Marine Memorial Dedication at Veterans Park.zip

File photo: Hamilton Township Patriotic Committee Marine Memorial Dedication held at Veterans Park, Hamilton, November 9, 2013.

(Mary Iuvone/For The Times)

By Tom Philpott

As it came to a close, 2013 seemed to leave a kind of high-water mark on the wall of more than a decade of steady, impressive gains to military and veterans’ pays and benefits.

Will those gains now begin to recede?

The military this month is getting its smallest annual pay raise in 50 years, 1 percent versus 1.8 percent needed to match private sector wages. No big deal, pay officials contend.

Military pay still exceeds earnings for 90 percent of civilians of like age and education level, thanks to the string of raises that, starting in 2001, exceeded private sector wage growth. Also, recruiting is strong and average housing allowances rose 5 percent Jan. 1.



Military careerists and younger retirees got a harder hit in December when the first "bipartisan" budget in years included a cap on annual cost-of-living adjustments for retirees below age 62, starting in January 2016.

Projected savings — $6.3 billion over just the first decade — helped Congress to ease automatic defense spending cuts set for 2014 and 2015.

But advocates for military folks worry the COLA cap signals that lawmakers, who continue to oppose tax increases or cuts in more popular entitlement programs, no longer view military compensation promises as sacrosanct.

“The COLA (cap) is huge,” said retired Army Col. Robert F. Norton of Military Officers Association of America. “Because contrary to public assertions from the president, the chairman of the joint chiefs, (Defense Secretary Chuck) Hagel and leaders on Capitol Hill, this retirement cut is a hit on currently serving career members.”

That includes, he said, a Marine gunnery sergeant or Army platoon sergeant “on a third or fourth tour in Afghanistan” who expects to retire soon.

Initially praised for shaping a modest budget deal on deadline, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the budget committee chairmen, saw their package swiftly enacted, before most lawmakers realized that the military COLA cap would spark a firestorm of protests.

Worried lawmakers immediately held news conferences, sponsored rollback bills or issued news releases promising to replace the COLA cap with an alternative budget saving idea.

Even Ryan and Murray agreed the cap at least should be modified before it takes effect in 2016 to spare 100,000 veterans who have been medically retired by their branch of service.

Ryan, however, defends the COLA cap in general, saying the idea came from the Department of Defense and only modestly trims a generous retirement plan that provides, on average, 40 years worth of inflation-protected annuities in return for

20 years of service.

Send comments to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120, or e-mail milupdate@aol.com or twitter: Tom Philpott @Military_Update

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