Hagel to announce painful military cuts; prepare for showdown

Under pressure to slash the Pentagon budget, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to announce painful cuts Monday, including reductions in pay raises, housing allowances, grocery subsidies and health care benefits, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In an election year, the reductions set up a sure-fire showdown with Congress and veterans groups. But in times of sequestrations, military officials counter that such savings are necessary to protect critical functions.

“Personnel costs reflect some 50 percent of the Pentagon budget,” Adm. John Kirby, spokesman for the Defense Department, said. “They cannot be exempted in the context of the significant cuts the department is facing. Secretary Hagel has been clear that while we do not want to, we ultimately must slow the growth of military pay and compensation.”

In a related development, the Army Times was informed that Special Operations Forces would not see increases in their fiscal year 2015 budget, the Washington Times reported.  At a recent conference, U.S. Special Operations Commander Adm. William Mcraven said the organization needed to rebalance spending among operations and maintenance, research and development, and testing and evaluation needs.

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Richard Berkow

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

BPR INSIDER COMMENTS

Scroll down for non-member comments or join our insider conversations by becoming a member. We'd love to have you!

Comments are closed.

Latest Articles