Increase military pay

[5.7 hemi]

Hospitals are too backed up with the illegals and wouldn't be able to see a doctor anytime soon......at least in California!

 

[Bladecutter]

This is making me feel bad that im having my medical needs met by Medi-Cal. I'm indigent & not a Vet.
I Truly do believe Veterans should be first priority. In my defense, i am a natural born citizen, i have asked little of tax payers in past.(broken hip,,work accident in 2003)

 

[verdelaw]

I think we need to reduce military salaries. Manpower costs are fast approaching 40% of the defense budget, which is ridiculous. And since operations and maintenance funding is tough to cut, a lot of cuts are being made to procurement dollars to accommodate manpower costs. This means reductions in training, expendables like ammunition, and getting new systems. Another problem is too many people are staying for 20-30+ years so they can get retirement, which is going to drive up manpower costs even faster even as our military forces grey out more and more every year.

We should cut salaries and move that money back to procurement where it belongs.

Spoken like someone with a vested interest in the military industrial complex. Everyone should remember Ike's warnings about these blood suckers. Although they're firmly entrenched now, there's not much we can do. Corruption and conflicts of interest abound. Latest example? General Welsh (or should I say welch) now working for the very same people who were lobbying him as CSAF. I'm sure his main job won't be to use all his contacts in his last job to benefit his new defense contractor bosses...

Manpower costs have been the same percentage of military spending for decades.. DECADES! It's the bloated programs that need to be cut if you're going to trim military spending specifically. Why is it that every time someone wants to reduce military spending it has to come off the back of servicemembers?! Ridiculous.

Someone also mentioned how active duty get a 2.1% increase and vets get 0.3%. Did you know that BOTH of these are below the increase in inflation? That's right.. military members actually LOSE money every year. On top of politicians raping them while complaining that their own huge salaries aren't huge enough. I'm not kidding either, this literally happens.. I'll have to find the link.

Anyway, get off the back of service members. Cut overpriced crap like the F-35 and B-21 (I think that's the new bomber program)... among MANY other useless expenditures.

 

[aldal]

I think one thing Vets need to do is join the American Legion and/or The VFW. Sadly many younger Vets fail to see the need for these organizations or the fact that they can be an extremely powerful lobbying force if servicemen would join and pull together. I realize most Veterans are probably wired not to bitch but you know the old saying....the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[Ghostrider 67]

That would depend on the service member and the Legion/ VFW in their area. My wife, who is also a veteran, and I joined the local Legion and found it to be a bunch lie swapping drunks around a bar that sometimes cooked a meal. Not my idea of a community organization. if I have to swill down alcohol to belong to an organization then they can keep it.

 

[Bruzilla]

Spending on personnel has increased over $50 BILLION bucks a year since I went in back in 1979, and that's with a reduction in end strength numbers of close to 25%. We are now at a point where an E-1 starts at $19,104. That's someone with no training, no experience, and no time on the job. And that's just base pay with no extra pay factored in. You know how many entry-level jobs in the US pay that? Not damn many. Serve just four years, make E-5, and counting base pay, VHA, and BAS, and you're looking at $54,399 and with special or incentive pays you're looking at well over $60,000 for Joe Average E-5. How many jobs in the US are paying $60K to someone who's been on the job just four years? Not frigging many.

It used to be military folks made well less than their civilian counterparts, and now they're making well more. Yeah, it's great that we're paying our folks more, but things are getting a bit out of hand. How much is too much? I know a lot of folks feel guilty that these folks are risking their lives so they don't have to, but that guilt is driving up costs more and more, and as we pay these folks more and more they are wanting to stay longer and longer so more troops than ever are staying to retirement age, which is going to drive up long-term costs huge.

What we really need is to get back to drafting people, and paying them much less. Get people in, train them so they have a skill they can use to get jobs when they get out, and pay those who stick around after their tour is over more. This approach built our country for 50+ years and would work again.

 

[Ghostrider 67]

Spending on personnel has increased over $50 BILLION bucks a year since I went in back in 1979, and that's with a reduction in end strength numbers of close to 25%. We are now at a point where an E-1 starts at $19,104. That's someone with no training, no experience, and no time on the job. And that's just base pay with no extra pay factored in. You know how many entry-level jobs in the US pay that? Not damn many. Serve just four years, make E-5, and counting base pay, VHA, and BAS, and you're looking at $54,399 and with special or incentive pays you're looking at well over $60,000 for Joe Average E-5. How many jobs in the US are paying $60K to someone who's been on the job just four years? Not frigging many.

It used to be military folks made well less than their civilian counterparts, and now they're making well more. Yeah, it's great that we're paying our folks more, but things are getting a bit out of hand. How much is too much? I know a lot of folks feel guilty that these folks are risking their lives so they don't have to, but that guilt is driving up costs more and more, and as we pay these folks more and more they are wanting to stay longer and longer so more troops than ever are staying to retirement age, which is going to drive up long-term costs huge.

What we really need is to get back to drafting people, and paying them much less. Get people in, train them so they have a skill they can use to get jobs when they get out, and pay those who stick around after their tour is over more. This approach built our country for 50+ years and would work again.

