noncommissioned officers, soldiers, sailors and marines and they don t make a lot of money and the retirement pay is not that onerous on the federal budget but 70 percent is in pay and health care, so the thing is to reduce personnel cost and as far as i m concerned when you strip away the thin venire, it s a quickie way to reduce the defense budget and to save on the federal budget and the people who share who will share this burden disproportionately to this my mind to my mind are young soldiers. martha: the other question is how will it impact those who decide to join because we have the greatest volunteer army in the history of the country and how would it affect the decisions young men and women are making? i think that war is a young man and women s game. we need to attract 18, 19, 20-year-olds, they don t join for retirement pay but
one of the key factors is they stay for retirement pay, and my fear is once the wars are over and everybody goes back to thinking about peace time, we tend to forget our soldiers, and my fear is that the quality of the force will decline because the rewards of serving will go down. martha: we thank you very much for your input on that this morning, major general bob scales, always good to see you. comparing this new plan to what s in place now, the current system pays military veterans half of their salary at retirement, as long as they have served 20 years. now, the defense department pays 40 years of retirement for 20 years of service. so for anyone serving more than 20 years, the government s contribution is ten times greater than it is in the private sector. so that has opened a big conversation. bill: the story now that broke on foxnews.com, did anwar al-awlaki play a role in 9/11? there s a house committee looking into just that issue. the chairman of the committee, peter king, o
that s vested in me by the state of new york, i pronounce you both married. [ applause ] and now, a great tradition. the breaking of the glass. this custom has many interpretations and since it is a jewish custom it has even more. but one that seems to fit today perfectly have that the broken glass is a reminder. a reminder that although the couple came together as a single union, the world as a whole is broken and needs mending, and i can t think of two men who work harder to do that every single day. as a matter of fact, they wanted to get tomorrow off, and i said, no. we have a budget crisis. they will be at their desks tomorrow morning. so those of you who work for them, and had thought you could dog it tomorrow, sorry. anyways, they work as hard as anybody can, a and i think that s why the groom will now break the glass. in fact, today you re in for a treat, because we have two glasses. [ applause ] and now you re all welcome to come inside the tent, and i thin
then the third wait, let s stay on one and two. absolutely. if that s the case, we know that medicare is the biggest challenge over the next generation, we know that medicaid is a great challenge. we know that social security is a great challenge and the pentagon s a great challenge. if that s the case social security is not such a big deal in all of this. it s not as big of a deal. they re expecting their retirement pay. we shouldn t go after people who have been contributing all their lives. we re not going after people in their 50s and 60s. but people in their 40s. it s not a big deal in this story. it isn t. welcome-term structural debt, it s part of the story. it s the health costs that are the long-term story and the short-term story is what happened in december. which is that both parties got together and gave away a trillion dollars over two years by extending the tax cuts against the wishes of the american people. that s the big story. both parties are
in a military prison. but military officials say that s probably not likely. what s going to happen probably is that the judge will order him dismissed from the military, which would leave him two years short of his full retirement, which in the end over a lifetime could cost him some $2 million in retirement pay and benefits. so he s taking a stand here, but it could be a costly one for him. that s a lot at risk for him, for lieutenant lakin there. live at the pentagon with the latest for that for us. still ahead, senator harry reid s new message to the republicans. it could ruin some holiday plans. [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something s holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that s why there s castrol gtx. with our most powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don t let deposits hold your car back.