The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Politics => Topic started by: txradioguy on August 08, 2013, 02:11:34 PM
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The Pentagon is hammering out details for potential cutbacks to Basic Allowance for Housing, a change that could force nearly a million troops to pay more out-of-pocket cash for their own living expenses.
“It turns out to be a devilishly complicated thing to do,†Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Military Times in an interview Wednesday.
“There can be reductions in rates,†Carter said, as he ticked off several options for how to cut BAH. “We can look at the rates of growth and try to find ways of slowing growth. We can look at inequalities in the system depending on where you live.â€
Carter headed the Pentagon’s recent Strategic Choices and Management Review, which explored ways that the Defense Department could absorb the across-the-board budget cuts known as sequestration that became law in March. The cuts amount to a roughly 10 percent reduction in military spending.
A reduction in BAH rates would be a landmark reversal of a multiyear program that DoD rolled out with much fanfare from 2001 to 2005 under which the allowance was raised to a level that theoretically covers 100 percent of off-base rental costs for all troops. Prior to that effort, troops paid an average of 20 percent of their housing costs out of pocket.
Returning to a policy of making troops pay more for their own off-base housing is one way the military is trying to carve about $50 billion in savings from its personnel budget accounts over the next decade.
The Pentagon pays about $20 billion a year in BAH to nearly one million troops. A rough estimate suggests that if troops began covering 5 percent to 10 percent of their own off-base housing costs, the Pentagon could rack up between $10 and $20 billion in savings over the next decade.
Yet such a change would likely have many ripple effects. It would likely increase competition for on-base housing, which is already in short supply in many places. And it might make some duty assignments more or less desirable based on the local cost of living.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has ordered the Joint Chiefs to consult with senior enlisted leaders and consider the impact of the proposed changes. During the “next several weeks,†the Joint Staff is expected to make a recommendation on the most palatable ways to cut compensation and health care costs, Carter said.
Other proposals involve granting smaller annual basic pay raises for troops and scaling back access to Tricare health coverage for working-age military retirees under 65.
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130807/BENEFITS02/308070032/DoD-looks-ways-scale-back-BAH
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Throw the deadbeats out of government housing and move the military in......I bet they take better care of the "peoples" property.
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Hey, Ash!
Want to know a great way to cut expenses in the DoD budget?
Since you clearly don't have the skills to manage this "devilishly complicated" thing, why don't you just submit your ****ing resignation, pack your shit, and get the **** out of the Pentagon?
Oh, and take your douchebag Assistant Deputy Defense Secretary, his/her staff and entourage, staff car, lunch perks, golf club membership, and all the other vermin with you. We could probably get a big chunk of that $20 billion we need so desperately. :whatever:
Asshat.
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Am I reading this correctly, 57 billion of Defense spending goes to foreign aid ? :confused:
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2013USbn_14bs2n_303435_152_151#usgs302
Defense 856.5 0.0 1.2 0.0 857.7
- Military defense 660.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 660.0
- Civil defense 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
- Veterans 139.6 0.0 1.2 0.0 140.8
[–] Foreign military aid 15.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.1
[–] International security assistance (152) 15.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.1
— Deltas between the Annualized CR Amounts and the FY 2013 Budget Request 0.6 0.6
— Peacekeeping Operations 0.6 0.6
— Economic Support Fund 5.7 5.7
— Nonproliferation, Antiterrorism, Demining, and Related Programs 0.7 0.7
— International Military Education and Training 0.1 0.1
— Foreign Military Financing Program 6.7 6.7
— Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund 0.6 0.6
— Foreign Military Financing Loan Program Account 0.2 0.2
— Foreign Military Loan Liquidating Account -0.1 -0.1
[–] Foreign economic aid 41.9 0.0 0.0 0.0 41.9
[–] International development and humanitarian assistance (151) 25.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 25.5
— Deltas between the Annualized CR Amounts and the FY 2013 Budget Request 0.2 0.2
