Retirerment with good pension after 20 years, free room and board, free college education after leaving, free government health services through the VA.
Employment standards relatively low, need high school diploma. In this high unemployment job market its easy to fill recruitement quotas.
Our country can't afford this. But this is a sacred cow that nobody can touch. Lets cut some perks.
Son, the cost of freedom is priceless. Where would this country be if we never stopped the evil Iraqi empire? Or stopped the Libyan leader from massacring his own people (but let Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia do whatever they pleased.)
It's people like you that undermine the democracy of this country and place doubts in the minds of the young men and women protecting our country. Shame on you. Shame. On. You.
crazy person wrote:
Son, the cost of freedom is priceless. Where would this country be if we never stopped the evil Iraqi empire? Or stopped the Libyan leader from massacring his own people (but let Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia do whatever they pleased.)
It's people like you that undermine the democracy of this country and place doubts in the minds of the young men and women protecting our country. Shame on you. Shame. On. You.
our country would be in the exact same place, none of those countries placed an actual risk on our country.the military is full of your high school dropouts, scrubs, and failures in life that couldn't make it in the real world so they let the government run their life. they arent heroes, theyre just doing their job to get paid
of the staggering amount of money that the military spends, one of the last things I would want to see cut is pay. 20-year military veterans absolutely should retire with a good pension. If you want to cut the amount of money spent on military pay, then cut the size of the military. You mentioned recruiting quotas being easy to fill but it doesn't occur to you that lowering the quota and recruiting less would reduce spending more than cutting "perks"?
I'd like to see these benefits preserved for those who have actually served in combat or at least in combat zones. As for all the military brass in the Pentagon and elsewhere, they reap the benefits of what all those poor grunts have sown. Cut the GI bill, GI bill for dependents, 20 year retirement, and all the rest for the desk jockeys.
crazy person wrote:
Son, the cost of freedom is priceless. Where would this country be if we never stopped the evil Iraqi empire? Or stopped the Libyan leader from massacring his own people (but let Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia do whatever they pleased.)
It's people like you that undermine the democracy of this country and place doubts in the minds of the young men and women protecting our country. Shame on you. Shame. On. You.
We spend more on the military than the next 15+ countries or so in the world combined. I agree with the previous poster that those countries have litte real impact on our daily lives. For the poster that said for every dollar spent we save 100's of american lives. Sure, putting pressure on muslim extremists could have potentially thwarted attacks (but it also makes them hate us and want to try even harder), but say scale us back to the budget of China (5x the population less than 1/5 of our spending) and put that into providing healthcare to our citizens... it would be a few more than hundreds saved. I'm not for cutting back on the benefits of our current servicemen and women because they deserve it. I am however all for scaling back our presence globally and letting the rest of the world fend for themselves. It's our greatest form of foreign aid.
pjb wrote:
of the staggering amount of money that the military spends, one of the last things I would want to see cut is pay. 20-year military veterans absolutely should retire with a good pension. If you want to cut the amount of money spent on military pay, then cut the size of the military. You mentioned recruiting quotas being easy to fill but it doesn't occur to you that lowering the quota and recruiting less would reduce spending more than cutting "perks"?
Of the "staggering amounts," pay and benefits are the biggest chunk. 20 year military members retire with 50% if I am not mistaken; technically, they don't have to be vets.
You are correct, the saves for the military will come from winding down the numbers of active duty personnel and a side effect of that will be reducing perks designed to recruit HS grads. You will notice that the House was heavily agains miltary spending cuts because all these rural state Congressmen want to bring home the bacon to their military bases; they should knock this crap off. I personally think we need less foreign bases. We should arrange to retain some airfields for strategic use and send close down places like Okinawa, where we are not wanted.
I think the cost of military is worth it and we should raise taxes to cover these costs.
I'd rather we pay the soldiers more and stop spending billions and billions fighting strangers in their pajamas.
lol Veterans pensions are 54 billion a year. Out of the almost 690 billion in the DOD budget. That wouldn't even put a dent in the 4 Trillion they need to cut.
Maybe you should enlist for four years. Then there would be some justification for a free education.
I think Congress should get rid of Pell Grants and Student loan guarantees. Why should I subsidize your education? I don't know you and might not even like you if I did know you. At least if you spent four years in the military you did something for me and to thank you for it I would help pay for your education.
Cut salaries!?! Let me tell you something. Do you want to hear the truth? Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns, like me. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for he "overpaid" military and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that our benefits package, while substantial, probably saves lives. And our existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the benefits package I receive for doing it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think of my pay!
M.C. Confusing wrote:
lol Veterans pensions are 54 billion a year. Out of the almost 690 billion in the DOD budget. That wouldn't even put a dent in the 4 Trillion they need to cut.
Well put.
I hope some of the other posters are trolls. The reason why military retirement is 20 years is because the military is a young man's game by necessity.
The cost of pensions is a drop in the bucket. As for the military's funding of college (either GI Bill, ROTC) for future, present or past soldiers, it is really hard to see a better use of taxpayer money.
M.C. Confusing wrote:
lol Veterans pensions are 54 billion a year. Out of the almost 690 billion in the DOD budget. That wouldn't even put a dent in the 4 Trillion they need to cut.
Great logic, we shouldn't cut anything because all it might net is 1 million, 2 4 because it won't make a difference. We should find something that costs a trillion and nix it because then we will make progress.... That being said, I'm not against cutting benefits for those who served and have an expectation and promise to recieve it.
Col Jessup wrote:
Cut salaries!?! Let me tell you something. Do you want to hear the truth? Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns, like me. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for he "overpaid" military and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that our benefits package, while substantial, probably saves lives. And our existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the benefits package I receive for doing it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think of my pay!
typical military talk, trying to make yourself seem way more badass than you actually are. theres a reason that whenever i see a military vet, hes dressed in a way too tight tapout t-shirt, listening to korn and driving a pickup truck as loud and aggressively as he possibly can.
Col Jessup wrote:
Cut salaries!?! Let me tell you something. Do you want to hear the truth? Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns, like me. Who's gonna do it? You? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for he "overpaid" military and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that our benefits package, while substantial, probably saves lives. And our existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the benefits package I receive for doing it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think of my pay!
Get over yourself. I'm not for cutting your benefits package, I'm for scaling back our presence 10,000 miles away at the cost of $1,000,000/soldier/year. There are millions of young guys like myself who would pick up a rifle if there were an actual direct need to defend this country. Not to mitigate your service but it is not the impetus the average guy with options needs to join the military.
You do recognize the favorite LRC military movie quote? Can't believe you actually took that seriously.
'Lets cut some perks'
What like a free bullet to the head?
End the US Military Occupation of Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
Privatize the VA Hospitals and cemeteries.
Eliminate the VA.
End taxpayer funded retirements for new Pentagon militants and civiians.
Permanently close US militant, CIA, weapons dumps, civilian settlements, and occupation zones, in Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Germany, Turkey, Japan, Spain, England, Korea, etc.
That's my plan. What's yours ?