Now this just pisses me off...

[hedgehog]

Now I know there are people on this board on both sides of the Iraq war debate, but this thread is not about that. From "The Army Times..."

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White House opposes 3.5 percent pay raise

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday May 16, 2007 17:47:40 EDT

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 Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan. 1, 2008, enough to match last year’s average pay increase in the private sector. The House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-sector pay raises.

The slightly bigger military raises are intended to reduce the gap between military and civilian pay that stands at about 3.9 percent today. Under the bill, HR 1585, the pay gap would be reduced to 1.4 percent after the Jan. 1, 2012, pay increase...

In a nutshell, the White House is threatening to veto this spending bill because it gives 0.5% more to the troops than they requested. Now I understand we have a serious deficit in this country, but I think we can muster 0.5% increase in spending on our troops.

There's a lot of talk about supporting the troops coming from Washington, here's a chance for them to actually do something to improve the lives of the members of our armed ******.