The Defense Department has unveiled detailsof a 10-year strategy for defense cuts — including reductions in military pay and benefits.
But before any large-scale changes are made, service members should be given a chance to voice their opinions of their compensation packages, a defense think tank argues.
Earlier this week, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments launched a survey designed to glean from service members their attitudes about DoD benefits.
Gradual cuts?
In the interim, the Pentagon revealed details of its budget request, including proposed cuts to military benefits, which are slated to happen gradually.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta indicated standard pay raises would remain in effect for the next two years. However, by 2015, he said those raises would drop off. DoD will also seek approval from Congress to require retirees to pay more in fees, copays and deductibles — which will be phased in over a five-year period.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the role that DoD's personnel costs play in the astronomical growth of the defense budget is no secret.
"So when we're looking at the prospect of a flat or declining defense budget over the next decade, personnel costs are going to be a major issue," he told In Depth with Francis Rose.