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Obama Administration Targets Military for Pay/benefits Reductions
President B.Hussein Obama — who came to power with the help of government employee unions across the nation and has lavished on them hundreds of billions in stimulus funds to keep them on federal, state and local payrolls with no strings attached — is moving to cut spending on salaries for military personnel.
He has directed the Pentagon to ask Congress to hold back on increases in Troop Pay.
Obama is “pleading” with Congress to give military personnel a much smaller increase in pay than lawmakers have proposed.
The Pentagon contends that Congress simply has been too generous with troops during the past decade.
For example, the military brass claims that an average sergeant in the Army with four years of service and one dependent would receive $52,589 in annual compensation. This figure includes basic pay, housing, and subsistence allowances, as well as tax benefits.
Meanwhile, a U.S. postal letter carrier, with no supervisory or hazardous duty, makes approximately $80,000 a year when all benefits are factored in.
Critics of the Obama administration’s efforts to cut soldier’s pay say America’s security has been strengthened by higher pay rates, as qualified veterans are re-enlisting at record rates, reversing the problem the military witnessed just a few years ago during the draw-down.
Instead of cutting the pay, why not refocus....on.....
1. Let's stop making ourselves trying to look pretty...give us a damn uniform that works...not what some "guy" said the Soldier wants...and this "guy" has not seen a real uniform in 25 years...
2. I understand the need to "test" equipment....but "some" equipment has alreayd been proven...becasue someone wants to "go beyond" does not mean it's going to get better... it prolongs the test by years, sometimes, which costs MONEY....
3. Keep people in place longer.....Hey, here is an Idea...if a person does not want to be where they are....and someone want to take there spot..(same rank, same MOS) let them change...the happier a person the better work they will do...which in turn saves money...and let them stay...at least 5-6 years...
I believe there are alot more things that can be "taken from" besides the Soldiers money......
There is a huge amount of waste in the military and it's shows nothing more than laziness that they're unwilling to actually tackle some of that and instead cut back on paychecks.
Some wastefulness right off the top of my head.
At Luke AFB, I was secretary to the OG who was in charge of the 10 fighter squadrons. Once a month, I would go to the base drycleaner/tailor shop and pay for the graduating pilot's bills. It usually ran between $500-$900 per month...because for some reason, the enlisted folks have to put on all of their patches themselves, but the fighter pilots don't.
Also at Luke AFB, the fighter squadrons got state-of-the-art screens to display their daily sortie schedule. Each screen was thousands of dollars and was merely a "toy" since years passed when the schedule was posted on regular old paper and yet everyone managed to figure out what they were doing.
At Ramstein AB, I was the secretary to the USAFE/CE Commander. I had to process the paperwork for a General who was assigned to Lakenheath. His wife said that she refused to move into their assigned housing (which was gigantic and beautiful) until they installed a garage door opener. Since the house was very old, it would require a lot of holes drilled into the brick and the CE Commander didn't want to do it (saying, rightfully, that every General before them had no problem with the house), but eventually the little snot got her way and they installed a garage door opener to the cost of $17,800. I just had our garage door replaced and it cost a whoppping $475.
How about the Commander who is looking to make his mark somewhere and decrees that the entire Air Force needs new uniforms or that all of the AF planes need to be grey, or that the garbage cans at Ramstein should be navy colored?
The list goes on...yet it's the pay that will be cut and that will only hurt those who are enlisted.
... the garbage cans at Ramstein should be navy colored? ...
I understand your complaint, really I do.
But garbage cans painted 'navy'? Thats funny
I find it interesting to see the politics within the Pentagon, only soon to be retired senior officers are going to voice anything counter to the Administration.
When the Administration wants it, the Pentagon jumps to the task of showing congress how much enlistedmen receive in benefits. Even if the action slits their own throats, they jump to the tasking.
"In the midst of two long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials are increasingly worried that the government's generosity is unsustainable and that it will leave them with less money to buy weapons and take care of equipment."
AF planes need to be grey, or that the garbage cans at Ramstein should be navy colored?
Talk about paint....you know how much the US Flag painted on the SR-71 cost....all becasue a AF general said "all AF planes will have a US flag on them".....
Well anyway....the cost was amazing....as the SR-71 can easily reach speeds and temperatures well above what can melt normal paint....
Sorry I cannot actually remember the actual cost but there was either over $100000 or $1,000000 per gallon of paint....
The actual cost is in a book called "Skunk Works".....
Yep always have been a lot of idiotic ways the military has pissed money away (anyone else remember "Creech brown?"). But at the risk of digressing, it pales to the trillions we're spending on this Middle East BS. PS I was greatly in favor of it initially too. But it's gone on FAR too long and even if we pretend like our kids aren't over there dying, the literal cost is also staggering.
has anyone considered that whenever military spending has blown the top off of the budgets, asking to reduce waste will always result in no savings, but asking to reduce military pay forces everyone to find money to keep the military pay by reducing waste? Do you really think the objective is to cut solidier, sailor and airmen's pay? No the idea is to get the military to save the pay by reducing waste. This is so common a tactic I'm just stunned anyone fell for it and thought it was real.
(But I see that the first post called the commander in chief "President B.Hussein Obama" and not by his first name and middle initial. That says a lot! )
Maybe I am reading the original post wrong, but...the administration is asking for a smaller pay raise, not a reduction in pay as the OP decries. This is completely a misleading headline. There is no reduction is pay.
As a civilian government employee, I have been seeing this for the last several years. We often, under Bush, had to fight to get a pay raise equal with that of the the military. Before you jump on the "typical government employee" argument, remember that includes the FBI, CIA, NSA, IRS, and other civilian government employees who do more to fight terrorism than a lot of military members. Why should they have to fight the Bush Administration to get a pay raise equal to the military? Last year I got a 1.3% raise. I know that is great when compared to much of the civilian workforce, but saying the government is cutting pay by simply reducing the amount of pay raises is disingenuous.
There is no proposed decrease in military pay.
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