Press
Defense News: Senior DoD Leaders Warn of Rising Personnel Costs
05.09.2010
PPI National Security Director Jim Arkedis argues that selective cuts on military benefits will not solve the defense personnel cost:
A November report prepared by Jim Arkedis of the Washington-based Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) put projected 2010 costs at $59.7 billion: defense health program ($28 billion); military health care ($21 billion); and retiree health benefits ($10.7 billion).
Arkedis of the PPI said the recent wars have helped push costs skyward.
“You can’t nit-pick the problem away through selective cuts to benefit programs because, first, there’s a core constituency of hard-working military members, families and retirees who depend on them,” he said. “And second, frankly, it wouldn’t solve enough of the problem anyway. The key cost drivers are large-scale military deployments abroad.”
To Arkedis, “The moral of the story is that if you want to control personnel costs, you have to be really careful about which wars you fight – they better be the right ones.”
