White House 'Strongly Opposes' Proposed 19.5% Pay Hike for Junior Enlisted Troops

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Prisoners should fight . We have way too many people jailed in this country and they are in shape unlike fat Americans . Put them to good use . Other countries use prisoners too. They also work well with authority structures

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

Our Soldiers and Marines fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Prisoners should fight . We have way too many people jailed in this country and they are in shape unlike fat Americans . Put them to good use . Other countries use prisoners too. They also work well with authority structures

You can take a company of murderers and rapists to war. You can be their Company Commander and ensure they follow regulations, do as they are told, abide by ROE, etc.

You can show everyone how it’s done. Once you bring your company back from war, you can write a paper on your successful methods of waging war with convicted criminals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

You have no idea what you are talking about. What you stated here is false. This had not been the case for quite some time now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop pissing so much money away on the military please. Everyone needs healthcare. But no, we gotta give some high school grad $100k per year now to go kill goat herders in Afghanistan.

They get free healthcare citizens can only dream of. They get free housing. Free food. Free utilities. They know what they sign up for. The military is not an occupation intended to turn soldiers into wealthy UMC.

this is true. Enlisted receive enough, free housing. There are too many active duty in the US, that's why the Defense budget is $800B annual or something like that. Going to bankrupt the US eventually. Which large war is the US actively involved in? (More than 500K military involved)? Silence.

None of this is true. They don't get free housing, free food, free utilities. They either pay rent or are forced to live in substandard base housing. They pay for food and utilities the same as anyone else. They do not get paid six figures and no one is killing goat herders in Afghanistan.

I can't tell why you think wars are only justified if we deploy half a million soldiers. The DoD has a huge budget because of next generation military technology. There is no private sector market for fighter jets. So the DoD has to float the entire industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

You have no idea what you are talking about. What you stated here is false. This had not been the case for quite some time now.

DP. Please cite where you believe US soldiers are engaged in trench warfare right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

Our Soldiers and Marines fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20 years.

I'm an Iraq vet, and you're talking nonsense. We did not engage in trench warfare. It was urban warfare, supplemented with air support and drones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Put the fat kids on ozempic if a war breaks out. Problem solved. We have bigger problems at home and around the world we need money for.

Tax payers are already paying for lifetime benefits, food, housing, etc. It’s time we right size our military and focus on more positive efforts.

Soldiers can’t deploy to war and take weight loss medication. You are either trolling or clueless.

No dumbass. Either you put them on ozempic or physical conditioning platoon for a month until they are no longer fat.

Then they go to recruit training etc after. It’s not hard.

You want our government to force American citizens to take weight loss drugs so they can be drafted and fight in a war?

If you think it’s far fetched pay attention to what Ukraine is doing right now and has been doing with conscripts.

The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years. Every nickel spent on air dominance has been worth it given the alternative.

Our Soldiers and Marines fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan for 20 years.

I'm an Iraq vet, and you're talking nonsense. We did not engage in trench warfare. It was urban warfare, supplemented with air support and drones.

Yeah, I was there also, and Afghanistan.

No one claimed American military members have been conducting trench warfare.

pp said: “The reason we spend money on our military is so that our soldiers never have to fight as they do in Ukraine. No American or NATO soldier is fighting in a trench for two and a half years.“

American Soldiers have been fighting in cities, deserts, up and down mountains, in the ME for 20 years.

Did you ever have the privilege of fighting in the mountains of Afghanistan?

Biden should give American Military personnel e1-e4 enough money to pay their damn rent.
He’s a hypocrite for speaking about his son constantly, and Jill giving lip service to supporting military families, when lower enlisted are paying out of pocket for housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like any issue, IMO people need to do more research.

Using the calculator on military.com, an E3 with 3 years of service in the DC area with dependents is getting $71,328 annually, including their housing allowance.

If they live on base then the housing allowance goes away but they are essentially living for free in base housing. They (and their dependents) get practically free health/dental/vision care, spouse gets hiring priority for U.S. government jobs, and childcare is ridiculously low.

That's a pretty good deal for someone who (traditionally) is in their early 20s, married and may have a kid or two.

You are clueless. There isn’t enough on base housing for military members serving in DC area bases. And there isn’t enough childcare either. Only a very small portion are able to get into the on base childcare center. Most military members in DC have to live off base and find their own childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like any issue, IMO people need to do more research.

Using the calculator on military.com, an E3 with 3 years of service in the DC area with dependents is getting $71,328 annually, including their housing allowance.

