Hagel to cut in his own office

Stars & Stripes reports that Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that he’s going to cut his own office’s budget by 20% to save tax payers a billion bucks over the next 5 years. He claims to be reducing his staff by 8%, mostly contractors and civilian personnel;

Hagel said the staff cuts are designed to occur primarily through workforce attrition rather than layoffs, but a DOD fact sheet distributed to reporters indicated that more abrupt cuts might be necessary if the Congress’ sequestration budget framework remains in place.

I’m pretty sure that he can cut deeper if he really tries, and the folks in the field won’t miss that staff, because that’s what they really want to do, right? I mean they’re pitting retirees against active force readiness in these draconian cuts to the Defense budget – you know cuts, that no other group of retirees would accept.

Speaking of which, Army Times, in a link sent to us by Chief Tango, reports that Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla., an Iraq and Afghanistan Navy pilot veteran, is proposing that DoD cut COLA payments to retirees as a way to save money. To be fair, he’s also proposing cuts to cost of living allowances to Social Security and Federal employees as well. That only insures that his proposal won’t pass, unless he only makes the pain felt by military retirees.

Category: Big Army, Congress sucks, Veterans Issues