Obama Outlines Mil Pay and Retirement Guidelines
President Obama on Thursday sent his principles for modernizing and restructuring military compensation and retirement benefits to Congress, and a commission has stood up to direct the task.
Chief among these, according to the three-page document, is that the commission does nothing to alter the current retirement system for those already serving, retired or in the process of retiring.
“While we have successfully transitioned from a conscripted force to an all-volunteer force, sustaining this force requires responsive and prudent management, especially given the fiscal challenges we face as a nation,” he wrote.
The president also informed the nine-member Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission that, along with a review of compensation, it should also look at the “interrelationship of the military’s current promotion system … as well as associated force shaping tools.”
Joe Davis, spokesman for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the commission’s charter “is to save the government money, but I hope they fully consider all the downsides to each recommendation, because a professionally-led, all-volunteer military must first have commanders and senior enlisted advisors who are selected for being the best qualified, not the last ones standing."
Now, he said, the Defense Department offers “only two carrots” to get and keep people for 20 years or more: the immediate receipt of retirement pay and low Tricare premiums for the member and spouse.
“Any major adjustment to either, coupled with a resurging economy that offers more attractive alternatives, could mean this commission’s recommendations
The country’s 1.9 million military retirees and 22 million veterans made large, upfront investments to earn their retirements and healthcare, he said, and they know that lessening these will directly impact retention.
“The troops are watching, too, because once the economy rebounds, picking stability over unpredictability, or a business suit instead of body armor, are not very difficult choices to make,” Davis said....
Yes, the Troops ARE watching.... Read more here. BE informed.
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