Stockman Resumes Attack Against Military Pensions : Says He’s Setting Tone for Debate

Despite a public disclaimer by President Reagan and protests by national veterans organizations, Budget Director David A. Stockman insisted again today that the military pension program should be curtailed as a budget-cutting measure.

Defending his unusually blunt remarks last week that the pension program is “a scandal . . . an outrage” and that other benefit programs also need to be modified or eliminated, Stockman said he was trying to “tone up the environment” for the impassioned budget debate taking place in Congress.

People need to understand that serious budget-cutting choices must be made, he declared at a breakfast session with reporters, adding: “I don’t know that they’re necessarily going to agree, but I think we have a pretty strong case and I’d like to hear their alternative.”

The feisty budget director considerably heated up the debate Feb. 5 when he testified before the Senate Budget Committee that spending for military pensions and other large benefit programs, including education and farm supports, should be slashed.

Vehement Protests

Veterans organizations and other groups vehemently protested Stockman’s criticisms. And Reagan said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week that he disagreed with Stockman’s position on military pensions, instead asserting that the benefits are warranted because of the demands of military service.

But Stockman, declaring that he had no “second thoughts” about his Senate testimony, said there is a question even among many defense experts about whether the deferred-pay approach of the existing military pension system makes sense.

“I think most people believe it doesn’t,” he said. “It needs to be corrected. (But) you have to do it prospectively. You’re not going to take anything away from somebody who’s retired now. The longer you wait on the prospective issue, the more you build in the future obligations.”

The comments of his budget director notwithstanding, Reagan strongly believes that the military pension system makes sense, according to a White House official who said Stockman is on “a personal crusade” to modify the system.

Has Heard Arguments

“The President has gone over this with us several times since Stockman’s testimony and he’s sold on the system,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “He’s heard the arguments that the system should be changed just to affect retirements in the future, but he’s unwilling to say that.”

Stockman, a former congressman from Michigan, also took issue with Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill who insist that Congress will not pass domestic spending cuts unless Reagan also agrees to further reductions in his defense spending request.

He declared the issue “phony” and said there is no serious policy debate about the defense buildup. “The fact that you’re hearing so much noise and there is so much preoccupation with it on the Hill is a dodge, in my view,” he said, “because they don’t want to face the real choices, which are to cut the nondefense budget in the areas that we have outlined or to raise taxes.”