Yes, the heads of the other agencies are implementing hiring freezes. We are under a hiring freeze currently, they are also putting furloughs on the table and all sorts of stuff.

But that aside, a HUGE portion of our budget goes to the military.

"Military don't get anywhere the kind of pay and benefits that other government employees get"? Seriously?

First of all, in the military you have an awesome opportunity to advance, much more than in many areas of business. Making higher end NCO and mid grade Officer pay isn't bad, a lot further than you'd go than at a regional airline, a "civilian" job.

Second, your housing is taken care of in many if not most cases, you never have to worry about many things related to health care and other stuff.

You get to go to school FOR FREE! 75% tuition when you are in, and many are covering 100% with GI bill and various funds, some people even got in a few years back under a program that paid to go to school ANYWHERE for free (not sustainable and a bad business decision, but if they were guaranteed it, they should get it).

Then you have base services and things like the commisary and PX, ability to get stuff for cheaper. I remember when my car got damaged by hail on base, I got the damage reimbursed by the evil government, due to there not being any garages provided. Not bad.

Then of course there are veterans services and everything associated with that.

And I got to experience these things. It was great. I ended up getting even more money for school than I was originally promised, due to increases along the way. I didn't have to worry about much. Working on the outside was a real eye opener, as I worked my rear end off just as hard, but often wasn't compensated anywhere near what my effort was. At least in the military I was getting paid 24/7 and I had all those wonderful benefits.

And of course those are all the things we have today. I'm not for cutting military benefits, I'm for cutting useless jobs and waste. I'm not sure what you are talking about, as I brought up examples of huge amounts of waste, not to mention we have many overlapping redundancies, not people's benefits and pay. Are you trying to imply that I was saying military benefits are for the cutting? I have good benefits in the government, but the "average" government job isn't all that you are thinking it is. I have a friend topped out at GS9, been working in "the government" for about 10 years now. His entire specialty tops out at GS12, and that's the top guy in Washington. He can't apply for a job more than 2 grades above this, even though he has the education requirements (a Doctorate). He can't go any higher right now unless he gives up his home and moves his family. Once you are "in" government service, you have to show the time in grade at the previous level, but if he was off the street he could hire into that position now that he is qualified otherwise. How about at the executive levels? Are the government officials in the various agencies pulling down millions/yr like civilian executives? No, they are not, not even close. It's good, but it's also not all it's cracked up to be on the outside. I almost went back into the military at one point, had my OCS stuff all ready to go. I would have been BANKING money in just over a year due to previous service. There are great opportunities depending on exactly which job you have and which agency you work for, but you are painting a very broad stroke saying that "government jobs pay more than the equivalent civilian jobs". But again, I'm for cutting the waste. Everyone needs to give some is a good way to think about it. With ridiculous research and development programs (and some are worth saving!) we are wasting tons of money and creating corporate welfare where various defense contractors rely on the government for $ and keeping them in business, and the politicians rely on the votes from their constituents that work there and interact with them. That was more the gist of what I was getting at, not axing military benefits or anything ridiculous like that. On the other hand, we did ramp up for two wars. I can go on google earth and see all that they've built since I was in the military a few years back. It is a lot, so naturally we are going to be scaling back some, which I suppose is a "cut" to some people.

Just don't give me that "if you really want to cut gov. waste, you need to cut (insert pet peeve here)". We'll never get anywhere with that...