DoD: Budget cuts will not hurt current troops

DoD: Budget cuts will not hurt current troops
By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 13, 2012 17:15:47 EST
The Pentagon’s 2013 budget proposal released Monday calls for a 6 percent drop in overall spending, a contraction that reflects the end of the war in Iraq, the drawdown in Afghanistan and a delay in purchasing several new weapons systems.

Military officials emphasized that cuts to personnel accounts were “disproportionately small” and aim to leave most active-duty troops untouched by the cuts in planned spending that Congress ordered last year.

Pay raises for troops will continue — including a 1.7 percent bump in 2013, and a similar increase the following year. But starting in 2015, those raises may drop below the average rate of private-sector wage growth. Current plans call for a raise of 0.5 percent in 2015, 1 percent in 2016 and 1.5 percent in 2017, officials said.
read more here