Truman Project Defense Council member Jesse Sloman explains Congress' efforts to reform military compensation.
In a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation last week, the House Armed Services Committee voted to throw out the Defense Department’s plans to save money by making modest cuts to military compensation. As a result, Congress has once again stymied the Pentagon’s efforts to get a handle on the spiraling cost of servicemember benefits. The current compensation system, including pay, pensions, healthcare, and other services, carves out a larger chunk of the DoD budget every year and is simply too expensive to be sustained in its present form. In the words of retired Marine general Arnold Punaro, lawmakers run the risk of “turning the Defense Department into a benefits company that occasionally kills a terrorist.”
