{"id":1701,"date":"2013-06-12T10:29:58","date_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1701"},"modified":"2013-06-12T10:29:58","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T16:29:58","slug":"defense-officials-ask-lawmakers-for-base-closures-health-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/defense-officials-ask-lawmakers-for-base-closures-health-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense officials ask lawmakers for base closures, health reform"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Kristina Wong, The Washington Times<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2013\/jun\/11\/defense-officials-ask-lawmakers-base-closures-heal\/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&amp;utm_medium=RSS\">click here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Defense officials urged lawmakers Tuesday to consider reforming the TRICARE military health care program and shutting down underused bases around the country \u2014 moves that would be unpopular among pro-military voters and localities dependent on commerce from the facilities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re proposing is modest increases in the enrollment fees \u2026 it doesn\u2019t affect any of the active duty members, mainly those would be affected in the still-working age after you leave the military before 65,\u201d Defense Secretary\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chuck-hagel\/\">Chuck Hagel<\/a>\u00a0testified at the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee Tuesday on the fiscal 2014 defense budget request.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t do that and we have to, say, cut forces to offset it, it\u2019s about 25,000 troops,\u201d said\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/pentagon\/\">Pentagon<\/a>\u00a0Comptroller\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/robert-f-hale\/\">Robert F. Hale<\/a>, who testified alongside\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chuck-hagel\/\">Mr. Hagel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, health care makes up 10 percent of the defense budget, and could grow to as much as 20 percent,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/robert-f-hale\/\">Mr. Hale<\/a>\u00a0said. Retirees paid as much as 27 percent of the costs when the program began, but now pay only 11 percent, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The $605.4 billion budget request ould impose moderate cuts to next year\u2019s defense budget, $34 billion instead of the $52 billion that would be cut under the spending reduction plan known as sequestration, defense officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The $34 billion reduction would come from health care reform, base closures, a slowdown in military construction, restructuring and terminating some weapons programs, and reducing lower-priority programs,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chuck-hagel\/\">Mr. Hagel<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president\u2019s FY 2014 budget replaces sequestration and gives the department the time and the flexibility \u2014 the time and flexibility to plan and implement spending reductions wisely and responsibly,\u201d the defense secretary said.<\/p>\n<p>Under sequestration, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/pentagon\/\">Pentagon<\/a>\u00a0is supposed to cut nearly $500 billion from budget over the next decade, but defense officials say such cuts will leave the military unable to confront future threats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe continue to curtail or cancel training and exercises across all the services and for units that are not preparing to deploy. As a result, we are less ready every day for an unforeseen crisis or a contingency operation. In effect, we\u2019re foreclosing on options,\u201d said Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chuck-hagel\/\">Mr. Hagel<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/robert-f-hale\/\">Mr. Hale<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe simply can\u2019t afford to postpone essential reforms to compensation and health care. Both should be allowed to grow more gradually. We should stop pouring money into excess facilities and unwanted weapons,\u201d Gen. Dempsey said.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear whether passing a 2014 budget would undo sequestration for next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Kristina Wong, The Washington Times click here for original article Defense officials urged lawmakers Tuesday to consider reforming the TRICARE military health care program and shutting down underused bases around the country \u2014 moves that would be unpopular among pro-military voters and localities dependent on commerce from the facilities. \u201cWhat we\u2019re proposing is modest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/images-2.jpeg?fit=146%2C164&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}