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    "In a place long ago and far away..."

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Déjà vu, all over again?

Posted by OFMeister on Friday, 27 January 2012

For some of the ‘old timers’ who read this blog these defense cuts are nothing new.  We went thru much the same thing after Vietnam (Carter) and after Gulf War I (Bush 1).  Many of the reductions offset growth due to Iraq and Afghanistan.  I’m not suggesting these reductions are necessarily a good thing and certainly the cuts in personnel costs affecting both the Active, Reserve and Retired ‘forces’ will have to be looked at carefully.

For example, in this Stars and Stripes article the statement is made that the ground forces will be reduced to ‘…slightly more than on Sept. 10, 2001, before the wars began.’  I recall very clearly the reductions that took place in the early to mid-90s and much of the agony that those restructurings and changes brought to many.

In my opinion, one of the interesting comments made by SecDef and his senior leaders is that the military today is one that is ‘…seasoned by combat.’  This is certainly true, but like the military that was equally seasoned by combat, particularly the ground forces, in Vietnam, that edge was lost fairly quickly as the junior leaders moved up or moved out to civilian life.  The younger Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and ‘Airpeople’ that came in after combat operations ceased were no longer ‘seasoned’ and while well trained, did not have the experience of real combat that many of us know differs from any training experience.  So, in 5-7 years, the time of this DoD transition, our combat experienced military will be mostly a military of experienced senior officers and NCOs and untested junior officers, NCOs and grunts.  I’m mentioning this principally because, again in my opinion, this “seasoned by combat” rationale does not hold much water for the longer term, unless there’s a future war in the planning.

It is good that the SecDef has said that there will be no reductions in pay or benefits for those currently serving.  Of course that statement means that the DoD (probably) won’t make any such proposals in its budget submissions; it certainly does not mean that the Congress won’t decide to work its will in this area.

These force reductions and possible base closings will mean some sort of reductions in the DoD civilian workforce as well as contractor work forces.  The question not addressed and certainly not answered is…”Where will they work when they leave the military and government employment?”  Or, will the unemployment rolls increase because of these folks having lost their jobs?

Happily, the Veteran’s Groups have already come out of their corners swinging in terms of the possible cuts to benefits for both active and retiree members of the military.  However, I think their argument about finding the savings by cutting waste and fraud does not help them build their case.  This is the same old argument that’s gone on for decades.  In fact, one of the areas that the DoD will be looking at according to the SecDef is a reduction in waste and fraud.  Thus the Veterans Groups need to find another target in order to build their case.  Frankly though, there will be some changes that will be made, Congress will have to bite this bullet.  As the current conflicts get further away on the horizon of history, the ‘need’ to protect the benefits of the military will be placed much higher on the chopping block.  We (you and I dear reader) need to make sure we make enough noise that any such changes that do get looked at seriously are also looked at equitably in terms of other federal beneficiaries.  One of the proposals I read about was the idea of ‘means testing’ healthcare premiums for military retirees.  This is absolutely the worst proposal I’ve ever heard; how many other federal health plans (other than Medicare) means test premiums?  But, even Medicare does it across the board, not for a select subset of federal retiree.

To get a sense of how Congress is viewing this announcement by the SecDef and his Generals, one only needs to read this article from House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. McKeon and the related Press Release.  I strongly encourage you to read both of these items.  We cannot balance the bloated federal budget on the back of our national security.  And, what I’m afraid of, is that many will come out with the position that the ‘savings’ from the DoD reductions should be transferred to other programs designed as ‘giveaways’ with no effective reduction in the federal deficit.  The opening salvo in this particular battle has be sounded by  physician associations.  You can read the letter they’ve sent to Congress HERE (just scroll down and click on “Sign-on letter to Conferees re: SGR Repeal, January 23, 2012.”  It’s a PDF file and should download to your computer.

Great fun in an election year!  Let the battles begin!!

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If you’ve found this update of interest, please share it. If you received this as an email from someone else, you can subscribe for your own copy at: www.ofnetwork.wordpress.com.

Contact the OFMeister at ofnetwork (at) sbcglobal (dot) net with any questions or comments.

Disclaimers

This newsletter and blog is solely for the enjoyment of its readers. There is no warranty or guarantee stated or implied in the content by the author. None of the information contained in this newsletter or on the blog is to be considered as legal or financial advice as the author is neither a lawyer or financial advisor. The author is not liable for any consequences that results from actions taken by the reader relative to the contents of this newsletter or blog. A complete set of disclaimers are available on the website.

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Posted in Military | Leave a Comment »

Update 27 Jan 2012

Posted by OFMeister on Friday, 27 January 2012

Note: If your email software garbles this message find it on the (click) OFNetwork website.

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Military Stuff

Budget Cut Update.  Here’s the transcript from the SecDef briefing on January 26th regarding budget cuts.  Here are some excerpts (these are selected with a certain bias, so you might want to read the whole transcript to see them in context) that might be on interest:

Comments by Sec Panetta.

