JFCOM Cuts a Preview of the Budget Battles AheadOctober 14, 2010

 

Since Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the elimination of the Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) in Virginia—in an attempt to cut Pentagon spending—Congress has been complaining fiercely about the plan.

In a bipartisan showing, the House Budget Committee called a meeting to give the Virginia Congressional delegates more time to denounce Gates’ plan. This might be a glimpse of the future if the United States were to take tough steps to balance its budget, according to an article in The Washington Post.

"The defense budget is in many respects a microcosm of the rest of the federal budget, and the issues in the defense budget—such as the rising cost of pay, pensions, health care, contracting, infrastructure and education—are issues in other parts of the federal budget as well," Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told the House panel, the Post noted.

The JFCOM was set up to build collaboration between the different branches of the military. It began almost a decade ago with a staff of 2,000 military and civilian personnel and cost about $200 million a year. The price tag has jumped to $1 billion, with 3,000 military and civilian personnel and another 3,000 contractors, according to the article.

Harrison said the cuts were a step in the right direction but added, “They do not address some of the fundamental issues that plague the defense budget, such as the rising cost of military health care."

He laid out some key health care costs as follows:

  • The Defense Department spends about $246 billion on health care for uniformed and civilian personnel. That is for 2.3 million full-time employees (51% of the federal workforce).
  • Military health care is growing because more military retirees and their dependents are tapping the benefits. Under the Tricare military health care plan, it costs only $460 a year for an entire family compared to $3,500-a-year on average for private sector coverage.
  • The cost of the Tricare health care premium fee is fixed at its 1995 level.
  • About 9.5 million Americans are eligible for military health care benefits and the number will continue to grow because in 2001 Congress approved coverage for life.

When DoD tries to reduce these expenses, the uproar over the JFCOM cuts will appear insignificant in comparison, the article notes.