Congressional Investigation Starting Soon

I await the outrage. The Economist recently noted that...

"According to army figures dug up by the New Yorker, over the past three-and-a-half years military surgeons have performed 556 breast enhancements and 1,592 liposuction procedures on soldiers and their close relatives. Soldiers have to pay only the cost of their breast or, potentially, buttock implants; family members must cover other expenses. Face-lifts and nose jobs are also available."

My take: The military provides lots of valuable training to soldiers in exchange for which soldiers take a pay cut. It is even possible the practice is efficient. Unlike private employers the military can force those it provides a valuable skill to continue working at a wage below their current market wage. I suspect most doctors enter the military to receive a medical education. If that education is more valuable because they can perform plastic surgery and military doctors' wages are low enough, the service may be beneficial to tax payers as well as the doctors, and one assumes, the soldiers.