  • Consistent with the Budget Control Act, this plan reduces spending over the 10 years, obviously, by $487 billion. But in the five-year budget that will be presented by the President, we reduce the defense budget by 259 billion [dollars] over the next five years.
  • As we build this leaner and more agile force, we frankly need to also look at a department that is leaner and more agile as well. And for that reason, this budget seeks to reduce excess overhead, eliminate west — waste in this department, and improve business practices across the department. We’ve identified about $60 billion in savings over five years on top of the substantial efficiency efforts that are already under way.
  • This will involve areas such as aggressive and competitive contracting practices, better use of information technology, streamlining the staff, reductions in contract services and better inventory management.
  • …the President will request the Congress to authorize to use of the base realignment and closure process — so-called BRAC process — with the goal of identifying additional savings and implementing them as soon as possible.
  • The budget will contain a road map to try to address the costs of military pay, health care and retirement in ways that we believe are fair, transparent and consistent with our fundamental commitments to our people. We recognize through this process that we can never repay our service members or their families for all their sacrifices.
  • But we decided that to help control the growth of health care costs, which is now almost $50 billion in this department, we are recommending increases in health care fees, co-pays and deductibles for retirees. They’ll be phased in over five years.
  • We also feel that the fair way to address military retirement costs is to ask Congress to establish a commission with authority to conduct a comprehensive review of military retirement. But the President and the Department have made clear that the retirement benefits of those who currently serve will be protected by grandfathering their benefits. There will be, for those who serve today, no changes in retirement benefits.
  • I understand how tough these kinds of issues can be, and I understand also that this is the beginning and not the end of this process. But my hope is that when members understand the sacrifice involved in reducing the defense budget by almost a half a trillion dollars that it will convince Congress of the important responsibility they have to make sure that we avoid sequestration. That would be a doubling of the cuts, another $500 billion in additional cuts that would be required to take place through a meat- axe approach, and that we are convinced would hollow out the force and would inflict severe damage to our national defense for generations.

Comments by CJCS Gen Dempsey.

  • Allow me to make just a few additional and brief points about what this budget means for the Joint Force of 2020. First, capability is more important than size. Yes, the strategy and budget reduce force size; we get leaner. But this budget does not lead to a military in decline. Rather, it builds a force that matches capabilities to needs. It leads to a Joint Force that is global and networked, that is versatile and innovative, that is ably led and that is always ready. It’s a force that’s prepared to secure global access and respond to global contingencies. It’s a military that can win any conflict, anywhere.
  • Pay and benefits are now roughly one-third of the defense spending, so pay will need to grow more slowly in the future. And as the secretary mentioned, the budget proposes modest increases in health care fees, co-pays and deductibles for retirees. And we also need to look at retirement, but we’ll take that, we’ll take the time to determine how to enact any retirement reforms over the next year.

Legislation and Government

Good Editorial on the MOAA Website.  “Budget critics perpetually attack the special interest groups that lobby Congress and make big political donations to protect, preserve, and enhance their own share of the budget pie at taxpayers’ expense.  The assumption is special interest groups care more about their own interests than they do about the welfare of the country as a whole.

Among those who propose significant cutbacks in defense spending, some point to the advocacy of military associations (often citing MOAA as lead example) as the cause of significant recent personnel and compensation cost growth.  In their view, the military community is a special interest group that has sought to feather its own nest with higher pay for currently serving troops, plussed-up health care benefits, expensive retirement reforms, and big benefit increases for military survivors, among others, over the past decade.”

Is the military community a special interest group?  Read the complete editorial HERE!

Politics as Usual!

Fact-Checking the Jan 26th Debate.  FactCheck.Org’s take on the debate is HERE.

Tech Stuff

Computer Security – Symantec pcAnywhere is a flawed product!  Symantec, the computer security software company, has announced that it’s pcAnywhere product is currently a security risk and recommends that it should be turned off until its fixed.  It seems the program code was stolen in 2006 and may be made public, a hackers dream.  If interested, you can read more HERE.  Be sure to pass this notice on to others who might use the product, if you feel it relevant.

New “Blue Marble” Photo.  In 1972 the crew of Apollo 17 (remember the moon missions?) took a picture of the Earth from about 28K miles.  This was the original “Blue Marble” photo which has inspired many more over time, most created from photo mosaics taken by satellite cameras.  The latest, “Blue Marble 2012” is a great hi-def photo and can be found on the NASA website.  There are download options at the bottom right of the page (scroll down).  It makes a great computer desktop background!

Rumors and “Facts”

Checking things out.  One of the things I’ve tried to do over the years, not always successfully, is to check out emails that I get via email, Facebook and other ‘internet places.’  When I can verify them I often reply to the sender that what they’ve sent is not quite correct (or a complete fabrication).  Some folks care and thank me for the correction and actually send a correction out.  Others don’t respond.  It doesn’t matter to me.  In fact, I have a friend who actually likes to send out these falsehoods just to, in his words, “…stir things up a bit.”  There are several locations I check things out, the ones I use most are the old reliable www.snopes.com but also www.factcheck.org and www.politifact.com.

