Posted on 10/26/2006 12:14:23 PM PDT by Tulsa Ramjet
The 2.2 across-the-board military pay raise in January is a joke. So is the 8.7 percent raise set for 125 generals and admirals. How about reversing it?
Officers do not need the bigger raise. It’s the enlisted ranks who have people on food stamps and receiving assistance from the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program. With the price of gas and everything else higher, a 2.2 pay raise is a slap in the face.
It’s also a travesty what else our politicians did to the 2007 defense authorization bill. They basically screwed disabled retirees rated “IU,” or unemployable, by refusing to make them eligible immediately for “concurrent receipt” payments [of both full retired pay and their VA compensation].
Maybe America needs to evaluate what these politicians have as perks, benefits and pay so more of that money goes to the people actually fighting and dying for their mistakes.
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
Many service people found a way to close the pay gap. They're getting out, and becoming contractors. A few years ago, as a serviceman, I qualified for WIC. For those not familiar with it, it's government assistance for poor people so they can get milk, baby formula, etc.
Now that I'm a contractor, next time I go to Iraq, I'll be making more than General Casey.
If the military wants to keep quality people in, they're going to have to pay competitive salaries. 'Selfless service' is one thing. Being a chump is another. Watching your fat cat bosses load up on perks and salary, while you suck on 2.2 percent raise, won't sit with most people.
Where where the Republicans on this?
Actually it was submitted as 2.7 percent but the White House chose 2.2 instead....not sure of all the exact happenings but don't worry 2.2. is fine.
"Are we talking about the GOP controlled Congress?"
It's hard to say. When he writes that the price of gas is higher, you realize he's in a time warp.
"...you know that the commander is the least skilled, and most expendable asset the team has."
The funny thing is that EVERY SINGLE SF team member I have spoken to always answers the following two questions the same:
1) If one person on your team had to be killed, who would be the person who would disrupt the team's ability to continue the mission the LEAST. Answer - The team commander.
2) Which would be the LAST person on the team you would wont to see disabled or unable to perform their duties. Answer - the team medic
"Many service people found a way to close the pay gap. They're getting out, and becoming contractors.
Now that I'm a contractor, next time I go to Iraq, I'll be making more than General Casey."
LOL. But will you have the marine bodyguards? :)
"Those 125 Generals and Admirals are having their salary cap lifted. This is so congress can give themselves a raise."
Congress's pay is tied to Mullen's?
The fact that military personnel are make so little that they may qualify for food stamps and WIC is obscene.
2) Which would be the LAST person on the team you would wont to see disabled or unable to perform their duties. Answer - the team medic
Nothing is funnier than doing some pre-raid planning with an SF team. The team sergeant is stuck placating two guys who never get to be on point. There's the team commander, who wants to be kicking doors, and the medic, who wants to be kicking doors.
"We can't risk you up front" always rings a little more hollow with the team commander than it does with the team medic. ;-)
My husband and I had our first child when he was in the Navy. With Tricare, the delivery and hospital stay only cost us $25. What a bargain.
But, it didn't seem right that a married couple with a child, while the husband served in the military, was eligible for WIC. We didn't sign up for it, because of unique circumstances when we relocated away from a Naval Base. The more children you had, the more money per dependent. I wonder if military families tend to be larger as a result?
Kind of like women on welfare who get more money per child. I could never figure out the math in that equation. It didn't seem like a way to get ahead for the average welfare mom.
"The fact that military personnel are make so little that they may qualify for food stamps and WIC is obscene."
Not really. What's obscene is that a 19 year-old E-3 thinks he'll earn enough money in the early days of military service to pay for having a wife and possibly children. It doesn't work that way.
An E-4 in the military really doesn't have any business keeping a family. An NCO yeah, but junior enlisted with dependents in tow are a drag on the rest of the junior enlisted. I speak as a guy who always got rousted for details while the off post E-3s got their weekends free.
Just my opinion.
"An E-4 in the military really doesn't have any business keeping a family."
I don't disagree with you on that. Still, a heckuva lot of E-4s do have families. It's a fact. What should be often isn't so.
That tells me more about an unnecessarily high poverty level than the wisdom of encouraging young servicepeople to start families.
It has nothing to do with the poverty level or the widsom of starting a family.
It has everything to do with the fact that we pay our service people far too little.
Whether they are married or single, they should be paid more than they are.
Hmmm. Let's see:
TOP US CEO COMPENSATION (as of 04/06)
Richard D Fairbank Capital One Financial $249.42M
Terry S Semel Yahoo $230.55M
Henry R Silverman Cendant $139.96M
Bruce Karatz KB Home $135.53M
Richard S Fuld Jr Lehman Bros Holdings $122.67M
PROPOSED COMPENSATION FOR MILITARY SERIVE CHIEFS
ADM Mullen: Chief of Naval Operations $167,000
GEN Moseley: Chief of Staff, USAF $167,000
GEN Hagee: Commandant, USMC $167,000
GEN Schoomaker: Chief of Staff, USA $167,000
ADM Allen: Commandant, USCG $167,000
So Philpot, what is a "fair" salary for these individuals who deal with the issues of national security, life and death, and freedom on a daily basis?
God, I wish he'd stop with the class envy crappola or just shut his pie-hole.
"...next time I go to Iraq, I'll be"...unarmed.
For the life of me I don't understand why contractors, my BiL included, refuse to go without at least a pistol.
I managed to do pretty well in a four-year navy stint. By the time you factor in food, housing, and medical care, what's left is mostly discretionary. Guns and butter, Skooz. Guns and butter.
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