I've posted several articles prompted by the work of Lawrence Korb, Assistant Secretary of Defense under Reagan. He's expressed much common sense about how we can cut our ginormous defense budget. His latest one tackles compensation for the military.
Compensation for an individual in the military, is supposed to reflect the average salaries of civilian workers with comparable educational backgrounds. Well, it doesn't; a military person receives $15,000 more a year. Eliminating this differential would save us $6 billion a year.
Those who retire after 20 years service receive half-pay for the rest of their lives. If the average soldier entered the service is his twenties, he still has twenty or more years in which to work. Couple his regular pay with his pension and you have a pretty good income. For a brief time the pension was reduced to 40%, but the military leaders were able to get this policy overthrown. A more reasonable pension plan would save substantially.
The medical insurance plan, Tricare, is a great one for the retiree: $460 a year for a family plan. How much are you paying? You're lucky if it's $460 a month. How much could we save with a more reasonable plan?
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