The Week in Comments: Defense cuts, political correctness and Chambers' comeback
The best in reader reaction to recent articles.
A roundup of some of the comments received this week in the GovExec.com Mailbag. All comments are presented in their original, unedited form.
On Pentagon not exempt from overall pressure to cut spending
For a department that spends most of a trillion dollars every year, $78B over five years is peanuts. Regarding the USMC's amphibious landing vehicle, the last such landing was in 1950 in Inchon, Korea.
We need to move from the Powell Doctrine of an overwhelming DoD budget to destroy the enemy to a smarter DoD. The DoD budget is greater than the GDP of most nations. We out spend (this does not count homeland security, CIA, etc.) the total of the defense budgets top ten nations. We borrow our budget funds primarily from our potential adversaries. Are we knuckleheaded or what? We need to get a DoD meritocracy that is oriented toward smarter defense and not the DoD meritocracy that the Chairman of Joint Chief of Staff (ADM Mullens) defends that is oriented towards big budgets and spending.
Why isn't there ever a mention of the billions of dollars of research and development costs associated with esoteric weapons systems that we really don't need? The Pentagon wastes TRILLIONS on needless purposes.
On Proposal continues crackdown on recruitment and other bonuses
In this economy, there should be absolutely no recruitment bonuses. For every job that is posted, we have hundreds of folks waiting. And, college kids have their whole lives to pay their bills, why should the taxpayers pay these bills as a recruitment strategy and give them $10K? They should be lucky they are have a job, let alone pay them several thousands extra.
WHAT retention bones? I have never heard of anybody outside of the medical field, getting anything.
On Defense proposal would raise long-steady TRICARE fees
So if we doubled the TRICARE fee it would be 20% of the federal worker equivalent? Speaking as a vet, we are all part of the team, and should act accordingly.
Good. "Everyone is suffering, and they should have to make sacrifices too." Doesn't sound so good when it really hits home, huh? It's about time the military and its ilk were taken down from the artificial pedestal our misguided society has placed it on......
I for one wouldn't mind a "modest" rate hike for Tricare if the benefits match what was mandated for the rest of the insurance industry... i.e my children get health care coverage until 26 as long as they are enrolled in an institute of higher learning. Right now Tricare is the ONLY insurance coverage that is excluded from the law passed by the current administration. How's that for "retroactive devaluation"?
I understand the raise in premiums; let's just hope they don't go crazy and double or triple it overnight. Military personnel were promised free health care for life as part of their service obligation for 20 or more years. The federal govt is the only entity that can reneg on a lawful contract and get away with it. Also - retirees are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to access to tricare - it's like "get in the back of the line and wait", for those who think they are getting over.
On Shooting suspect leaves trail of anti-government musings
Drawing a metaphor between political strategies and military tactics is generally a bad idea.
The anti-government hate speech is everywhere. Including comments on this site.
The Declaration of Independence and other literature of the time were full of anti government musings.
As usual the media has jumped to a solution before trying to understand the root cause. That is human nature, but also self destructive. Instead of trying to control political rhetoric or the kinds of devices people can own, perhaps if we were to examine why dangerously psychotic individuals are allowed to roam free until they kill someone, we might arrive at solutions more likely to prevent future events.
On State Department revises its gender-neutral passport wording
Dr. Seuss had it covered with Thing 1 and Thing 2.
I have been a passport agent for over 15 years and this pandering to get votes is disgusting by this administration. How ridiculous can you get. I guess Hillary's version is better than the White Houses version but still ridiculous. We are carrying this political correctness way to far.
10% unemployment, attempted assasination of an elected official, terrorism, debt and deficit, and this is what is a priority? The wording on a passport.
On Lawmaker revives proposal to cut jobs, extend pay freeze
Well we can vote so lets see if the congress is going to take a 10% personnel cut and a 3 yr pay freeze. NOT. Just who do you think got us into this mess(CONGRESS).
If Federal Employees are to have their pay frozen at current levels, then ensure it applies to all Federal Employees in all the Branches of the Government. Judicial, Legislative, as well as Executive. Additional restrictions should be placed on travel for conferences, seminars, etc.. Utilize Webcasts or Video conferences instead of travel, would save a significant amount of Government travel funds. When times are good, the private sector considers public sector personnel as not being able to make it in private sector. When private sector falls then the public sector personnel are considered to be overpaid and the private sector personnel try to join the public sector. Last time I checked no public sector personnel were receiving multi-million dollar bonuses!
Pay for performance what a load of hot air. Pay performance didnt work in the commercial world where executives keep getting away with swindling more money for doing nothing while our Nation suffers and now a certain few stand to ripoff America even more. This is ridiculous and we have missed the target again. Make swindling money a crime with time instead of a negotiating piece with no admission of wrong doing or guilt.
Remember in November.
I think a two year cost of living freeze is enough. Our elected representatives should join us in this pay freeze to add to the savings.
This is a natural extension of the left wing socialist agenda. Drag the working class down to the level of the welfare class. The election of Obama was a tipping point in our rush towards socialism and the death of the American work ethic.
If they would stop or even just reduce the money going towards the wars - the deficit would drop leaps and bounds. But I guess that's too easy of a solution.
On Plans for closing Joint Forces Command likely ready next month
I must have misplaced my list of non defense cuts which are moving forward. Does anyone have their copy handy?
A good step forward, though most savings will be realized in future years. However, even with elimination of duplication in all federal agencies, there will not be a significant decrease in the deficit until entitlements are taken on (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlements)
On NSPS employees can expect 2.26 percent pay boost
So there it is. The president freezes pay on ALL federal employees -- but wait, were going to give the NSPS employees a raise. America, most of these NSPS employees make up the scewed # that falsly averages federal employees salary. Most NSPS employees are senior level positions, but yet they are not going to be held to the same pay freeze standard as the lower graded employees. Our Government / Congress doing yet another great job.
The article is misleading. NSPS employees are not getting a 2.26% pay increase. That is just a funding number based on historical spending for step increases, etc. The same pay freeze applied to GS employees also applied to NSPS employees. While GS employees are still eligible for and will receive step increases, NSPS employees are eligible to receive a performance payout instead and only can receive an amount up to a control point specified for their position.
I never transitioned to a NSPS position but the people that did saw a big jump in there annual salary and was able to keep it when they transitioned back to GS. This helped them with there retirement big time. I never did transition to the NSPS so in the end I got screwed and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it and now this.
I am NSPS and I think this is a great idea.
On Former Park Police chief reinstated
My faith in the justice system is somewhat restored. This is a just outcome, but the time and effort taken to reach it has been too long and too much. It was so obvious from the start that these charges against the Chief were ridiculus and vintictive. Someone in authority should have intervened long ago to stop the madness. It should be a criminal offense against those who took part in this unwarranted prosecution of Chief Chambers.
I like this decision. Budget discussions should be public, especially where security is concerned. It allows citizens to add political pressure if citizens are convinced that changes are warranted. This same disclosure is NOT true of operational security...how security is being established/maintained.
Congratulations to Teresa and her legal team. What a shame that Ms. Chambers had to engage in eight years of turmoil for simply stating statistical fact. This was an expensive lesson for everyone involved. However, as always, the "truth shall make ye free."
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