Congress may be in an even more festive mood. John Warner of Virginia, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, declared that the administration’s proposal falls short of the $148 billion increase that the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted. He promised that Congress would top the administration’s generosity.
The ostensible impetus for providing all of this holiday cheer is a whole host of readiness problems, including retention of pilots in the Air Force and personnel shortfalls in the Army and Navy. The Joint Chiefs and Congress raise the specter of the “hollow force” of the 1970s if more funds are not provided for increased retirement benefits and across-the-board pay hikes to remedy the alleged gap between military and civilian pay. In fact, however, the U.S. military is far from being a hollow force. More is being spent per soldier on military readiness than during the Reagan defense buildup of the 1980s.
Moreover, a study by RAND undertaken for the Department of Defense — which is being conveniently ignored in the race to see who can increase the defense budget faster — shows that the pay gap between the military and civilian sectors is largely illusory. The study shows that most enlisted personnel actually earn more than their civilian counterparts of the same age and education. Even the pay gap between senior enlisted personnel and officers and the civilian sector is slight. According to RAND, pay increases targeted to specific ranks or job categories would cost less and result in greater personnel retention and productivity than would across-the-board pay raises and increases in retirement benefits.
Both Congress and the White House could fund any truly necessary steps to improve readiness if they could only break some bad habits.