The Patriot Post® · Obama Undercuts Military Pay Raises

Just back from his resort vacation with the rich and famous on Martha’s Vineyard, Barack Obama announced that he is capping military pay raises at 1.6% next year, well below private sector increases. “I am strongly committed to supporting our uniformed service members,” Obama claimed, “but our country continues to recover from serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare. … This effort requires tough choices, especially in light of budget constraints.” (Oh, so now he admits we are still in a recovery and face budget constraints!)

This marks the seventh year Obama has undercut military pay raises, all of which have been under 2%.

As Mark Alexander noted in “The Most Costly Military Waste: Morale” yesterday, “While our Armed Forces personnel are the best in the world, their effectiveness is being undermined by wasteful and absurd political mandates. At the same time their CINC is asking them to do much more with far less, his statist domestic spending for special interest constituencies grows unabated. The net effect of Obama’s mandates and spending priorities is destroying our military’s most valuable asset, the morale of our warriors. And the decline in morale undercuts, in Washington’s timeless words, ‘the most effectual means of preserving peace.’”