Military Update: Mullen, coalition at odds over ‘Redux’ bonus

[unhappycamper]

Military Update: Mullen, coalition at odds over ‘Redux’ bonus
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, February 21, 2009

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will not join a chorus of critics who oppose the $30,000 bonus offer made to careerists in their 15th year of service if they agree to accept a less generous retirement plan.

Mullen, in our interview two weeks ago, suggested the Redux bonus, officially titled the Career Status Bonus, is a reasonable tool to help hold down soaring personnel costs.

Next week the Military Coalition, a consortium of 35 military and veterans associations, will urge Congress to repeal the Redux bonus offer as a bad deal for almost any careerist enticed to take it.

"The Redux bonus saves the government incredible amounts of money," said coalition co-chairman Joe Barnes who also is national executive director of the Fleet Reserve Association. "But over time the value of that decision is not very good for servicemembers."

If Congress can’t find dollars to kill the bonus, the coalition will urge lawmakers to force the services to do more to educate careerists on the value of retirement benefits they are trading away for near-term cash.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60851



uhc comment: It is shit like this that will cause the services many more problems in the future.