Pentagon asking Congress to hold back on generous increases in troop pay

[G_j]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050703188.html

Pentagon asking Congress to hold back on generous increases in troop pay

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Pentagon, not usually known for its frugality, is pleading with Congress to stop spending so much money on the troops.

Through nine years of war, service members have seen a healthy rise in pay and benefits, with most of them now better compensated than workers in the private sector with similar experience and education levels.

Congress has been so determined to take care of troops and their families that for several years running it has overruled the Pentagon and mandated more-generous pay raises than requested by the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. It has also rejected attempts by the Pentagon to slow soaring health-care costs -- which Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said are "eating us alive" -- by raising co-pays or premiums.

Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.

In the midst of two long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials are increasingly worried that the government's generosity is unsustainable and that it will leave them with less money to buy weapons and take care of equipment.


..more..

[Horse with no Name]

1. Heaven forbid we give the money to the grunts actually fighting these wars

when we could save it for the war profiteers.
Priorities people, priorities!

[G_j]

2. drones cost more than grunts...

how much are mercenaries?

[bluestateguy]

3. I suspect Congress will ignore that request from the bureaucracy

After all, pay raises for the mostly working class military personnel are pumped right back into the economy in the form of consumer spending. It's sort of a backdoor stimulus package.

[G_j]

5. I hope you are right. nt

[FBI_Un_Sub]

4. Maybe they anticipate a return to Conscription

Given the totality of

1. Our truly abysmal progress on "safe" off shore drilling
   
2. Our even worse progress on so-called "clean coal"
   
3. Our very minimal progress on other renewables
   
4. Our societal failure to significantly reduce our energy consumption (especially in transportation)
   
5. Our doing deals with the same oligarchs in the ME that we have always dealt with
   
6. The increasing scarcity of "light sweet crude" -- especially close to the surface, and in placeswhere they hate the US
   

we are headed for "resource wars"/"energy wars" at a level where we will need conscripts. (See Michael Klare's writings.)

[G_j]

6. ==

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R

[unhappycamper]

8. Gates has been hitting the rubber chicken circuit lately

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8299852

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/unhappycamper/419

Things must be getting bad if the DoD says it's time to batten the hatches.

[dotymed]

9. Of course

these wars of aggression for the benefit of a Corptocracy that purposely destroys the American economy in order to further subjugate us, is a death blow to our economy. One of the few employment options for our young people is to join the military. We are spending trillion$ so that corporations can take over sovereign nations, all the while they are spending trillion$ taking over America.I guess we can be the breeder nation for the corporate military. Obviously there is no active resistance. At least in the ME the bombs alerted them to fight back.

[G_j]

10. really!

[amborin]

11. K&R

[troubledamerican]

12. "Generous increases in troop may" may result in a soldier's party affiliation changing to Democrat