Retired General: Military Benefits Too Generous

Wow, lately it seems like everybody has felt the need to put their two cents in on federal pay and benefits -- and little of it has been positive. In the interest of keeping everybody informed about the rhetoric that's out there (and has been out there in one form or another for more than 200 years), here's the latest, from retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro.

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reported Wednesday that in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Punaro raised questions about what he called the "GM-style fringe benefits," from taxpayer-subsidized grocery chains to relatively low-cost health insurance, that service members are accustomed to receiving. The long-term cost of such benefits and other support for service members is a "ticking time bomb," Punaro said.

"The Defense Department should be about putting bayonets in the heart of a terrorist, or in the heart of a North Korean," he said. "It shouldn't be about waving a commissary card."

Punaro is a member of the Defense Business Board, which in July offered proposals to slash $100 billion in defense overhead spending over the next five years. He said Wednesday that he was speaking in a personal capacity.