You would think Obama would have learned a lesson from Clinton (don't mess with military pay).
Proposed 1.4% pay raise for military draws fire By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY
"This is absolute garbage," says Marines Corps Sgt. John Ellis of President Obama's proposed 1.4% pay hike, the lowest in 48 years.
Military servicemembers are fighting what would be their lowest pay raise in decades as the nation wages two wars, including a 10th year of combat in Afghanistan.
The Obama administration has proposed a 1.4% raise for the military in 2011, which would be the lowest since 1962, when no raise was given.
The administration, which wants to freeze non-military pay for federal workers to tackle the deficit, says a 1.4% raise for the military would match average private-sector-wage growth and is in addition to earlier increases in housing and food subsidies.
The raise proposal comes as the White House seeks ways to reduce a deficit fueled in part by stimulus spending for the private sector. Servicemembers say the cost-cutting should not include the pay for men and women in uniform.
"This is absolute garbage," says Marine Corps Sgt. John Ellis, 26, a squad commander who recently returned from Afghanistan, his fourth deployment. "The U.S. government can bail out GM and other major corporations, but for us little guys who make beans for money (and) risk getting killed these people think we don't need a raise."
The House approved a 1.9% raise, but the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., adopted the administration's lower recommendation.
Two weeks remain in the "lame duck" session of Congress, and Democrats have made passage of a defense authorization bill, which includes the pay raise, contingent on a divisive measure to repeal the military's ban on gays serving openly.
Some senators say Congress should give a boost to troops doing the most fighting. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will propose bonuses for troops doing the "hardest work and most hazardous duties," spokesman Will Jenkins says.
Retired vice admiral Norbert Ryan, president of the Military Officers Association of America, says his group is leading a coalition of 32 groups representing 5.5 million current and former military personnel and their families in pushing for a 1.9% raise.
"To give the lowest pay raise in 48 years with a war in its 10th year, and the wear and tear on the families ... we just think from a leadership point of view it sends a terrible signal," Ryan says.
An additional half-percent increase over 1.4% raise will cost taxpayers $350 million in 2011, bringing the total cost of the higher raise to $1.3 billion, Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez says.
"This is the one group in the country that has not let this nation down," Ryan says. "They are not investment bankers."
Ryan says a higher increase is necessary to continue closing a pay-gap between military and civilian wages. The Pentagon says that the gap has already been closed with free health care and major increases in tax-free housing and food allowances.
An Army private with no dependents earns on average $37,209, figuring in base pay, housing and food allowances, and pays no taxes on the allowances, Lainez says. That compensation for an Army captain with no dependents would be $89,309.
"The president and Congress should take a pay cut before they issue this paltry increase to our troops," says Mary Ward, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Sean Ward, 27, is on his fourth deployment.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2010-12-06-1Amilitarypay06_ST_N.htm
