the tax code Jeffy. We should allow people to keep more of their money rather than it going to Federal programs that do not work.
Liberals hate the military because the military protects the country and others from those who look to limit the freedoms of people.
“Conservative policies..” What would those be, Jeffery? You don’t say. The top 1% pay more of the total income tax bill than ever. There is a higher percentage of people that don’t pay any income tax than ever. Amount of people that don’t pay is in the high 40’s. The top 1% pay almost 40% of the total tax bill. Nothing too conservative there, Jeffery. As far as poverty, at the end of last year
there were 16% of the population in poverty, up from 14.3% in 2009. Hmmm- What happened in 2009?…And what party has been in power since then?
Someone remind me who has been president since January 20, 2009.
jl et al,
You probably think the erosion of our middle class is “natural”.
Conservative policies such as tax cuts for the wealthy, financial market deregulation, invading Muslim countries and starve the beast long-term debt. Now we should cut Medicare and Social Security for the elderly and Medicaid for the poor and cut Jamie Dimon’s taxes so he can build factories???
The Democrats are nearly as bad as the Republicans – they’re all plutocrats – plundering the middle class and poor for the benefit of the wealthy.
Pirate,
This started well before Jan 20, 2009. Try since 1980.
So it’s Jimmy Carter’s fault, then. Democrat. Good to know.
[…] the NY Times Editorial Board called for a decrease in military pay. Today, they breathlessly report on a coming low wage worker strike Seeking to increase pressure on […]
“tax cuts for the wealthy.” If you repeat a mantra long enough, the low info types will believe it. If you’re talking about the Bush tax cuts, which Liberals always are, all brackets received a cut- but you knew that. Anyway, the honest and more proper phrase would be “tax cuts for the people who pay all the taxes.”