Cutting military services = a cut in pay

[displacedtexan]

We all need to be aware that military paycheck dollar amounts are meager, and services (base schools, commissaries, and health care) make it possible for our service personnel to make ends meet.

So, when I read this article from Army Times, it made my blood boil! Who the BLEEP does Rumsfeld think he is?

Army Times

An act of ‘betrayal’
In the midst of war, key family benefits face cuts

By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer

Commissaries and the Defense Department’s stateside schools are in the crosshairs of Pentagon budget cutters, and military advocates, families and even base commanders are up in arms. Defense officials notified the services in mid-October that they intend to close 19 commissaries and may close 19 more, mostly in remote areas.

(NOTE: This means spouses must drive many (sometimes hundreds) of miles to the closest base for base commissary shopping.)

At the same time, the Pentagon is finishing a study to determine whether to close or transfer control of the 58 schools it operates on 14 military installations in the continental United States.
The two initiatives are the latest in a string of actions by the Bush administration to cut or hold down growth in pay and benefits, including basic pay, combat pay, health-care benefits and the death gratuity paid to survivors of troops who die on active duty.
The roots of all these efforts reach back to the highest levels of the Defense Department.

(NOTE: WTF IS A 'DEATH GRATUITY'? THIS IS A HORRIBLE TERM!)

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made no secret of his desire to get the military out of support activities that are not central to its core war-fighting functions, said Joseph Tafoya, director of the Department of Defense Education Activity. As soon as he arrived at the Pentagon three years ago, Tafoya said, Rumsfeld began asking: “Why am I running stores? Why am I in education?”

(NOTE TO RUMMY: Why are you so heartless?)

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=0-ARMYPAPER-2335705.php

[JHB]

1. All part of Rummy's military "restructuring".

In many ways some military restructuring needs to be done anyway, but Rummy espouses a version that drives off long-termers and is more suitable for his kind of operations: "quick" and "cheap". You can't conquer the world if you have to account for spouses.

[displacedtexan]

2. how many young people can afford to join up

if their benefits will no longer be there?

we will soon see a military made up of mostly illegals seeking citizenship (they are desperate, anyway)... we're seeing the beginnings of this scenario right now, aren't we? (then, aren't we telling the world that 'we'll only send cannon fodder' to secure the peace... so bring it on'?)

this situation is horrible!

[demsrule4life]

3. (NOTE: WTF IS A 'DEATH GRATUITY'? THIS IS A HORRIBLE TERM!)

It is a one time payment to help cover the cost of funerals, help pay rent extra money till life insurance comes in. Heard on the news this morning that congress has doubled the gratuity and made it tax free.

[BeFree]

4. DOD spending is 50% higher now

And they want to cut benefits to humans? Could it be that our DOD is anti-human? That our military is somehow not pro-humanity?

I say cut our military back to Clinton Era spending limits. It has trillions of dollars in un-accounted losses. To support spending more money for more anti-humanity is just plain anti-human.

[OldSoldier]

5. I love the administration's famous tagline "support the troops"

I am just wondering when they're going to get around to doing it themselves; so far, they've done more to spit on the troops than any mythical protestor in John Rambo's fertile little mind.

[Brian Sweat]

6. Why do you people hate America?

Don't you know that all of that money that goes to making military life almost livable for service personnel and their families is money that cannot be funneled to Haliburton, Ratheon and The Carlysle Group?