Panel weighs giving troops option of cash instead of benefits [View All]

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Should the Defense Department take the money it spends on benefits and offer it as cash for servicemembers to spend as they see fit?

That is one of the questions the Defense Department’s advisory committee on military compensation tackled during its third public meeting Wednesday.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld chartered the committee in early spring, directing its members to come up with recommendations for improving the Pentagon’s military compensation system in a report due in April 2006.

The compensation committee spent its Wednesday meeting discussing options on five specific categories: special and incentive pays; retirement pay, including pensions and medical benefits; Guard and Reserve compensation; medical benefits for serving forces; and family issues, such as housing and spouse employment opportunities.


http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=30480

The childcare benefits the military supplies troops' families with now is paltry. There is a long waiting list to even receive that care. Try cash, Rummy. Your army is filled with people who joined at 18 just to escape a miserable family life. They would like nothing better than to make the army their family, though not under conditions that are worse than what they left back home, which is exactly what Rummy has managed to accomplish in four years.

What they want is a fast CAR. Try offering that as an incentive and see what happens.