More war spending on the way....

House subcommittee votes for 1.9% raise
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 12, 2010 15:50:55 EDT

A House subcommittee showed Wednesday that lawmakers are not yet ready to embrace Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ call to hold down military personnel costs.

By voice vote and with no dissent, the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee approved a 1.9 percent Jan. 1 military pay increase — 0.5 percent percentage points more than Gates and the Obama administration wanted — and also approved increases in hostile fire pay, family separation allowance and health care benefits for some early retirees that the Defense Department had not requested.

This is the first step of a legislative process that will take at least until October, and possibly longer, to approve a 2011 defense budget.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., the subcommittee chairwoman, said she understands and shares the concerns expressed by Gates in a May 8 speech at the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kan., about needing to cut personnel costs to make room in a tight budget for weapons modernization. But she said the timing doesn’t seem right when troops are deployed in combat, leaving them and their families under stress.

“It is becoming painfully apparent that the extraordinary high operations tempo has exacted a high penalty on our service members and their families,” Davis said. “Although we have done much to improve existing programs and initiate new solutions, the demand to further enhance personnel and family support programs remains great.”



unhappycamper comment: It is painful to watch this shit unfold. It will end when we run out of money.

Support The Troops? You bet I do. But supporting them is not a blank check to keep them in the sandbox. Our military is becoming a burden on the rest of America - is it time to stop this crap? Bring them home and take care of them when they get here. Jobs, proper medical care and counseling is what they need, not another tour.

Increase the bombing of goat herders, no.

Maybe our "allies" can introduce a less expensive "freedom". Oh that's right, If they were'nt our allies it would be called dictatorship. Bring our boys and girls home and forget this shit.