Budget Cuts for Military pay and medical benefits! Stop the madness!
Please write your representatives and let them know that military personnel deserve more, not less.
- They don't need to be underpaid and still be required to pay for their own health care.
- They don't need to be underpaid and still be made targets.
- They don't need to be underpaid and still come back from deployment different people than they were when they left.
- They don't deserve to be underpaid and over exploited.
Shades of the 70's, when military personal became the primary targets of cost savings. Pay increases were deferred, certain types of pay were eliminated, enlisted men were declared unworthy of a steak dinner every other week, etc.
Now, to meet President Obama's proposed budget reductions for defense, the joint chiefs, along with Defense Secretary Gates are suggesting that a large portion of that come from pay and benefit reductions. Especially targetted, apparantly, will be both retired and currently serving health care benefits.
Apparantly, giving up a host of constitutional rights (yes, when you are in the military you abrogate some of the rights accorded to non-military), and placing their lives and livelihood in jeopardy for the country are not worth what is currently being provided in pay and benefits to these men and women. It appears that having to give up personal freedoms and agreeing to follow the often arbitrary and sometimes foolish directions of "superiors" at risk of loss of all freedoms is not worth what is currently being provided in pay and benefits to these men and women.
It appears that the military, especially the enlisted and lower ranking officers, is going to revert back to the status it was during the Viet Nam era, under appreciated and under paid.
While this administration has no problem taking away money from one group to give to another, while it has no problem seeing that unions get more power and higher wages, while it has no problem taking private corporations and handing large portions of them over to unions, it has problems with equitable compensation to those who's lives it places in harms way.
Please write your representatives and let them know that military personnel deserve more, not less. They don't need to be underpaid and still be required to pay for their own health care. They don't need to be underpaid and still be made targets. They don't need to be underpaid and still come back from deployment different people than they were when they left. They don't deserve to be underpaid and over exploited.
Mike Saunders
Keller Williams Realty Greater Athens
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Virginia - I don't even know what to say. It looks like another government genius plan.
It is outrageous, Jon. Our military members are overworked and underpaid already.
Hi, Virginia. I can't say that I'm surprised at this... the military is the government's favorite whipping boy. Our government officials get their raise without sacrificing one iota, whereas the service members sign up with their life, to be treated this way over and over again.
Hi Virginia,
This is such a sad situation... where would we be without the men and women who serve our Country. They have given and given and they deserve to be treated fairly and get what they are worth... certainly not less!
Virginia - very well stated. This is one are where there should be no cuts. Thanks for the re-blog.
Cuts in Defense Spending are one thing, cuts in any aspect of what those who serve are quite another. I don't disagree with anything written or highlighted or even the re-post.
What are they thinking?? I'm with everyone else, this is one area that there should be no cuts! Great re-blog
Yolanda - plenty of room for cuts in the Defense budget without cutting enlisted payroll and benefits.
Linda - yes, they deserve and have the right to everything that they were promised when they enlisted.
Mike - thank you for posting about it and getting the word out. The enlisted military are 'discouraged' from complaining about anything.
Jason - thank you - your opinion means a lot to me. Defense budget cuts should not start with enlisted personnel salary and benefits.
Erika - outrageous that the military top dogs do not fight for their own. And the "employees" cannot say, take this job and shove it.
I’ve worked with a lot of military here and the last thing I think they are is underpaid! If I were younger, that overseas pay could entice me to join the military, notwithstanding the fact that my dad was a Marine. Bring the troops home! That in and of itself will save $2 billion a week!
I read in the Sunday paper that more military are dying by their own hand than by enemy forces. What is wrong with our world? Why are they coninuing to drive these people to commit suicide rather than fight for our nation? Is it the futility...the chain of command, the insanity?
Please visit the Wounded Warrior Project. It might help us understand. And, thanks to Judi Barrett for giving me the lead on this wonderful way to help our forces.
I support our troops but I do not support the war, especially since it was an invasion of a foreign country. We should have just sent our Seals and other special forces into the world to get the terrorists. No one would ever have known who got them because the Seals and Special Ops don't talk. But $2 billion a week to be in a country that's been fighting for thousands of years? Nothing we can do will change that.
Jim - Bring the troops home - I agree 100%. But the pay and benefits of the enlisted should not be the place to start reductions. They deserve every dime that they were promised when they volunteered. I am not sure that they are underpaid, but if their current pay and benefits were cut, they would be underpaid. I do not believe that that they go overseas for the money.
Suzanne - Thank you. Wounded Warrior. We have NO idea of what they went through. Or of the anguish that they live with. They do not talk about it, especially while still in the military.
Eric - Excellent plan to remove the terrorists. We should not be over there at all. But this reblog is about cutting the budget by starting with the enlisted soldiers' pay and benefits. That is wrong.
Virginia, Don't be too disappointed in my being behind on responses for The Foreclosure and Short Sale Debate. Practically every one of my responses is a POST and requires a lot of thought. Thank you for stopping by and sharing a long comment, which I WILL respond to. Because that is what I do. Best wishes always. ;-)
Agreed Virginia! We underpay them... while they pay with their lives. Thanks for posting this!
Richard, No worries - I enjoyed your post.
Melinda - exactly!
My dad went overseas as a Marine for the extra money that it paid and that was several decades ago. I also heard that he married my mom earlier than planned because military get a substantially bigger paycheck if they are married. How odd is that? From what I understand from current military that I know, it hasn’t changed other than the pay being much greater than it was thirty years ago.
I think there’s going to be a lot of military personnel in financial trouble when the troops are brought home because they no longer get that overseas pay.
As an example, you might have heard that it costs $2 billion PER WEEK to fight the wars in Iran and Afghanistan, yet we have a total of 110,000 troops over there. Do the math!
I suspect that the budget cuts are only cuts in the sense that when troops come home, they won’t get overseas pay anymore, and that in essence is a budget cut.
Virginia,
On top of this, there's a push to eliminate the VA mortgage interest tax break!
Mike in Tucson
Just stopped by to say that I
I am so tired of this stupidity! That is all I am going to write or I will get all worked up early this morning.