U.S. military recruitment is down across the board. As of the end of June, the U.S. Army hit just 40% of its recruitment goal for the fiscal year. Part of the reason behind this shortfall likely has to do with Joe Biden’s foolishly unbending COVID vaccine mandate. More of it has to do with leftists continually turning our military into a social justice petri dish. Appealing to anti-American leftists to join the club makes fewer patriotic Americans want to sign up. Who knew?

However, those aren’t the only factors impacting the U.S. military’s ability to fill the ranks.

Another factor appears to be economic. With inflation stuck at a 40-year high, the Pentagon apparently failed to accommodate for its longevity. The Pentagon evidently budgeted based upon the Biden administration’s all-too rosy claims of inflation being only a temporary blip in an otherwise quickly rebounding economy. So Biden’s Defense Department ended up projecting an inflation rate average of 3.9% for 2022 and not the current 8.9%.

While the nation is struggling with reality, The Wall Street Journal notes that the situation is even worse for the military: “The Pentagon may be experiencing even higher inflation than the overall economy, according to the new measure of inflation that the Bureau of Labor Statistics released in June, the Producer Price Index. For government defense purchases, the PPI clocked July year-over-year inflation at 13.6%.”

Given this reality, the Army recently sent out a memo advising soldiers and their families how to avail themselves of SNAP benefits — otherwise known as food stamps — to help them survive the higher food costs their commander-in-chief has had a big hand in creating.

Thanks to inflation, U.S. military personnel have effectively experienced a pay cut on top of an already-too-low salary. As Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute observes: “Based on the Pentagon’s own data, 24% of enlisted personnel are food insecure. While food stamps are a Band-Aid, they’re also an admission that basic pay for enlisted troops and their families is too low — further exacerbated by unyielding inflation causing paychecks to shrink more.”

Food stamps are not in the Constitution. Student loan “forgiveness” is not in the Constitution. Umpteen other forms of income redistribution performed by Congress are not in the Constitution. Do you know what is in the Constitution? “To raise and support Armies” and “To provide and maintain a Navy.”

So, rather than advise enlisted troops to get on food stamps, how about giving them a pay raise? It would encourage them, and it may even go a long way toward helping recruitment.