Clinton's Fairwell Present to Military

[Guest guest]

Inside the Ring

Dec 15, 2000

Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough

Special to The Stars and Stripes

One Final Slap to Military

The Clinton administration is preparing its parting shot at the U.S.

military: shortchanging a promised pay raise for troops.

With some soldiers, airmen, Marines and sailors living on food stamps, the

new defense-authorization act signed by the president in October directs the

Pentagon to give personnel a total pay increase of 4.2 percent -- a 3.7

percent boost in pay and an additional 0.5 percent rise in other benefits.

This [pay raise cut] is their goodbye present.

- Pentagon official

Well, the bean counters at the Office of Management and Budget and in the

Pentagon's budget shop now are proposing a total 3.2 percent increase, we

are told.

The reason: the budget writers are demanding that each military service make

up the 1 percent difference from their own budgets, which are already tight,

by cutting funds for operations and maintenance or weapons programs.

" This is their goodbye present, " one unhappy official familiar with the

budget plan.

The stealth pay cut contradicts President Clinton's support for the pay

boost made in a signing statement issued Oct. 30. Mr. Clinton said the

increase would begin " to address the concern the Congress and I share with

regard to service members. "

The Bill Cohen Show

The glittery $295,000 party thrown recently in Hollywood by Defense

Secretary S. Cohen and his wife, Janet, is raising concerns inside

the Pentagon that the military is being misused by the Clinton

administration for more than just peacekeeping.

The word from some in the building is that Mrs. Cohen, a former television

reporter, pushed for the party because she is angling to replace Motion

Picture Association of America President Jack Valenti as the movie

industry's top lobbyist sometime in the future.

Pentagon officials tell us the party, held to generate support for the

military among entertainers, is only one example. The latest worry is Mr.

Cohen's decision to turn over the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, the

only flattop currently deployed in the Mediterranean, to the jocular Fox

Sports television broadcast team this weekend.

" They have to shut down operations for three days, all for some TV show, "

said one official. He said putting the carrier out of action is causing some

national-security concerns.

Mr. Cohen decided earlier this year to overrule the Navy after the sea

service balked at allowing a recreational vehicle show at Naval Air Station

Brunswick, Maine.

Mr. Cohen acted on an appeal from Maine Gov. Angus King, a personal friend

of the defense secretary's. The Navy said no to the event under rules that

prohibit holding nonmilitary events on bases.

As for disrupting operations, the RV show clearly did just that. Aviators

and support personnel had to drive three hours by car to the temporary base

near Bangor, where a squadron of jets was relocated for the duration of the

show. Maintenance crews were forced to fix planes without shelter, in one

case repairing a jet engine in pouring rain.

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