President Obama announced earlier this year the need for about $400 billion in military-related budget cuts over the next decade.
The nonprofit Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessment’s (CSBA) Todd Harrison said Mullen’s comments do not mean a cut in wages, but rather a slowing of pay raises in the military community. Harrison said the biggest cost to the military’s yearly budget is health care.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has reported health care costs “are eating the Department of Defense alive.”
Harrison said health care costs the military over $50 billion annually.
He said another problem is when military personnel leave the service, take other job, but maintain the low-cost health care they receive through the military.
Harrison said the average amount a service member with a family pays is about $460 a year plus an additional $30 monthly.
“That is a very low premium,” he said.