Well, your heart's in the right place, but that would provide us with a defense allowance of about $ 150.00 per year for each active duty member of our armed forces. So, if everything went to salary (no new or replacement equipment or supplies), we'd have to get them to serve for less than three dollars per week.
Everything is very expensive these days and it's time to start cutting everywhere we can, but we have to be realistic about what we need to spend for an adequate defense.
Well - I agree wholeheartedly - and I won't quibble numbers much, but when I think of 13 trillion dollars evaporating over just the last five years or so - one ten thousandth of which is $13,000,000,000 - I think we could pay our soldiers at least triple what they currently get.
But more important than salary for soldiers is the equipment we give them to fight with. INHO, our 'leaders' have allowed that to stagnate to insufferable levels.