Hagel Says Cuts to Pay and Benefits are Needed

Military.com

by Richard Sisk

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Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Tuesday that troops and their families will be asked to sacrifice on pay and benefits to preserve readiness in an era of tighter budgets.

Hagel listed politically-charged changes to compensation and personnel policy as one of his top six priorities in reforming the military following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as the department gears up to meet new challenges.

"This may be the most difficult" to achieve among his six priorities, Hagel said of proposals to trim pay increases, overhaul TRICARE and review retirement benefits while adapting to cuts in personnel.

"Without serious attempts to achieve significant savings in this area, which consumes roughly half of the DoD budget and is increasing every year, we risk becoming an unbalanced force," Hagel said.

The alternative was to have a military that is "well-compensated, but poorly trained and equipped, with limited readiness and capability," Hagel said in a keynote address to a Global Security Forum 2013 sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hagel acknowledged the need to get approval for changes to compensation and personnel policy from members of Congress, who would be reluctant to justify military pay cuts to voters back home.

At a CSIS panel on defense budgets following Hagel's address, Jim Dyer, former staff director for the House Appropriations Committee, said he saw "no movement on pay, or to address TRICARE costs" in the current political environment.

"Congress is not there on this yet," Dyer said. "They're too determined not to hurt the troops," or their own chances for re-election, Dyer said.

In his 35-minute speech , Hagel said his  strategic vision for the department's future constantly had to be balanced against the uncertainty of funding. The overall goal, given the political gridlock in Congress, involved a tradeoff on shrinking the size of the military to maintain investments in new weapons and cyberwarfare capabilities, Hagel said.

"Destructive technologies and weapons that were once the province of advanced militaries are being sought by non-state actors and other nations," Hagel said. "This will require our continued investment in cutting-edge defensive space and cyber technologies, and capabilities like missile defense, as well as offensive technologies and capabilities to deter aggressors and respond if we must.".

The degree of difficulty in the task increased exponentially under the budget cuts, Hagel said. The Defense Department is "currently facing sequester-level cuts on the order of $500 billion over 10 years. This is in addition to the ten-year, $487 billion reduction in DoD's budget that is already underway."

"These cuts are too fast, too much, too abrupt, and too irresponsible," Hagel said. "DoD took a $37 billion sequester cut during the past fiscal year, and we could be forced to absorb a $52 billion sequester cut this fiscal year."

Yet, Hagel said he remained committed to his six priorities "for our budget and strategic planning efforts going forward" -- institutional reform, force planning, readiness, investments in emerging capabilities, balancing capacity and capability, and balancing personnel responsibilities with a sustainable compensation policy.

Hagel also echoed the themes of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who reached a consensus on foreign policy that combined the soft power of diplomacy and development with the hard power of the military to achieve what they termed "smart power." Hagel said

"We will need to place more of an emphasis on civilian instruments of power," Hagel said.

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Replies

  • "We will need to place more of an emphasis on civilian instruments of power," Hagel said.

    Civilian instruments of power?  That must mean social experiments. Let some more queers into the military and transfer the cuts to them is what Hagel really means.   Civilian instruments of power is nothing but oral BS that really stinks.

    What about cutting Hagel's pay to 2 cents a year which is more than he is worth.

    Hagel is claiming that the military and their families do not sacrifice enough....how about cutting the pay of all the politicians, and judges and Obama and civil and federal service employees by about 90%..That would be the real shared sacrifice that the Marxists love so much. Cut the waste and fraud in "social" programs and save billions.Why doesn't Hagel say that the sequesters he refers to were Obama's proposal. If Republicans balk at this, Obama will say that we are against spending cuts, which may be true of the RINOs but they are not really Americans anyway.  They are frauds.  .

  • Tell the SOB that I don't get benefits, I earned, "Entitlements".

     

    A. Menges

  • They don't cut back on anyone in D.C.such as our infamous IRS and others. The IRS costs us more in loss than any other. But the list goes on. I hope these jerks rot. Has anyone heard any more news about HLS bringing the Syrian army to train in the USA? That will be barry's personal army.

  •  NO WAY,QBAMA NEEDSTOSTOP ALL HIS GOLF & VACATIONS,AND FUNDING ALL MUSLIMS!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Not untill they cut the Presidents, the vice presidents, congress and senat pay in half and cut all there retiremnet and medical benifits.

  • How dare, that worthless piece of Trash ,even think of cutting our Military!!!    They get next to nothing ,now.    Let's cut all the "Navigators",  the Dept. of Homeland Security,  the Dept. of Health and Human Services,  the IRS, t he EPA, and then the pay, of all Congressmen, cancel any and all Travel for the President, then see where more money is wasted.   The man is doing everthing he can to dismantle the Military, first getting rid of all the real Leaders, now he wants to make it such a Low Paying job, no one will Volunteer. Devious, lying, sneaky, corrupt Trash all of them.

    • Jo Gonzalez

      (read entire post before boiling) There are many things that the military should and could cut. Let's start with the generals at the top who get paid big money to mimic Obama. Parrots can do that with far more dignity.  It could cut social experimentation programs. It could cut expenses for modifications to ships, etc., that are just going to prove that men and women are not equal. 

      It could replace the Commander in Chief with a broken computer.  Huge savings there, folks. Then cut the pay of everyone with a GS or FS rating making $100K or more down to the national median pay of about 50K would also save a lot of money  After all, they are in government TO SERVE, NOT TO BE SERVED.  The altruistic desire to serve should require that they get very low pay.  Isn't that what altruism is all about? Isn't a salary of over $100K overcostly, when they should be giving service above self? Should not they be sacrificing for the "greater good" that they are always preaching about to people who work for a living and pay the taxes that support them?   On second thought everyone serving in government (except the Armed Forces and others who actually put their lives on the line for the country) should get paid at a dollar an hour under that minimum wage they love so much. At least those making minimum wage work (when that are not striking for more money to help their friends get fired). We certainly do not want to make our federal and civil servants feel selfish, now, do we??  These proposals are likely to cause smaller government as these parasites resign. Then we would not have to cut much more in the military.than I mentioned above.

      Jo Gonzalez's Discussions
      Jo Gonzalez's Discussions | This effort is focused on sacrifice to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies forei…
      • he is removing all those that oppose his agenda from the ranks.

        cutting their pay is just a part of it their benefits are the big spending items

  • Eliminate demonRATS and the economy will fix itself.

  • sure and now a violation of the terms of our service where we were promised coverage for our injury's sustained during our service to the Nation, or a reduction in our earned benefits but not one word on the politicians losing squat, take it from those that served instead and hurt the nation as much as they can seems like their agenda and plan.

    I have to ask if the funding and supplying of the Muslim Brotherhood world wide amounts to treason yet?  

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