QDR Notes Impact Of People Costs But Has No Solutions

Quadrennial Defense Review insiders say all the participants understand that current trends in military pay and benefits are unsustainable, but no one has a solution. The basic problem is that the nation is trying to conduct big, protracted military operations with an all-volunteer force, and that problem is aggravated by seemingly endless congressional efforts to legislate additional benefits. One player offers this ominous assessment: if benefit costs keep going up at three times the rate of inflation and the buying power of future military budgets remains flat as planned, then investment spending would have to fall by a corresponding amount each year to accommodate the rising cost of people.