Is this some Repub email going around?

[Sugarcoated]

A facebook friend of my daughter who's husband has joined the military:

President Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS. Please repost if you support our troops......

Again, I'm sure this has got to be some twisting of reality, and I know I've read, I believe, that last year was the first time in a long time the military's pay has been raised significantly, or something. Anyone here know this one with a link? She wants to respond knowledgeably, and I'm urging her to post a link to back up her words. Before she dives in there, I think she should ask her friend her source. This just smacks of RW chain email . . . or maybe something going around Military circles? I don't recall her friend being very political till she and her husband moved to Kentucky where he's stationed. My daughter rarely wants to get into these debates, even rarer to ask me to help, and I think this would be a good stand for her to take. A lot of people will see it, and possibly set a naive friend straight.

[monmouth]

1. Check Snopes..."Military pay increase" or something like that..n/t

[Sugarcoated]

2. I actually checked Snopes and nothing came up

that addressed the issues in the friend's post.

[alstephenson]

3. It's B.S. Here's the link to military vs. private pay increases.

1972 to 2010. I don't think an increase for 2011 has even been announced yet.

http://www.moaa.org/controller.asp?pagename=lac_paygap

[ConstitutionalLib]

9. With all due respect

you are wrong.

http://www.military.com/news/article/white-house-offers-14-pay-raise-in-2011.htm

[alstephenson]

10. You're right and I'm wrong.

Thanks.

[JuniperLea]

4. There's always more to the story...

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/01/military_2011_budget_012610w/

snip...

If approved by Congress, it would be the smallest annual
military pay raise since the birth of the all-volunteer force
in 1973, a reflection of the lingering recession’s dampening
effect on wage growth and living costs. The next-smallest
raise in the volunteer era was a 2 percent increase in 1988.

In contrast, the pay raise for this year, which took effect
Jan. 1, was a robust 3.4 percent.

The proposed 2011 raise would match the projected increase in
the Employment Cost Index, a Labor Department measurement of
private-sector wage growth. For 11 consecutive years,
including this year, Congress set annual military raises half
a percentage point above the increase in the ECI in order to
whittle a perceived gap between average military and
private-sector pay that supposedly has existed since 1982 and
peaked in 1999.

The point paper, issued in advance of a speech on military
family initiatives by first lady Michelle Obama to an
association of military spouses, also envisions an average 4.2
percent increase in Basic Allowance for Housing rates next
year.

[Sugarcoated]

5. For some reason your link isn't working

Edit: I searched their site and found it . . . thanks!

[JuniperLea]

6. Weird!

I found it by Googling this: Obama to request 1.4% pay raise for 2011

The story comes up just fine, still there, but for some reason I can't get the link to past properly here.

[JuniperLea]

7. Try copying and pasting now...

I switched to plain text, which for some reason allows the full link to show, but not as a link...

[ConstitutionalLib]

8. It is TRUE! My son is a Marine and...

This is true. This link is to the original article on Military.com

http://www.military.com/news/article/white-house-offers-14-pay-raise-in-2011.htm

In addition to that the president proposed last year that vets injured in theatre should have any civilian health insurance billed before CHAMPUS/TRICARE. That one didn't make the papers either.

[Sugarcoated]

11. What do you think about this?

[gratuitous]

12. The tipoff is "rampant inflation"

We haven't had rampant inflation in the United states for years, thanks to the tight money policies pursued by the Fed and its wizard Alan Greenspan. Worker productivity has gone up significantly since 1980, and private sector pay has not kept pace even with the modest inflation of the last 30 years.

The other tipoff that this is reactionary hackery is the reference to "welfare recipients." No such thing anymore. Tell your friend that if she wants to "support our troops," she should be working to bring them home from the foreign quagmires that the Bush administration and the Republican majorities enmeshed them in.

[Cognitive_Resonance]

13. A clue the source is misinformed--

"...during a time of rampant inflation..."

We are living during a time of anything but rampant inflation. Perhaps deflation.

Few workers have received ANY pay/cost of living increase the past year due to the recession. That is if they were fortunate to avoid a layoff.

[wishlist]

14. Low pay raise is based on statistics to be comparable to civilian pay raises,

The slant of the email is anti-Obama for not explaining the context of the low proposed raise which is the fact that presidents always propose an amount based on a set formula that takes into account the inflation rate and how much civilian wages are going up, so therefore in times of recession and very low official inflation, the pay raise will be lower.

In recent years, military pay rates have gone up as much or more than civilian pay raises and this 1.4% is calculated the same way- based on the same guidelines that have been in place for some time. Although low inflation caused Social Security and other retirees to get no cost of living raise this year, Military did get a 3.4% raise this January. It is normal for presidents to propose a pay raise based on a usual set formula, then Congress can consider increasing that to a higher amount which presidents normally agree to if Congress votes for that.

[Sugarcoated]

15. shameless kick

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. I'd really like to hear some input from our DU military people...

...particularly with regard to this paragraph from the Military.com article:

"But officials also note that housing allowance increases, new retention bonuses and specialty pays will drive troops’ actual compensation up about 4.2 percent next year. They admitted the pay raise figure islow, but said they’re confident troops will be satisfied with the full compensation package, especially considering the country’s continued economic difficulties."

http://www.military.com/news/article/white-house-offers-14-pay-raise-in-2011.htm

I'm wary of this justification for such a small increase. Our government is notorious for giving our troops the short end of the stick...regardless of which party holds the power.