U.S. Military (Ret.): Contact lawmakers as budget hearings ramp up - Military Retirement - Navy Times

U.S. Military (Ret.): Contact lawmakers as budget hearings ramp up

Not unexpectedly, the Pentagon’s recent calls for further significant increases in Tricare fees for retirees — including even older retirees — have red flags going up all over the military retirement community.

Where are we going with all of this? It’s still too early to tell; at this writing, Defense Department officials have not yet been called to explain or defend their plan in detail in the annual springtime budget hearings before Congress.

I hate to be pessimistic, but the outlook does not look promising for retirees.

Anyone who follows the news out of Washington knows that Congress failed to come up with a deficit reduction plan of its own, which means that as of this moment, $1.2 trillion in automatic, across-the-board cuts to the federal budget are scheduled to begin early in 2013.

That’s on top of an almost $500 billion reduction in planned Pentagon spending over the next 10 years that has been approved and is moving forward.

And with the Pentagon’s medical budget exploding over the past 10 years, it seems obvious that a ripe target for the budget cutters will be retirement health care benefits.

If there ever really was a time when military retirees could expect free health care for life, clearly that time is gone. What was once a sacred cow has somehow become low-hanging fruit for budget cutters.

But is cutting retiree health care benefits smart policy?

Retired Air Force Col. Steve Strobridge, director of government relations for the Military Officers Association of America and co-chairman of the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of more than 30 military and veterans associations, clearly doesn’t think so.

“The whole reason military people are willing to pursue a career is because after 20, 30 years of extraordinary sacrifice, there is a package commensurate with that sacrifice upon leaving service,” he said recently.

If the Pentagon makes changes to retiree health care and other benefits, what will be the impact on recruiting and retention?

No one really knows.

The initial reaction to the Pentagon’s plans for increased health care fees for retirees met with a cool reception from the Senate Budget Committee, whose members did not come out and directly oppose the plan but asked some pointed questions about the logic behind it.

We’ll learn more about which way the wind is blowing over the next few weeks as hearing season cranks up on Capitol Hill.

If there’s a ray of hope, it’s to be found in the fact that the Pentagon cannot make changes to our benefits without congressional approval. As such, there will never be a more important moment for you to let your representatives and senators know how you feel.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.