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…that’s how many cents U.S. taxpayers kick into the military’s retirement account for every dollar of basic pay earned by active-duty troops. In part, it’s because the U.S. military’s 2 million retirees outnumber the 1.4 million troops on active duty. “Perhaps the most politically sensitive, and often unspoken, competition within the budget,” defense-spending pro Todd Harrison says, “is the inter-generational struggle between funding for military retirees and those who currently serve.”