Hold The Line!
It's time for another Blog and a Movie. Just as in this clip from Band of Brothers, it is critical that we hold the line on our current benefits during the current financial problems.
During the January Chapter 872 general membership meeting, one of the Chiefs gave an impromptu brief on changes that may be pushed down on our Air Force due to the current financial issues faced by DoD. I won’t go into the specifics about what he said, but it did get me thinking about one of his points, things are going to have to change, we can’t keep doing business the same way as we have in the past.
OK, I got it and I can accept it to a certain extent. I understand that budget cuts will mean our Air Force Bases may no long have an automotive hobby shop or the hours will be limited at other MWR offices. I also understand that it makes sense to reduce the end strength of the Air Force to help meet budget constraints. What I cannot accept is cutting benefits from their current levels for the active duty, guard, reserve and our retired personnel. WE MUST HOLD THE LINE.
Holding the line is going to be tough for a number of reasons. First and foremost is that holding the line on our benefits cuts into the bottom line of the DoD. One of the fastest growing expenses for the DoD is support for retirees to the tune of over $50B a year and growing. In a recent New York Times article, Doa and Walsh described the costs associated with retirees as “another big social welfare system”. I call it the “cost associated with having an all-volunteer force”. This country made a conscious decision to move from a draft military to a volunteer military and must follow through on promises made to those who dedicated their lives to long term service in the military. Thankfully we have a Secretary of Defense that believes we need to take care of those that dedicated a career in service to the United States but he must find a way to pay those bills.
In addition to retired pay, TRICARE for working age retirees is getting a strong look by Congress. Recently Senator John McCain recommended removing working age retirees from the rolls of TRICARE Prime. To say I was upset when I read this would be an extreme understatement. Senator McCain’s office did answer my email regarding this issue and while he didn’t directly address his support to remove retirees from TRICARE Prime, he did state that “Military retirees and their families deserve the best possible medical care in return for a career of military service to their nation, and nothing less. That is what TRICARE must provide”. To Senator McCain, I say the best possible medical care for America’s retirees is to keep access to TRICARE Prime at a fair cost, we earned it.
Another large expense for the DoD is Tuition Assistance. TA cost the DoD over $500M last year. Not too long ago we discussed Tuition Assistance in another Blog (Tuition Assistance Threat) and while there have been no cuts to date in the Air Force, the Marine Corps initially cut their TA program and later backed off due to pressure from the DoD. This program has a good return on investment for the services since it provides better educated members, especially those that are expected to perform in leadership and management positions as Non-Commissioned Officers. There will be a negative impact on the quality of Air Force enlisted leadership if this benefit is reduced.
So how do we hold the line? The first thing is membership in our organization. We have to increase our membership, especially the active duty Airmen. I’m afraid that it will take a loss of a significant benefit for the active duty force to get fired up and become involved with AFSA.
Second, we must do a better job getting our membership engaged with our elected officials. AFSA understands the importance of this aspect of our organization and will be making it much easier for our membership to contact our elected officials. The addition of CAPWIZ to the AFSA website will allow our members to contact congress on specific bills in the House and Senate. By simply providing your zip code, the CAPWIZ system will automatically build a formatted email that you can send to your elected official. We need to capitalize on this great new feature that AFSA is providing us to engage with Congress.
It is doubtful that the near term will bring any new or improved benefits simply because there are too many competing priorities for the money that is available. There will be challenges over the next few years that have the potential to seriously impact our current benefits. We must work together as an organization and hold the line.
SMSgt (ret) Gary Swanson, Division 89 Trustee