— Complex Crises Fund 0.1 0.1
— International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement 2.7 2.7
— Global Health Programs 8.1 8.1
— Democracy Fund 0.2 0.2
— Migration and Refugee Assistance 1.9 1.9
— Andean Counterdrug Programs 0.1 0.1
— Deltas between the Annualized CR Amounts and the FY 2013 Budget Request -0.1 -0.1
— International Organizations and Programs 0.3 0.3
— Global Food Security Fund 0.2 0.2
— Strategic Climate Fund 0.1 0.1
— Contribution to the Inter-American Development Bank 0.1 0.1
— Contribution to the International Development Association 1.5 1.5
— Contribution to the Asian Development Bank 0.2 0.2
— Contribution to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development 0.2 0.2
— Clean Technology Fund 0.2 0.2
— Contribution to the African Development Bank 0.2 0.2
— Debt Restructuring 0.1 0.1
— Operating Expenses of the Agency for International Development 1.3 1.3
— Operating Expenses, Office of Inspector General 0.1 0.1
— Development Assistance Program 2.6 2.6
— Transition Initiatives 0.1 0.1
— HIV/AIDS Working Capital Fund 0.1 0.1
— International Disaster Assistance 1.0 1.0
— Loan Guarantees to Israel, Downward Reestimates of Subsidies -0.1 -0.1
— Capital Investment Fund of the United States Agency for International Development. 0.1 0.1
— Loan Guarantees to Egypt Program Account 0.3 0.3
— Assistance for Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia 0.6 0.6
— Economic Assistance Loans Liquidating Account -0.4 -0.4
— Gifts and Donations, Agency for International Development -0.1 -0.1
— Overseas Private Investment Corporation Program Account 0.1 0.1
— Overseas Private Investment Corporation Program Account 0.2 0.2
— Overseas Private Investment Corporation Loans, Negative Subsidies -0.1 -0.1
— Overseas Private Investment Corporation Loans, Downward Reestimates of Subsidy -0.3 -0.3
— Overseas Private Investment Corporation Noncredit Account -0.2 -0.2
— Trade and Development Agency 0.1 0.1
— Peace Corps 0.4 0.4
— Millennium Challenge Corporation 1.8 1.8
— Expenses, Public Law 480, Foreign Assistance Programs, Agriculture Liquidating Account -0.3 -0.3
— Food for Peace Title II Grants 1.6 1.6
— Food for Peace Title II Grants 0.1 0.1
— McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program 0.2 0.2
- Conduct of foreign affairs (153) 16.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 16.1
- Foreign information and exchange activities (154) 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.5
- International financial programs (155) -1.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 -1.3
- R and D Defence 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
- Defence n.e.c.
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BAH, and its predecessor BAQ/BAS/VHA are and were a weird solution to the problem of low base pay, and a rational way to approach it would be to roll allowances except for overseas COLAs into base pay, which is what some or our allies have done. However, increasing base pay like that ain't ever gonna happen, because of all the retirees of all sorts whose pay is pegged to the base pay number.
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Obama said to make sequestration as painful as possible.
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Obama said to make sequestration as painful as possible.
And sadistically he's inflicting all the pain on the Military.
I don't even think Carter hated us this much. Clinton loathed us...but this is borderline dereliction of duty.
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And sadistically he's inflicting all the pain on the Military.
I don't even think Carter hated us this much. Clinton loathed us...but this is borderline dereliction of duty.
As moonbat crazy shitbird that he is, at least Carter served. On boats, IIRC.
The Clenis dodged the draft and lied about it, and Barry? Well, we know all about Barry and his love affair with Alinsky and the rest of the communists.
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My guess is this is just the first salvo. When folks get all upset, they will go ,back to the drawing board and cut base pay which, is what they wanted in the first place.
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My guess is this is just the first salvo. When folks get all upset, they will go ,back to the drawing board and cut base pay which, is what they wanted in the first place.
If they cut base pay, a lot of retirees will get cut back in the process.
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If they cut base pay, a lot of retirees will get cut back in the process.
Which is just fine as far as this administration is concerned.
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My guess is this is just the first salvo. When folks get all upset, they will go ,back to the drawing board and cut base pay which, is what they wanted in the first place.
I wouldn't put it past them, but it's kind of at odds with the gist of the story.