Most of 800,000 Department of Defense civilian employees will see their workweeks shortened and their pay cut by 20 percent from late April through September, if Congress, as now expected, fails to stop $46 billion in indiscriminate defense budget cuts set to take effect March 1.
Defense Department civilian and military leaders gave full details this week of the readiness crisis unfolding across America’s armed forces, and got back not a whit of reassurance from Congress that relief is on the way.
Lt. Cmdr. Jack Townsend, a Navy Reserve retiree in Richmond, Va., first became aware a decade ago that he wasn’t considered a military veteran under federal law. It’s been bothering him ever since.
Congressional leaders appear to have reach consensus that it is safer politically to allow deep and arbitrary cuts to military budgets than it is to negotiate a large debt-reduction deal that would have names attached.
This time last year, the Air Force unveiled a plan to cut Air National Guard strength by 5,100 members along with more than 200 Guard aircraft, touting this as a reasonable efficiency, in part because Guard squadrons cost more to operate than active duty squadrons.
The end of the Iraq War also appears to end a golden age of growth in military pay and benefits, which lasted at least a decade and corrected many perceived or long-standing faults in military compensation.
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