washingtonscene MOAA President O
Sen. Frank Lautenberg
(D-N.J.)
n May 7, MOAA President Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., USN- Ret., defended military people at
a three-person debate on military pay and benefits at the Center for American Prog- ress (CAP) in Washington, D.C. The debate was over a new CAP study,
“Reforming Military Compensation,” that recommends cutting back military pay raises, converting military retirement to a contributory 401(k)-style system, and dramatically increasing TRICARE fees for military retirees, among other things. (See “Out to Lunch on Military Benefits,” page 34.) Ryan sparred with Maj. Gen. Arnold
Sen. Marco Rubio
(R-Fla.)
L. Punaro, USMCR-Ret., a member of the Defense Business Board, and Michael J. Bayer, former chair of the Defense Business Board, whose 2011 report rec- ommended major cutbacks in military retirement. Lawrence Korb, senior fellow for CAP and former assistant secretary of defense for Manpower, Reserve Affairs, Installations, and Logistics, moderated the panel. Bayer said, “Until personnel costs are
wrestled down to manageable levels, there won’t be enough to fund other defense needs.” He advocated a radical overhaul of what he asserted is “an archaic system of [military] pay and benefits,” noting 83 percent of military people leave service without any benefit. Punaro said he agrees with MOAA that
we don’t want to return to the “erosion of benefits” era of the late 1970s, but still ar- gued for significant benefit cuts for future entrants. He noted military retirees’ life
38 MILITARY OFFICER JULY 2012
Defends Benefits Panel discussion covers pay and health care.
expectancies likely will continue to rise another six to eight years, “creating anoth- er huge financial burden for the country.” Ryan countered that defense leaders
are “missing the forest for the trees” on these issues, and the real focus should be on sustaining needed incentives to stay for the 17 percent rather than whacking their benefits to help the 83 percent who choose to leave. “There’s a reason only 17 percent stay
for a career,” Ryan said, citing the huge sacrifices inherent in a military career. “The 83 percent don’t leave with nothing. Congress approved a GI bill worth up- wards of $80,000 per person to help them with that transition.” He noted a 20-year NCO earns retired
pay of only $23,000 and proposing big pay, retirement, and health care cutbacks “dis- honors their service.”
Senators Defend
TRICARE New bill would cap fee hikes.
A
bipartisan bill to stop unfair TRICARE fee hikes for military beneficiaries has been introduced
by Sens. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Their “Military Health Care Protection Act of 2012” (S. 3203) would: acknowledge servicemembers pre- pay significant health care premiums through decades of service and sacrifice, over and above what they pay in cash; limit the annual percentage increase in cash fees (including pharmacy copay- ments, TRICARE Standard deductibles, and the cap on annual out-of-pocket ex- penses) to the percentage increase in mili- tary retired pay; bar any further increase in the existing
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