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Yep, those wacky, lovable guys in power now have resurrected an item popular in the mid-teens… privatizing the PX and Commissary system.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon\u2019s newest push to trim its workforce and spending could mean that on-base grocery stores and shops designed to save service members and their families money could ultimately be sold off to the private sector.<\/p>\n
A defense official familiar with the intent behind the memo told Military.com on Thursday that there weren’t any off-limit areas for cuts or privatization. Commissaries, military-run hotels, and on-base welfare facilities were all fair game, they said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No one ever uses or depends on commissaries and PXes, right? Retirees never go to them either…heck, I’ve known people who based their retirement location on how many facilities were available in the immediate area.<\/p>\n
Privatizing aspects of the military’s support services has a long and largely problematic history that has resulted in markedly poorer outcomes for service members while offering little in the way of savings for the Pentagon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mess halls? Barracks? Base housing? Privatized…and in many cases, fodder for TAH columns shortly. Ft. Hood\/Cavazos (not even sure nowadays which one to strikethrough) can’t even get all of theirs open, <\/em>and how often have we been hearing of moldy, broke-dick barracks across the land? Yeah, THAT has all worked well.<\/p>\n
William “Bill” Moore, who served as the director and CEO of the Defense Commissary Agency, or DeCA, between 2020 and 2024, wrote in an opinion piece for the Ripon Society think tank last year that “privatizing commissaries is, quite simply, a bad idea.”<\/p>\n
Moore explained to Military.com in an interview Friday that funding from Congress helps subsidize the commissaries, allowing them to offer products much more affordably than other grocery stores.<\/p>\n
“If you privatize without subsidy, I guarantee you, there is no way they will be able to save military families anything,” Moore said. “I would be shocked if any for-profit company could take over the commissaries and deliver any benefit to military families beyond convenience. There’s no way they could sell items at the prices the commissary could.”<\/p>\n
While commissaries are nonprofit organizations by law, profits from military exchanges — retail stores on military bases that sell a wide variety of products — also get cycled into the Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs for service members and their families.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Another voice:<\/p>\n
Former Rep. Mike Waltz, now Trump’s national security adviser, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing last year that he wanted the military “out of the hotel management business” and said the private sector could do the job “incredibly well” when it came to base housing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Hilton rates for E-4s PCSing…yep. I see it now. (This from a man who chats up battle plans with a reporter.)<\/p>\n
Let’s see… Balfour Beatty might be a good candidate. They already run 40,000 homes of\u00a0 base housing and have been fined over $65,000,000… let’s give them a shot, shall we? (Yeah, BIG sarcasm there.)\u00a0 Have to wonder who BB pays off…no one that bad could stay in business without substantial connections:<\/p>\n
And yet, despite that scandal and fine, in 2022, an eight-month investigation by a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs panel found the company was continuing to ignore residents’ concerns over mold, asbestos and other problems in their homes.\u00a0 Military.com<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bottom line…privatizing this particular system is only a good idea if you own stock in whoever would take it over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"