Mullen tosses servicemembers under the bus
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen just tossed us all under the bus. In a link from Adirondack Patriot, Mullens warned that “everything is on the table” including pay and health benefits for active duty and retired servicemembers;
Mullen went further, saying savings should be found in pay and benefits costs before cuts to programs and personnel.
“We need to avoid just making the relatively easy decision [to] just cash in force structure,” Mullen said. “We have to go through everything else — and ‘force structure’ are platforms and people — before we get to that point, because that’s why we’re here.”
The military has been tasked with finding a $half-trillion in savings over the next 12 years – not like the EPA or the Commerce Department or Health and Human Services…or any other federal agency which have only cut back minimally on increases in spending. Certainly not in cutting back on their current or retired employees’ benefits.
I always thought I could count on the military leadership to stand up for the troops they command. I guess that’s not an option in this climate – Mullen seems almost eager to toss us all aside to please his political masters.
Are there reasonable cuts that can be made? Sure. My favorite example is the pharmacy at Walter Reed. A year ago, you walked up to a machine and took a number to get in line for service.
Now they employ a series of three women that you have to stand in line to see and the last woman tears your ticket from that machine for you. Do they ask you questions about your prescriptions? Nope. You show them your ID and they tap away at a computer – they each have one, and you have to show each of them your ID and they each tap at their computer.
I figure each computer costs about $3000 and they probably pay each of those women more than $30k/year to do what we used to do without them. How many jobs are there like those in the military? That’s where I’d start if I was at all serious about saving money.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues, Veteran Health Care, Veterans Issues
After reading some of the things written about him, a few years ago IIRC, at Blackfive, he seemed too “ok” with the Chicoms.
This would appear to confirm my view of his character flaws. Never was too impressed with Gates, either.
Keep cancelling the Army’s next howitzer system, along with the Marines’ next amphibious tank-taxi-thingy, and the F-35.
And increase the greens fees at the Army-Navy Club.
And keep not-hiring enough medical professionals at the VA and military hospitals. We’ve got way too many of those folks tooling around in lab coats. We need more administrators and staff to entertain the vets.
We all know the cuts are coming to DoD and personnel costs are the single largest part of the pie; this is inevitable. When the job market is competitive the military is competitive. The economy is such shit and people are so desperate to get into the service that they aren’t even taking prior enlisted for a lot of stuff anymore. As a matter of fact last I heard the Navy wasn’t taking prior service enlistments at all. They’re flush with recruits.
ADM Mullen should show his commitment to cutting DoD’s overhead by resigning (not retiring) immediately and refusing any further pay or benefits from the DoD or VA. No doubt with this statement and Gates’ very similar one last week they’ve both secured very lucrative jobs within the current administration. The type of appointee jobs that become career jobs when the White House changes hands.
Jonn, you should know better than us that once they reach Flag Rank and are inside the beltway, they become more about politics than about the troops.
Like OldSoldier54 I have never been too impressed with Gates. Now that he is leaving he is suddenly concerned about cutting too much. I have never cared for Mullens. It high time both were gone.
Military pay is the best deal in the market place. Already below anything remotely comparable in the civilian job market. 16-18 hour days in Iraq and Afghanistan with no over time pay reduces your hourly rate to below minimum wages. While civilians working hourly rates for the government get overtime pay. Meager combat pay with no per diem you would get in the civilian workforce. Mullens words are a disgrace. He is one of the few in the military that actually gets a very good salary. I am going to go out on a limb and say that the chairman position will not be on the pay cut block. I know I am really going out on a limb.
C’mon, the only reason ANYONE is even mentioning this is because Obumbler and his sycophants have managed to turn a bad economic situation into one that’s a total goatfuck.
Basically, Mullen and the rest of the Joint Chiefs are telling the troops is to fuck off, that they’ll eat that extra helping of shit on their plates because there isn’t anything out there in CIVLANT, and they’re betting (probably correctly) that NCO’s won’t be voting with their feet just yet.
When “Collateral Murder” came out he came to WVU, and I got up while he was on a panel, and asked how it got released and how he was going to protect the rest of us from this. He acknowledged the problem but did not really give any idea what plan there was to PROTECT the soldiers while on legitimate ops. I thought that was odd. Still I got a CJCS coin so I’ll never pay at a dinning out again. What’s a poor former Joe to say?
It’s completely irrational of me & rather girly of me, but I never particularly liked Mullen just based on his demeanor & body language when he first going on news talk shows. He glowered on Fox news, but was sunshine & smiles on all the left of center networks. He gave me the impression of being the Navy’s answer to Gen Clark or a flag officer slightly less Bolshy version of John Kerry.
It’s worse than this. Mullen and Roughhead both presided over the expansion of the Navy’s “diversity enterprise” and it’s corrosive effect upon command climates, morale and retention. The Diversity Zampolits are racist bastards wholly intent on forcing the Navy into a fleet based upon national racial demographics, rather than trained warfighters and ship drivers.
Additionally, they are the final nail in the coffin of America’s Navy, pushing such Frankenships as the DDG-1000 and LCS programs, when what we need are EVOLUTIONARY ship design, not REVOLUTIONARY. Those two ship programs are wasting billions needed for further DDG-51 class ships and new-design vessels built up from TICO lessons learned.
We are headed for a 150-ship Navy incapable of doing anything more than providing a tripwire off either shore, and likely ceding to China control of the South China sea and much of the western Pacific.
I respect Gates, who was at least an improvemnt over Rumsfeld, but I have never seen him as some infallible entity as some others have. Gates has already authorizied very important cuts. Like cutting the numbers of F-22s, the Marines’ new amphibous assault track, joint forces command, actually a small modest RIF for the USA/USMC, and I think future combat systems was in there too.
Now he’s expected(with Panetta) to cut an additional 400 billion? Where is that going to come from? I think Gates’ knows he’s been had and has started to fire shots across WhiteHouse’s bow. Hopefully the Republicans will rally.
You can only cut so much before you hit muscle and begin to reduce our capabilties and that is not easy to grow/stand back up. The Democrats in congress and their allies have been hinting that they want to reduce the deficit by cutting into defense. Well fellas thats just fine, its an honest position, state it publicly so we can debate it. Don’t sculk around an pretend that that’s not what your doing.
Screw Mullen, that guy just waits to see which way the winds blowing before he ever offers any insight on topics of importance.
Keep supporting the Tea Party and you’ll get no checks and a few cases of K Rats once in a while, in gratitude for your service.
Responsibility: It’s not the Tea Party. It’s the Democratic Party. They hate the military and like Clinton and Carter before him, Obama is ransacking the military to pay for national healthcare, failed schools, welfare, reparations, and foreign aid to countries that hate America.
Keep supporting the Democratic Party and we’ll have to rely on Stephen Harper and the Canadians to keep us free.
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