If they live on base then the housing allowance goes away but they are essentially living for free in base housing. They (and their dependents) get practically free health/dental/vision care, spouse gets hiring priority for U.S. government jobs, and childcare is ridiculously low.

That's a pretty good deal for someone who (traditionally) is in their early 20s, married and may have a kid or two.

You are clueless. There isn’t enough on base housing for military members serving in DC area bases. And there isn’t enough childcare either. Only a very small portion are able to get into the on base childcare center. Most military members in DC have to live off base and find their own childcare.

That’s true for every military base and post. There is not enough on base/post housing and not enough slots at the on base/post childcare centers.

The majority of Military families live in off base/post housing.

If our country is providing housing for illegal immigrants, we can provide housing for military members and their families.

Joe Biden’s granddaughter and her husband live in the White House, and they are both attorneys. They are receiving taxpayer funded housing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like any issue, IMO people need to do more research.

Using the calculator on military.com, an E3 with 3 years of service in the DC area with dependents is getting $71,328 annually, including their housing allowance.

If they live on base then the housing allowance goes away but they are essentially living for free in base housing. They (and their dependents) get practically free health/dental/vision care, spouse gets hiring priority for U.S. government jobs, and childcare is ridiculously low.

That's a pretty good deal for someone who (traditionally) is in their early 20s, married and may have a kid or two.

And often not high performers (either grade wise or with low level criminal violations).

What?

What’s so hard to understand? High performers don’t enlist in the military.

If they want to serve they go the officer route. Enlistment is for losers. They would be working at Walmart or flipping burgers if they didn’t have the military.

You know who else doesn’t join the people? People who don’t want to work hard. Flipping burgers and working at Walmart is infinitely easier than being enlisted. I’d rather tax payer dollars go to people actually earning it. Military members work all hours, as long as they are needed to finish a job, go wherever they are told, and have to be ready at all times. They earn and should be entitled to this raise

[Anonymous]

This thread is absolutely disgusting. What these men and women deserve better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Im not sure I understand what the issue is....they are doing a military wide compensation review and want that completed BEFORE signing a 19.5% pay hike correct?

"While Tuesday's statement from the White House suggested Congress should wait until the administration's review is done to make any significant changes to military pay, the senior enlisted leaders for all the military services earlier this year urged lawmakers to act immediately to boost service members' pay.

Additionally, a House Armed Services Committee staffer told reporters last month that a 15% raise for junior enlisted service members is among the options the administration's review is considering.

The White House's statement Tuesday cited cost as a concern with the House's plan. A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday estimated the increase in pay for junior enlisted troops would cost $24.4 billion from 2025 to 2029.

The administration also argued that service members have already received significant raises in recent years, citing the 5.2% troops got this year and the 4.6% increase last year.

"If the president's FY 2025 request is enacted, service members will have received a 15% basic pay increase in just three years," the statement said, though it would actually add up to 14.3%."

Senior military leaders recommend this. They know lower enlisted troops are struggling.
Bipartisan leadership in the House Armed Services committee recommends this. They have examined the issues.

Lower enlisted troops can’t afford housing. How do you think that’s not problem?

Then housing allowance should be adjusted. Let the formal review be completed and then push this forward. This is all delayed from previous administrations.

Ill also add that the bill the House Committee is trying to push through REMOVES MARIJUANA TESTING FOR RECRUITMENT AND ENLISTED!!!!!

Do you have a citation that this was delayed by previous administrations?

https://www.navycs.com/charts/ https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/12/07/2023-military-pay-raise-will-be-largest-20-years.html
You can see year by year. President, year, increase. It usually matches fed increases.

Obama recession, no one got raises. Clinton balancing the budget- no one got raises. But Bush and Trump both pro-military and the raises were eh.

And you are uneducated if you think that the base pay is all they get. https://www.navycs.com/military-pay.html And most of the allowances are untaxed. So when you talk about 2000 BAH you need to increase it to what it would be for taxed rate because its untaxed.

Dude I retired after 27 years. I am shocked Biden talks about his son and Dr. Jill talks about military families needing support and lower enlisted are struggling to pay their rent.

