The Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey says that tough choices have to be made. It is their desire to make active duty military and their families as well as military retirees, military veterans and their families, with military retirees enduring the most erosion of their already eroding benefits.
Under the proposed 2015 budget housing subsides for military families would be cut by five percent. The military commissaries, which present an average savings of over thirty percent for active duty families, military retirees, and veterans families presently save them over thirty percent. Under the proposed budget one billion dollars would be shaved cutting saving down to ten percent or less. Military Commissaries contribute many dollars to the military communities and bases that they serve.The Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are using these tools as an excuse for combat readiness.
And it does not end there. Health care deductibles and co-pays would increase under TriCare Prime and CHAMPUS an average of 28 percent. Also military pay raises are frozen to one percent instead of meeting the annual cost of living adjustments due to inflation. These are all quality of life issues affecting our troops, our military veterans and retirees and their family members also.
It is time for our elected officials to stop carrying the budget on the backs of those who serve or have served as well as their families, honorably, faithfully and selflessly and to force the military branches to look at reducing their budgets by getting rid of obsolete weapons systems, equipment, and training methods as well as upgrading and maintaining equipment and systems they already have instead of taking the easy way out.
