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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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