For Washington lawmakers who measure the national debt in trillions, $6 billion is a pittance. But for many military veterans—and key lobbying groups—the $6 billion in pension cuts contained in December's budget compromise meant a broken promise.
And it's not a breach they're willing to let Washington forget.
In a Twitter town hall Tuesday night with the theme #KeepYourPromise, service members and their families expressed their outrage. Alia Reese, a military spouse, tweeted a picture of a little boy pressed to a computer screen. "This is how Daddy has read to him for over half his life," she wrote. "We have upheld our end now you do yours."
Military personnel issues have long been sacred on Capitol Hill, and many defense watchers—from Pentagon officials to lobbyists—were surprised when the final deal between Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., emerged including a provision decreasing the annual cost-of-living adjustment for working-age military retirees by 1 percent over the next decade.
Now it appears proponents of the cut may have claimed victory too soon. Backed by veteran outrage, military-advocacy groups have mobilized, and legislative proposals on Capitol Hill to reverse the pension cuts are gaining steam. More than a dozen proposals have been introduced, though there's disagreement on exactly how to replace the savings.
A bill by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., for instance, wants to offset the cost by changing the tax code to prevent illegal immigrants from claiming a child tax credit, while Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., would like to find the money by closing some overseas corporate tax loopholes.
The growing backlash to the cut—some one in three lawmakers, according to The Hill, have sponsored or cosponsored different bills to repeal the cuts—is a strong signal that personnel issues are likely to remain virtually untouchable in the near future, even if it means sacrificing other important priorities for the military, such as training for combat operations and weapons programs.
The $6 billion cut, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments' analyst Todd Harrison said, is a "drop in the bucket" compared to what we're spending on military compensation over the next 10 years. "Unfortunately, I think that the way Congress has responded to this small change in compensation—and now they're looking at repealing it—is a setback for making meaningful progress on this issue for the foreseeable future."
From 2001 to 2012, the average cost of pay and benefits per active-duty service member grew from $54,000 to $109,000, Harrison says—an increase of 56 percent adjusted for inflation. Yet veterans' service organizations, says Harrison, are proving "very effective at scaring members of Congress about touching this issue again. They're reinforcing the belief that this is a third-rail issue."