Here’s a recent post on the FactCheck website that puts the truth to a lot of the rumors today.

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If you’ve found this update of interest, please share it. If you received this as an email from someone else, you can subscribe for your own copy at: www.ofnetwork.wordpress.com.

Contact the OFMeister at ofnetwork (at) sbcglobal (dot) net with any questions or comments.

Disclaimers

This newsletter and blog is solely for the enjoyment of its readers. There is no warranty or guarantee stated or implied in the content by the author. None of the information contained in this newsletter or on the blog is to be considered as legal or financial advice as the author is neither a lawyer or financial advisor. The author is not liable for any consequences that results from actions taken by the reader relative to the contents of this newsletter or blog. A complete set of disclaimers are available on the website.

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Posted in Legislation, Military, Politics, Security and Privacy, Technology | Leave a Comment »

We’ve Been Down this Road Before

Posted by OFMeister on Tuesday, 3 January 2012

Note: If your email software garbles this message find it on the (click) OFNetwork website.

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Military StuffFingers crossedDefense Budget Cuts

On Reducing the Military Budget.  This article in the NY Times could have been written several times over the past few decades, with some minor wording changes.  I recall the early 70’s when the Vietnam war ended and we reduced the size of the military and other years when the budgets had to be cut.  It will be interesting to see how Congress plays this out, particularly in an election year.  Read it HERE

Healthcare

Reminder:  Walgreens Drugs is no longer in the TRICARE Pharmacy Network.  As of December 31, 2011, the contract between Walgreens and Express Scripts expired and therefore if you have your prescriptions filled at Walgreens you will have to pay the full price charged by Walgreens and then submit your claim for reimbursement and most likely have to pay a co-pay.  According to some information I’ve come across, if you’ve been using Walgreens you should have been contacted by Express Scripts already.  You can find out more at: Walgreens.  At this site you can also find links to help locate local network pharmacies that might be more convenient than the one you are using.  Or, like us, you can switch to the Home Delivery option which is great for recurring scripts, as far as I’m concerned.  (Note:  according to the TRICARE website news release, this situation is affecting other non-TRICARE (i.e., employer-sponsored and Medicare Part D) programs.

Tech Stuff

RokuNew Tech Toy.  Just before Christmas I purchased a “Roku Box.”  If you’ve not seen one of these nifty little boxes at work you’ve missed something, assuming you enjoy watching TV.  You can learn more from the Roku website.  By way of testimonial, if you have a wireless high speed internet connection you can watch many free and paid channels by connecting the device to your TV and your wireless network.  The nice thing is that the device is small (about 3” x 3”) and can be moved from TV to TV without having to set up your network connection again.  This is a perfect device for a second TV if you have a Netflix streaming subscription.  Consider this a shameless plug for a neat toy!

Steve Jobs Action Figure?  Just the thing for all you Apple fan-atics out there.Steve-Jobs-Action-Figure-275x171 A Steve Jobs action figure is soon to come on the market, assuming the legal guys at Apple don’t shut the Chinese project down. The Steve Jobs action figure will show the tech visionary in a signature black turtle neck, circular rimless glasses and blue jeans. The 12-inch figurine from the toy company In Icons -– which will sell for $99, before shipping — will go on sale in the U.S. in February. The site said it is selling the action figure “to honor the American icon and great visionary Steve Jobs.”

Last Words

And so it begins…I’ve turned off the TV news and the Internet news.  Iowa Caucuses seems to be the only event occurring in the world today.  I do have other creative outlets, reading a good book, watching any number of items via my Roku box, or spending time with the family.  Have a great New Year, y’all!

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If you’ve found this update of interest, please share it. If you received this as an email from someone else, you can subscribe for your own copy at: www.ofnetwork.wordpress.com.

Contact the OFMeister at ofnetwork (at) sbcglobal (dot) net with any questions or comments.

Disclaimers

This newsletter and blog is solely for the enjoyment of its readers. There is no warranty or guarantee stated or implied in the content by the author. None of the information contained in this newsletter or on the blog is to be considered as legal or financial advice as the author is neither a lawyer or financial advisor. The author is not liable for any consequences that results from actions taken by the reader relative to the contents of this newsletter or blog. A complete set of disclaimers are available on the website.

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Posted in Health and Medical, Military, Technology | Leave a Comment »

TRICARE Data Breach is NOT a Scam! 9 Dec 2010

Posted by OFMeister on Friday, 9 December 2011

Apparently there are rumors (and more than rumors) that the TRICARE Data Breach letter from SAIC is a Scam to gather personal data.  It is not!  If you’ve heard such please refer to these websites for more information:

TRICARE Data Theft Letter is not a Scam.

TRICARE Data Breach

Pass it on to others, please!

…The OFMeister

Posted in Health and Medical, Military, TRICARE | Comments Off

 
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