...at the Pentagon Bus Stop.
I know he pretty much had to say that, and probably means it. But forwarned is fore-armed. Heh. How fine-grained are we going to get in our class warfare?
One answer is pretty clear. Don't trust the government to take care of you. And don't plan on it. That way, if they do, it's gravy. Too bad for most of us in the over-50 boat right now, though, eh? Better ramp up those 401(k) contributions... if, of course, the government doesn't inflate the currency to uselessness in order to salvage their debt issues by ruining you.
Sigh.
In some respects, I'm glad the Auld Soldier didn't live to see this.
Mullen: Personnel, Health Costs 'Not Sustainable'
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Sept. 22, 2011 - Acknowledging that changes are needed to deal with unsustainable personnel costs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff emphasized here last night that the United States can't break faith with military members and their families.
President Barack Obama recommended this week that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction form a commission to come up with a plan for a new, future retirement system, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen told midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy.
That commission is expected to make recommendations as part of a plan to address the national debt that Mullen called "the No. 1 threat to our national security."
"We as a country have got to get a grip on that," he said, recognizing that the Pentagon, too, must do its part.
That will require some difficult and well-thought out decisions that shape what kind of military the United States will have in the future, he said, and how large the force will be and what capabilities it will have.
A big part of that equation involves people -- and how they will be compensated.
Mullen emphasized that there are no immediate plans to change the military retirement plan. Even if a change was to be made, he said, officials would press to have it "grandfathered," so people already serving continue to be covered by the current system.
And, if the choice came down to prioritizing between retirees and those currently in uniform, Mullen said, "my priority is for those who are serving."
"That doesn't mean that we do one and don't do the other," he told the midshipmen. "But that is my focus." [emphasis added]
The United States has a "very well-compensated force," Mullen said, telling the future naval officers it's well deserved.
"We are in two wars. We are dying for our country and we need to be well compensated," he said. "But it isn't infinite."
Personnel costs have soared 80 percent over the past 10 years, Mullen said. In addition, health-care costs skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $51 billion this year and are projected to reach $65 billion within four years.
"That is not sustainable," he said.
The full compensation package needs to be examined, Mullen said, including retirement pay, housing allowances, bonuses, health care and other benefits.
"There are going to have to be some changes," the chairman said. The challenge is "to do it in a balanced ... and fair way."
I know he pretty much had to say that, and probably means it. But forwarned is fore-armed. Heh. How fine-grained are we going to get in our class warfare?
One answer is pretty clear. Don't trust the government to take care of you. And don't plan on it. That way, if they do, it's gravy. Too bad for most of us in the over-50 boat right now, though, eh? Better ramp up those 401(k) contributions... if, of course, the government doesn't inflate the currency to uselessness in order to salvage their debt issues by ruining you.
Sigh.
In some respects, I'm glad the Auld Soldier didn't live to see this.
Sad.
This nation is growing more and more Roman by the year. And, by Roman, I mean that part of the history of Rome where the average Joe Citizen figured it just wasn't worth fighting for any more.
And Mullen is good riddence.
They've been lying to us since, well, forever, I suspect. Somewhere between WW1 and WW2 was the peak of honesty.
I had a delicious moment of schadenfreude, when working as a part of a pod of contractors with the same basic client, a retired GO whom I had worked for turned to me with some scribbled notes and said, "Here, I need you to flesh these out and make a presentation out of them."
He did *not* work for my company. I was *not* being paid to work his task. Simply put, doing what he
askedtold me to do would have been breaking the law. If he'd been a fellow employee, I probably would have demurred, or made the point of saying, "Sure. What's the charge number?" And I would have been legal (though I actually would have done more management than that and coached him on he's now a minion, and doesn't have minions.Instead, I said, "No, sorry. I can't do that, unless you'd like both of us to break the law. But if you're having some problems with Powerpoint, I can coach you through that."
He responded, "Hey! We're a team, and I need you to do this."
I said, "No, legally, we're two contractors from different companies, working on two different task orders issued under the same multi-contractor IDIQ award. And our companies aren't on the same contract team. While we choose, inasmuch as we can, to be team players for the client, that doesn't mean you get to take our past lives as the basis for our relationship in this phase, and start handing off work to me like I'm on your staff, available for tasking by you. I'm not. Welcome to your new world, General."
Clients around here made the comment that they liked my former firm because it was full of staff officers, who are used to doing work, and just sit down and start working. Vice "Former Brigade Commanders and General Officers" who still think their job is to recognize good ideas and pick them for others to execute.
We created the Inadvertent IMC and Sandstorm Survival Course for the "legacy" Iraqi pilots because, although everyone recognized the need for it, nobody actually wrote the requirement into the contract. I stayed out of trouble by "doing it in my spare time" and meticulously tracking the sim performance to justify the (prepaid) usage as "programming and hardware upgrade interoperability analysis."
Sometimes "doing the right thing" can get you fired, and if I had actually diverted assets from the Flight Training School program, even though all parties had approved of what I was doing, the impropriety would have been grounds to boot me.
I have a hunch that if the Iraqi squadron commanders hadn't been among the first to go through it, and hadn't kept pushing Baghdad to formalize it, MoD would never have written the Letter of Requirement that made my company a nice chunk of change in '09-'10.
My situaiton was a contractor who didn't really internalize he was a contractor, and that included doing the scut-work that went with having the big ideas - not tossing that off to a flunky like he was used to doing. Especially a flunky who worked on a different task for a different company!
Funding for military personnel at the present level is "unsustainable" and yet the stratospheric costs of expanding social welfare programs benefitting illegal aliens -- as if changing the verbage to "undocumented
potential Democrat votersimmigrants" magically changes their status -- which *surpasses* DoD personnel costs is now a humanitarian mandate.Funny how that works, isn't it?
Talking with my fellow
mercenariescontractors formed my personal observation that the best companies to work for follow these three preliminary steps:1. Determine what the client really wants (which is not always what the client merely *says* he wants).
2. Determine what the client really *needs*.
3. Make them mesh.
F'r instance, I'm not allowed to carry this particular laptop I'm using OCONUS -- even though I have all my 'Structor Support info on it -- because it's Bluetooth-capable.
Even though the PX/BX in Kirkuk carried the exact same model and was authorized to sell it to the Iraqi military......
IF the pay and privilages of current military retirees or privilages of former non retired military personnel are reduced below the level offered when their military contracts were signed, that's a breach of contract aint it?
And if it reduces or takes away from those perks and privilages post service for current military, then that is also a breach, isn't it?
I don't know if the balloon float pre meme fits the above or not. But if it does, wouldn't current military personnel be legally able to void their current contracts?
As for current folks, that poses a greater danger to them, but with the enlisted force, you just change their contract when they re-enlist. For the officer corps, you tell 'em they can take the new offer or be released under the terms of the old contract - which means if they've got 17 years or less, zip, nada, zilch.
And if too many people walk away, they'll just bring back the draft, cut pay since they aren't volunteers, and pat themselves on the back about how clever they've been. Hell, that almost reads like a lefty stroke-book.