Pentagon faces a rebel yell over pensions

Pentagon faces a rebel yell over pensions

All along the Florida coast, there is a sense of foreboding among retirees about what the country’s fiscal problems might mean for their finances, but at the Fleet Landing retirement community in Jacksonville, that resentment is focused squarely on the Pentagon. Founded by officers from the nearby Mayport naval station and only a few blocks from the beach, Fleet Landing houses a large number of retired veterans who have watched with increasing anxiety as the Pentagon has warned about runaway military entitlement spending. “I earned it,” says Mickey Miefert, a 79-year-old who knew John McCain well in the early 1960s when they were both young navy pilots and who served four tours in Vietnam. “I did not have to go to combat, that was something I volunteered for, but whatever pension I get now, I sure earned it.” For Chuck Hagel, the controversial nominee to be the next secretary of defence, getting confirmed by the Senate will be only the first stage in a series of bruising political battles in the years ahead. As President Barack Obama begins his second term in office, the US fiscal budget remains in crisis. Efforts to rebalance finances could have a profound effect on the defence budget. The Pentagon has already agreed to take $485bn from its planned spending over the next decade and more cuts could be in the pipeline – especially if Congress cannot agree a long-term budget deal. http://link.ft.com/r/H60H77/ULGW6E/C5MKOT/QND3UW/T1VUYM/1G/h?a1=2013&a2=1&a3=23