Don’t Cut Guard, Reserve Drill Pay
Are you starting to get the feeling that no one in Washington is serious about looking out for our uniformed military personnel? Recent budget talks about cuts to veterans programs and military pay leave me dismayed.
In recent months, we’ve seen repeated indications that the Obama administration is prepared to get tough and cut spending—that is, only so long as they can cut spending on defense and military priorities, while allowing the rest of the federal budget to continue growing by leaps and bounds.
We’ve seen it with the Pentagon’s push for higher fees on veterans covered under the Tricare system (while the administration leaves Medicare and Social Security spending untouched). We’ve seen it with the push for “early outs,” forcing uniformed personnel to leave the service—while allowing the civilian bureaucracy to grow unchecked.
Here’s Washington’s latest assault on our military personnel: the 11th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation has recommended that National Guard and Reserve drill pay for training days be slashed in half.
The QRMC’s stated goal is to reduce complexity in the reserve and guard pay system. That’s a worthwhile goal—but not if it comes at the expense of force readiness or creates a disincentive for men and women to serve. Those are precisely the effects that slashing drill pay would have on the services. (You can read the full QRMC report here in PDF format.)
The National Guard Association of the United States has raised the alarm over this attack on our service members. I encourage you to visit the NGAUS website to learn more and how you can get involved to stop these assaults on our military.
Jessie Jane Duff, Gunnery Sergeant, USMC (Ret) is a member of the Concerned Veterans for America’s organizing committee.
Ed Payne
Jul 15, 2012 @ 07:20:23
As of 2007 there were 3033 counties in the US so that means we have AT LEAST 3083 state and county departments/boards of education. WHY do we need a federal Department of Education?
The same applies to highways/roads, we have AT LEAST 3083 department of roads (or equivalent) so WHY are we spending $40 billion per year on the Federal Highway Administration?
Do we really believe that the feds know something about our schools and roads that we cannot know? Are we really so stupid we cannot figure out how to run our schools? Is this redundancy really worth our military?
Denise Null
Jul 12, 2012 @ 17:47:25
How about we cut the pay of the president and congress who have approved over 37% raises to their own pay over the past 4 years? how about when you are no longer president, a member of congress or work for someone in the capitol you no longer get any pay OR benifits? right now as long as you serve one year you get pay for LIFE. not to mention full medical, vision and dental benifits FREE OF CHARGE. now THERES somewhere we can cut spending costs. not to mention the lavis expence accounts and ” perks” that come with those jobs. look at how many vacations the first lady and kids WITH GUESTS have taken in 3 years.. 16 to date all on the tax payer dime. yet i can not afford to go to a family reunion in my own state due to gas prices and the prices of everything else. i say make cuts at the top not the bottom.
Rose Fuentes
Jul 10, 2012 @ 17:25:10
That is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. Our military, men & women, deserve much more than they are getting now. They put their lives on the line for us, some pay the ultimate price for our country & this man, our so called President wants to cut their pay. All he wants to do is to weaken our military so he can bring troops in from other countries & become “king” or “emperor” of the U.S. I don’t think our military will put up with this, I PRAY they don’t. We all need to get together & get Obama out of the White House in November. I pray everyday for this to happen, I hope God listens & answers my prayers.
Evelyn Kelley
Jul 10, 2012 @ 16:31:25
Think we can find somewhere else to cut beside our Military, education and social security.