Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will recommend a military pay cut to Congress, requesting that military salaries be limited to a one percent increase next year.
The recommendation comes after the Pentagon calculated that the Labor Department’s 2014 Employment Cost Index will be more than one percent.
Despite this, Panetta still wants to cut back on pay for military because of “budget uncertainties.” Three Pentagon officials have confirmed the plans to CNN and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have also agreed to the proposal.
Previously, a 1.7 percent increase was approved, because of the index. The index has created the standard for military pay for the past several years.
Now, however, the recommendation has been made based on the Defense Department’s budget recommendation for next year, which is also expected to be sent to Congress in February.
The New York Times reports that the information about a possible military pay cut comes on the same day as Panetta warned that deductions from the automatic cuts set to take effect in March would cause problems with American naval operations in the western Pacific.
Panetta stated during a speech at Georgetown University:
“This is not a game, this is reality. These steps would seriously damage the fragile American economy, and they would degrade our ability to respond to crisis precisely at a time of rising instability across the globe.”
Panetta also claimed that Congress created “a self-made crisis.” He called the automatic cuts, set to take effect on March 1, “legislative madness,” and “the most serious readiness crisis that this country is going to confront in over a decade.”
Do you agree with the idea of a military pay cut, or should the military be paid more for their services?
[Image by English: Tech. Sgt. Jacob N. Bailey, U.S. Air Force (www.defense.gov) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons ]