They arent struggling to pay their rent. They are struggling because the bases are in HCOL and the government doesnt properly adjust for COL. The government also wont regulate housing and who is purchasing housing. The Ft Carson example was talking about people wanting to buy homes because of VA loans and equity but buying a home isnt a guarantee and shouldnt be what we are increasing pay towards. They have 26000 personnel but only 3100 housing units. Why was base personnel expanded without housing expanded? The base command is now advocating for reduction in builder liability so that they can get more condos built......they are all over the place. And then commenting about how some of the families have to have dual incomes to survive........ermmm yes so do most families. I didnt realize that being an enlisted meant you got a SAHP. Are we subsidizing that now?

Id love to see the numbers on how much base housing costs the military to run versus BAH

With skyrocketing rental costs, military personnel being forced to pay out-of-pocket for place to live

The Defense Department's Basic Allowance for Housing hasn't kept pace. The Blue Star Families and House Armed Services Committee called for an increase.

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/national/military-news/with-skyrocketing-rental-costs-military-personnel-being-forced-to-pay-out-of-pocket-for-housing/291-7dce187f-52bb-45d4-90fa-3d0abd71c68b


NORFOLK, Va. — Because there simply isn't enough military-owned housing for the nation's 1.3 million military active-duty members, many of them have no choice but to live off-base.
73% of military personnel who live in civilian housing pay well over $200 per month in housing costs out of pocket—beyond the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) they receive from the government—according to a 2023 survey from Blue Star Families.


A 2022 Blue Star Families survey found that 98% of respondents said finding rental housing within $200 of the service member's BAH was "somewhat difficult" to "extremely difficult."
The findings are drawing the attention of Capitol Hill.
"These housing shortages force military families to strain their budgets and pay more than they can afford or to undergo long commutes," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), during a hearing last week of the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee.
At the same hearing, Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel Ashish Vaziarni said: "Access to affordable housing certainly will improve the quality of life for military families. We're very focused on that."
Currently, the BAH is calculated at 95% of the local market cost.
Blue Star Families says the allowance needs to return to 100%.



Military families’ housing benefits lag as rents explode: ‘That could be $20,000 that we’re paying out of pocket above BAH’


https://fortune.com/2022/08/20/military-families-housing-benefits-lag-as-rents-explode-bah-housing-bubble/

When Kristin Martin found out her husband was being transferred to Naval Base San Diego, securing housing for their family of five quickly took over her life.

On-base housing wasn’t an option — the waitlist for a four-bedroom home in the neighborhoods they qualified for was 14 to 16 months.

Neither were the military-only hotels near base where new arrivals can pay low rates as they get their bearings — those were full, too.

So Martin cast a wide net across San Diego and started applying for rental homes, all sight unseen.

“I was waking up and the first thing I was doing was looking at properties,” Martin said. “I was looking at it midday, before I went to bed. I had alerts set. It became a full-time job.”

More than 30 rental applications later and hundreds of dollars in application fees down the drain, the Martins finally found a home.

But there were caveats. They’d have to start paying rent a month before they actually moved. And, at $4,200 per month, their rent was nearly $700 more than the monthly basic allowance for housing, known as the BAH, that her husband, a lieutenant, receives.

“We’ll probably be here two or three years, so that could be $20,000 that we’re paying out of pocket above BAH just for rent,” Martin said after completing her family’s fourth move in 15 years last month.

“It’s affecting us personally but then I think about how we were a junior enlisted family at one point. I cannot imagine the struggles (they) are going through.”

Housing has long been a major benefit for service members, a subsidy to salaries that trail the private sector. But, amid record-breaking spikes in rent, the Department of Defense has neglected its commitment to help military families find affordable places to live, service members and housing activists say.

That’s forced many to settle for substandard homes, deal with extremely long commutes or pay thousands out of pocket they hadn’t budgeted for.

“We have families coming to us that are on exorbitantly lengthy waiting lists and sitting in homes that they can’t afford, like an Airbnb rental, or they’re at a hotel or camping in tents or living in RVs,” said Kate Needham, a veteran who co-founded the nonprofit Armed Forces Housing Advocates in May 2021.

“I don’t think civilians really understand — they might think we’re living in free housing and just having a great time, making lots of money. And that’s not the case at all.”

So I want to be clear here you are advocating for military personnel to receive a paycheck and then for all of the allowances to cover: housing, some utilities, medical care for themselves and their dependents, childcare if available, etc. So their paychecks, which apparently is the only one coming in since enlisted need SAHP are meant to pay for food, cars, savings, and clothing? They get 0% loans, pensions, veterans preference, spousal preference, and lots of funds not taxed and we are arguing about 5% BAH?