Posted on Jun 9, 2015
Less than 1% of us are military. Is cutting our benefits the answer?
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The vote for the Defense spending bill looms and Congress is talking about cutting even more of our benefits. Less pay? Less BAH? No Tricare? Is cutting 10-20 billion from the defense spending budget over the next 10 years really worth taking all these benefits from us? Is it fair that Congress can enjoy subsidized gyms, salons, rental cars, and air travel, all on our dime? And yet there are some members of Congress who say they don't get paid enough. Rank and file members make about 174k a year. Leadership positions make even more. Speaker of the House makes 220k+ a year. Should Congress take a pay hit before stripping our families of our hard earned benefits?
DoD
Congress
Benefits
Politics
Military Pay
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 40
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The more I hear about what our country and government is doing to the active military members, veterans, and retirees, the more I get frustrated with the politics and our leadership in Congress and the Executive Office. Someone needs to wake these guys up.
We have a lot of RP members on this site today, we need to have a way to send letters to our congressman demanding that they start listening to the people, the military members, veterans, and retirees. If anyone, we should be heard
We have a lot of RP members on this site today, we need to have a way to send letters to our congressman demanding that they start listening to the people, the military members, veterans, and retirees. If anyone, we should be heard
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SSG (Join to see)
COL Mikel J. Burroughs, thank you for posting this. I think this is a great step in the right direction. I know there are many veteran and military advocate groups and services out there. But finding a medium to transmit our message to Congress and all the other Washington Beltway brats is crucial.
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SGM (Join to see)
I wrote to both my Congressman and my Governor, I got a form letter from one Congressman (I see you are worried about Veterans, I have always supported Veterans blah blah), the other Congressmen did not respond and the Governors office letter was from a LTC on his staff (AGR?) and stated the Governor considered this a Federal issue because the Army is not state funded. Pretty disheartening for me.
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
I can't say I blame you for being disheartened by the response. At least you got one response back from the Congressman. I haven't received anything back yet either. We just got to keep plugging away at it. Keep the faith SGM (Join to see)! That's all we can do!
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its not the answer, neither is cutting welfare. The tax breaks for mega corps should be taken away, they can afford to pay a little extra.
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LCpl Mark Lefler
Kansas short fall is because the governor cut too many taxes, then cut education. Its wrong to just cut welfare but not cut things on the other end of the spectrum.
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PO2 John Briggs
ok ive been thinking about this for a very long time... why are they messing with our retirement... why not cut theirsand see how they like it... they get their pay raise to stay well above the cost of living, while the average gi gets farther and farther below that... i think they need to cut their pay and raises.... for a few years to make up ground...
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No, they need to look at where the money is actually going first. You just can't take one segment of the population and cut its benefits because their name was picked out of that hat this week (which wouldn't surprise me if it were done that way)
I've made that exact same point SSG (Join to see). Let he ready to make the first cut, first cut himself. Like any IT department, we're seen as a drain on resources because we don't show direct ROI. You win a war or snatch a terrorist and that gets us a few more miles and a few bucks from the headlines but after that it's, why do you need a new tank, why do you need more soldiers, why do you need more ammo to train with? Just like the civilian world mentality, if you aren't contributing to the bottom line, you're the first dept that should endure the cuts - the philosophy of bean counting 101.
I've made that exact same point SSG (Join to see). Let he ready to make the first cut, first cut himself. Like any IT department, we're seen as a drain on resources because we don't show direct ROI. You win a war or snatch a terrorist and that gets us a few more miles and a few bucks from the headlines but after that it's, why do you need a new tank, why do you need more soldiers, why do you need more ammo to train with? Just like the civilian world mentality, if you aren't contributing to the bottom line, you're the first dept that should endure the cuts - the philosophy of bean counting 101.
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SFC Mark Merino
I believe it is for that reason that these guys pick on us. They won't go after 99% of a population and be asked to defend their osition intelligently. Go after the tiny 1%, you can't even fight back while still wearing the uniform, and get credit for at least putting an idea on the table to justify their existence. You are absolutely right, going after the 1% gains them nothing that can seriously help the budget. Lower the welfare paychecks a 6-pack a month and we can save the Kiowa, A-10, and buy a new aircraft carrier.
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CSM Charles Hayden
Lima, OH residents need those tank factory jobs and their congressman needs those votes!
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