Yeahhh.....i'm calling BS on that. So , I join the military let's say. I get sent to a post in a high cotton area where everything costs up the wazooo to buy, even the staples. Your saying it's okay for a 20 year old troop with a wife and 3 kids to be paid .....what's the number here? $10,000....$15,000 a year because he don't know **** yet? troops come out of AIT in many instances knowing a heck of a lot more than their counterparts do after years on the job. Plus they get moved around the globe and put in harms way, and leave their families behind, and have no say in they places and time frames the have to go. Show me a civilian comparable job that has all those elements that the person holding that job only makes $10 to 15 grand a year. You cant. I can see the next argument coming..well they signed up for that. $ 60, 000 grand ..on the job 4 years...how about completing the story and saying that those addons are so the soldier can afford to feed his kids when hey send him/her to live in DC, San Fran, LA, NYC, Dallas, etc where the cost of living is so much higher. How about when they go to Europe, Asia, oh hell maybe Tokyo? You have any idea what it costs to live in some places? Just move them all over, cant buy a friggin house, or anything permanent. Sure yank the kids around every 2-3 years, new schools etc...my wife attended 18 different schools while growing up and three colleges. Her dad was a full bull. How about we start telling the truth about what it costs to own the best military on Earth and what will happen after we screw that up? How many first job kids get handed a 60 million dollar state of the art tank and at expected to know how to operate that tank, fight that tank, care for that tank, and teach others to do the same, from day one? Puhlease.

 

[68gtxman]

What about us veterans who worked our careers for less pay than our civilian counterparts, only to find our retirement pay is adjusted less than inflation? At some point, we'll enter poverty level pay through no fault of our own. Military retirees should be given pay raises that match active duty percentages.

Don't forget too that many of us signed up so many years ago when the retirement programs were promised to be one thing, but the rules changed before we actually retired and they didn't make the older promises retroactive. We got screwed by them reneging on their promises. Was supposed to be free medical and dental during retirement, but now no dental and copay and deductibles on medical. What's up with that???

 

[Jcharger]

And now it looks like Trump wants more nukes. That is $$

 

[Ghostrider 67]

Well my final argument when this subject rears it's head is this; What is the alternative to being number 1? How much is worth, to you personally, to not be number 2. To be under or even unprotected in todays world? To paraphrase Jack," You want me on that fuckin wall." Our freedom, and way of life, are a direct result of military deterrent. Tell yourself anything else if you want but your lying to your self. Todays military is the smallest it has ever been in modern times. Why do you think that is? If you were hell bent on making whomever was number 1 lose their position, what would you attack first? Yes, that's right, the military services. Anyone who cannot defend themselves on the world stage will not be number 1 for long. You want to save money? Put every OTHER bloated useless program in the scrap bin and use THAT money to pay for the military. It has always pissed me off that the freakin public cries out for the military to go wherever, whenever, and CRUSH the enemy of the moment. Afterwards, they tell us to kiss off. Pretend they don't see us, don't need us now. Until the next time.

 

[Bruzilla]

One of the first things I learned when I joined is you didn't join the military to get rich. You join to serve your country. Do we sacrifice? Hell yes we sacrifice, but that's the nature of the business. It sucks, but it is what it is. Nowadays what I see more and more are people feeling guilty about not wanting to serve their country, so to make up for that they think spending more and more on salaries and benefits for those who do serve makes them feel better. I get that, but when we start becoming more concerned about personnel costs than getting our folks the training and expendables they need, or stop buying spares like we should, or keep coming up with excuses for cutting new programs and telling folks to make due with equipment that's 30-40 years old, we have a problem. When we encourage folks to stay in until they are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, doing jobs that kids in their teens and 20's could do more effectively, we have a problem.

 

[steve from staten island]

Show me a veteran who joined the military at 20 and retired at 40 and gets a pension and can live on that and i'll show you a vet who hit Lottery some years earlier.
So what you are saying is we should go back to the draft lottery system and give inductees the option to join any branch they want when Uncle comes a calling? Keep a few after there two years are up by offering a pension and benefits and the others return to civilian life with no veteran benefits even if they saw combat?

 

[Jcharger]

He's going to back up with money for both the weapons and the people.
Just saw this on several sites

 

[Ghostrider 67]

Hit first, hit hard and be respected by those who would do you harm.

 

[steve from staten island]

Nuclear weapons used could wipe out the world as we know it. We need to maintain our nuclear arsenal because of the crackpot regimes and those who would rather see everyone dead in the name of there religion. No unstable country should be allowed to have any nuclear weapons.

 

[Sixpactogo]

Veterans pay is tied to Social Security. When SS gets an increase, veterans get the same amount.

The funny thing is I got a letter from SS stating that I would get a .3% increase starting in Jan., but the amount was no different that what I was getting all year long. I guess the Medicare charge must have increased by .3% as well. The government giveth and the government taketh away.

Mine stayed exactly the same also. I read the other day that the do nothings in congress want a raise because they can't make it on $170,000.00 per year. I wonder how much they will give themselves. .3% would be only $5100.00. They probably can't make it on that either.

 

[Budnicks]

Good for everyone getting a raise...

Merry Christmas to everyone

 

[mopar 3 B]

That has got to be why my health insurance cost tripled for next year and coverage went to pots.

Hospitals are too backed up with the illegals and wouldn't be able to see a doctor anytime soon......at least in California![/QUOTE