"Troops don’t need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.
"The White House’s Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy issued last week, as the House was debating the [2008 defense authorization] bill, that it “strongly opposed” the 3.5 percent raise. President Bush has proposed a 3 percent raise, and OMB officials said the higher increase is “unnecessary.” The policy statement also opposed the larger 2006 through 2012 raises, which the House Armed Services Committee had passed in hopes of shaving the gap between average military and private-sector pay to 1.4 percent by 2012." - Military Times
Yeah, thanks for your support. The administration is busy trying to stop high-interest payday loan shops from ripping off our military but not too concerned with addressing the thing that drives us to those places.
¶ Thursday, May 24, 2007Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, [says] someone at the White House should have thought about the message it would send to troops. “I really want to know who the knucklehead is who said 3.5 percent is too much.”
Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Pa., an Iraq war veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee [said] if anything, the 3.5 percent raise isn’t enough. “It is not the raise they deserve.”
If he really wants to show appreciation for the troops he could do that by ensuring their pay better is commensurate, as much as possible, with the sacrifices they are being asked to make.
<< Home
