washingtonscene
attributing causality to any specific one is a very big stretch. In any event, the proposed “solution”
to the proposed “problem” — cutting fam- ily benefits for younger married military people — borders on silly. When people are laying their lives on the line and enduring ever-greater sacri- fices for their country in the way today’s troops are, and when families also are bearing tremendous burdens of sacrifice, anybody who thinks Congress actually might cut back on benefits for military families, young or old, is viewing the world from the tallest of ivory towers. The military is becoming more family-
friendly, not less — and appropriately so. Like it or not, the reality is the country needs married people in the force to fill the ranks. We couldn’t man (or woman) the force without them. So there’s no way Congress is going to
discourage them from serving, and it isn’t going to penalize younger servicemem- bers for getting married. If there’s going to be an adjustment to the compensation dif- ferential, it should provide single people more — not married people less. In MOAA’s view, the money that went to fund this study would have been better spent on family separation allowances.
Debt Panel
Finalized
Recommendations to reduce the deficit due in December.
I
n early April, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the last three appointments to the
National Commission on Fiscal Respon- sibility and Reform. The commission will scrutinize all
government spending — to include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal and
military retirement, and other defense and veterans’ programs — with the goal of re- ducing the federal deficit as well as produc- ing options for revenue increases. The commissioners include:
Presidential appointees: Former Wyo-
ming Sen. Alan Simpson (R) and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles as cochairs; Bruce Reed as executive director; and Chair and CEO of Honeywell Inter- national David Cote; former President of Young and Rubicam Brands Ann Fudge; and Brookings Institution Economist and Founding Director of the CBO Alice Rivlin.
Democratic senators: Max Baucus
(Mont.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), and Dick Durbin (Ill.)
Republican senators: Tom Coburn
(Okla.), Michael D. Crapo (Idaho), and Judd Gregg (N.H.)
Democratic representatives: Xavier
Becerra (Calif.), Jan Schakowsky (Ill.), and John Spratt (S.C.)
Republican representatives: Dave Camp
(Mich.), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), and Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) The commission held its first meeting
April 27 in Washington, D.C. Hold onto your hats. When Simpson sat
on a similar commission in the mid-1990s, he expressed the view that COLAs weren’t part of the promised federal benefit pack- age and proposed severe limits on COLAs, among other things. During the same time period, Gregg also supported significant re- ductions in the military retirement package. The commission is tasked to deliver
its recommendations by Dec. 1. That could prove a challenge, as 14 of the 18 members must agree on all official com- mission recommendations. Given the disparity of views among the commis- sion’s members, that kind of consensus will be difficult to achieve. The 1994-95 commission couldn’t reach
a consensus, but that didn’t stop individual members from pursuing their proposals in Congress.
[CONTINUES ON PAGE 38]
J U N E 2 0 1 0 MI L I T A R Y O F F I C E R 3 1
COLA Watch
■ Inflation jumped by a half percent in Febru- ary. If that trend keeps up for the rest of the fiscal year, retirees will see about a 1.4-percent COLA for 2011.
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