Was Active Duty Army for nearly 8 years (was caught up in the Clinton "10%" troop cuts). Please bear with me, because you probably will never see me stand up and disagree with someone here like this. But, here goes. President Bush HAS NEVER cut military pay, nor has any President I know of! This is the new mantra of a certain Party about the new budget. And it doesn't stop at just military pay, it goes into Medicare and everything. Even the AMTRAK subsidies, they ARE NOT getting money taken away!!! They may have been projected to get a 8% increase in budget and were actually allocated 4%. The Dems are calling this a 4% cut. If you make $1000/month now and your boss says you may get a 20% increase next year but you only got a 10% increase--- you did not have your pay cut!! There may not be the same level of increase this year as in past years.....but he is not "reducing" the pay of troops. I once actually got a pay reduction by getting an increase that put me in a higher tax bracket resulting in more taxes taken out and less take home pay.
The information about the dismal pay is absolutely correct. When I left the Army, generally speaking any married E-4 and below was eligible for food stamps. To be honest, while it would have been nice to have more money--that wasn't why I joined. I think the troops are worth more than they get, just remember these are extraordinary people who are not motivated by the same things as most others. The true tragedy is what these service members families get paid in the event of the service member's death-- especially when compared to that recieved by those it ground zero on 9/11. While the people in the towers families have recieved on average (going off memory now--so not accurate) 1.3 million-the families of those killed in Afghanistan within one month of 9/11 recieved the stipend that is less than 200k. And that is just a standard insurance policy THE SERVICE MEMBER PAYS FOR. THAT IS WHAT IS SAD!
I guess what got my dander up on this post is that people CANNOT take whay they hear/read at face value as it is often skewed to someone's point of view. Research these things, don't repeat propoganda put out by a political party or politician. Sorry guys, couldn't hold back.
Rant officially over.
