Troubled Days Ahead for Our Military
As of this posting I am confident that most of my readers are most likely aware the Secretary of Defense Gates has recommended that our nations CIA Director Leon Panetta serve as his impending replacement.
Naturally, it will be Panetta's responsibility to pursue the White Houses plans to slash $400 billion from the defense budget within the next dozen years.
To date there are countless members of our military which are less than delighted about Robert Gates suggestion that in order to attain that $400 billion reduction we will have to slice into not only the active military pay but TRICARE benefits as well.
Being a military retiree as well as an advocate of a robust military workforce, this idea upsets me greatly.
Increasing Tricare fees and reducing military pay checks is not the way to achieve this government budget goal.
The key to balancing our budget restraints is to formulate appropriate cuts without producing a major impact upon our current quality of life.
If Panetta is earnestly seeking thoughtful solutions to our countries budget crunch instead of merely a scapegoat in support of poor spending habits, there are ways in which to cut defense without endangering our forces.
One important change which could be implemented concerns over the counter medications.
Let's investigate why our military continues to receive free over the counter drugs? If a service member is deployed in a specific military zone than this does not present an issue.
However, when on a regular base assignment they should be expected to purchase these products at your own expense.
You can rest assured the remainder of the nation's health providers do not supply Zyrtec, multivitamins or acetaminophen to their policy holders.
We could drastically cut some "fat" from the budge by merely bringing this issue inline with the remainder of the nation.
Doesn't this make more sense than cutting into the military weapons programs and providing our troops with second-rate arms to fight our wars with? It is unfortunate that we are now forcing our military to wage wars with outdated weapons, ancient ships and unsafe aircraft.
We have reduced military manpower so drastically that it is now reaching a crucial threshold.
There are other ways to reduce the budget our active military is not one of them.
One of the principles of reducing unnecessary cost would be to keep what we need while parting with those items we do not require.
Are those multimillion dollar golf courses on military bases necessary? I think not.
What about the lavish government hotels and retreats found overseas? Could we do away with them? I believe we could.
While we are on the topic of cost reduction, perhaps we can enlist the aid of a few other government agencies to help lighten the load as well.
We could reduce or cut our foreign aid especial to those countries which view America merely as a golden cow and not as an ally.
Perhaps we should consider the validity of our presence worldwide.
Isn't it time to close down some more of our Europe bases? Europeans in general spent less money than we do on defense.
Why do you think this is so? When a European nation experience a money crunch the first place they start to cut back is their military simply because they know America is there to protect them.
Make these countries responsible for their own safety and defense.
We are currently waging war in the country of Libya.
Imagine if we fly only one or two less sorties per day what we could save in expenses.
My belief is that congress should lead the way in reductions.
How about the members of congress and the senate giving up an equivalent amount of their pay and benefits as they expect our soldiers to do? Here we have a privileged few who receive pay raises when our economy is at a low tide, they have one of the best free health care programs in existence, and ultimately get paid for life even if they merely serve one term at their position.
It is unlikely that our forefathers had envisioned our nation's representatives to homestead in Washington and make their service a lifetime career.
Nor did they intend for them to receive benefits far and beyond those of the average citizen.
What about cuts relating to welfare for Illegal Aliens? We should eliminate free health care for all illegal aliens.
What is it about the word "illegal" don't these people and understand? Speaking of congress we should also make all members of congress and their families pay their fair share for healthcare while eliminating much of the benefits they retire with.
Let them live as the common man who they are elected to represent, In closing I have to propose a topic for though to our countries leaders.
Will you as one of our political leaders be able to face your grandchildren in the future with an honest face and explain to them why we no longer speak English in America or why our military is one of the weakest in the world? By Joseph Parish Copyright @2011 Joseph Parish http://www.
survival-training.
info
Naturally, it will be Panetta's responsibility to pursue the White Houses plans to slash $400 billion from the defense budget within the next dozen years.
To date there are countless members of our military which are less than delighted about Robert Gates suggestion that in order to attain that $400 billion reduction we will have to slice into not only the active military pay but TRICARE benefits as well.
Being a military retiree as well as an advocate of a robust military workforce, this idea upsets me greatly.
Increasing Tricare fees and reducing military pay checks is not the way to achieve this government budget goal.
The key to balancing our budget restraints is to formulate appropriate cuts without producing a major impact upon our current quality of life.
If Panetta is earnestly seeking thoughtful solutions to our countries budget crunch instead of merely a scapegoat in support of poor spending habits, there are ways in which to cut defense without endangering our forces.
One important change which could be implemented concerns over the counter medications.
Let's investigate why our military continues to receive free over the counter drugs? If a service member is deployed in a specific military zone than this does not present an issue.
However, when on a regular base assignment they should be expected to purchase these products at your own expense.
You can rest assured the remainder of the nation's health providers do not supply Zyrtec, multivitamins or acetaminophen to their policy holders.
We could drastically cut some "fat" from the budge by merely bringing this issue inline with the remainder of the nation.
Doesn't this make more sense than cutting into the military weapons programs and providing our troops with second-rate arms to fight our wars with? It is unfortunate that we are now forcing our military to wage wars with outdated weapons, ancient ships and unsafe aircraft.
We have reduced military manpower so drastically that it is now reaching a crucial threshold.
There are other ways to reduce the budget our active military is not one of them.
One of the principles of reducing unnecessary cost would be to keep what we need while parting with those items we do not require.
Are those multimillion dollar golf courses on military bases necessary? I think not.
What about the lavish government hotels and retreats found overseas? Could we do away with them? I believe we could.
While we are on the topic of cost reduction, perhaps we can enlist the aid of a few other government agencies to help lighten the load as well.
We could reduce or cut our foreign aid especial to those countries which view America merely as a golden cow and not as an ally.
Perhaps we should consider the validity of our presence worldwide.
Isn't it time to close down some more of our Europe bases? Europeans in general spent less money than we do on defense.
Why do you think this is so? When a European nation experience a money crunch the first place they start to cut back is their military simply because they know America is there to protect them.
Make these countries responsible for their own safety and defense.
We are currently waging war in the country of Libya.
Imagine if we fly only one or two less sorties per day what we could save in expenses.
My belief is that congress should lead the way in reductions.
How about the members of congress and the senate giving up an equivalent amount of their pay and benefits as they expect our soldiers to do? Here we have a privileged few who receive pay raises when our economy is at a low tide, they have one of the best free health care programs in existence, and ultimately get paid for life even if they merely serve one term at their position.
It is unlikely that our forefathers had envisioned our nation's representatives to homestead in Washington and make their service a lifetime career.
Nor did they intend for them to receive benefits far and beyond those of the average citizen.
What about cuts relating to welfare for Illegal Aliens? We should eliminate free health care for all illegal aliens.
What is it about the word "illegal" don't these people and understand? Speaking of congress we should also make all members of congress and their families pay their fair share for healthcare while eliminating much of the benefits they retire with.
Let them live as the common man who they are elected to represent, In closing I have to propose a topic for though to our countries leaders.
Will you as one of our political leaders be able to face your grandchildren in the future with an honest face and explain to them why we no longer speak English in America or why our military is one of the weakest in the world? By Joseph Parish Copyright @2011 Joseph Parish http://www.
survival-training.
info
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