WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Defense said Monday that budget cuts are hurting operations, and that “all cost-cutting efforts need to be on the table.”
“We’ve received a lot of questions in recent days regarding the possibility of commissary closures in the coming year,” the Department of Defense said on its Facebook page.
The Department of Defense operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees and their families in a safe and secure shopping environment, a website dedicated to commissaries says. Authorized patrons purchase items at cost plus a 5-percent surcharge, which covers the costs of building new commissaries and modernizing existing ones. Shoppers save an average of more than 30 percent on their purchases compared to commercial prices – savings that amount to thousands of dollars annually when shopping regularly at a commissary. A core military family support element, and a valued part of military pay and benefits, commissaries contribute to family readiness, enhance the quality of life for America’s military and their families, and help recruit and retain the best and brightest men and women to serve their country.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “has made it clear on numerous occasions that all cost-cutting efforts need to be on the table in order for the Defense Department to meet the spending caps associated with the 2011 Budget Control Act. At this time, no final decisions have been made on the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2015 budget submission. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to discuss any specific budget decisions.”
I would like to make a comment about some of the cuts. Every company is trying to take away benefits from their employees and that sucks. There are vets that risked their lives for all of us in wars,conflicts and other things that the president has his troops go to help out. These troops sometimes get hurt and hopefully just like at a factory job he or she should get workmans comp but the military gives them disability.
LVS, budget cuts are always based on the path of least political resistance. If Congress for example tries to cut Foreign Aid, Department of State will scream we are hurting our friends (and of course the President will follow suit since it is his hand picked Department).
The easiest cuts are defacto benefits like Tri-Care for Military, retirement, and other benefits. Those folks are not active, thus the logic is, no one is being hurt.
Yet, Congress thumps their collective chests when it comes to “saving” Social Security. If those in Congress had to ‘survive’ on SS, you can best be assured the thousands of people currently receiving benefits would not be half starving. But, Congressmen, by their voting approval, tell the country the system is good.
There are all sorts of ways to both balance the budget, and provide more than lip-service in benefits to citizens of this country. Very few in both houses have not the guts to take action!
@Observer-I understand what you are saying but, that doesn’t make it right. Those people were promised something by our government and they should stick to their promise.
LVS, have you forgotten that washington makes promises all the time never intending to keep them.
Like if you like your health care plan, you can keep it? That kind of promise to win an election?
@maybe-here is a little something I found on the net. “The danger to America is not Barack Obama, but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools, such as those who made him their president.”
so what you are saying in english is our problem isn’t the 1 fool in office but the million fools that voted for him?
One of the major “cost savings” they are looking at but are not yet ready to launch is cutting retirement and pay benefits for active and retired military personnel. How in the HELL do you do that after promising these people the benefits and having them design their lives around it? They are also looking at cutting V.A. benefits and that really SUCKS. There is so much waste in government from V.A. Fraud, Medicare and Medicaid Fraud, Disability Fraud, Stupidity by the I.R.S., Retirement for Congress, and Foreign Aid that can be cut to fund these programs it just pisses me off to hear what they are looking at.
@LVS, if we just started drilling for oil here, we could back out of most all of the billions we are sending to other countries for aid.
Also, a large percentage of our military pay is for the mid east shipping oil. That doesn’t need to happen if we drill here and we have plenty of oil.