Not only is it immoral to raise the income of our brave fighting men and women less than the rate of inflation, it is illegal. The law provides troops with receiving a pay increase of at least 0.5% higher than their civilian equivalents. Since inflation was at 3.3 percent, that gives then 3.8, almost a full point more than what the President wants to give our soldiers.
From BradBlog:
Increases in military salary are traditionally determined by increases in average civilian salary, according to a method of measurement called the Employment Cost Index. Regardless of the actual dollar increase in salary, the base pay for service-members must be at least 0.5% above the corresponding civilian pay because of a Defense Authorization Act which Congress passed in 1999.
The Democrats forgot about the law as well, but they want to fund the troops an extra half-percent, a move the White House "strongly opposed." Now both are required to adhere to the rules on the books. Democrats shouldn't mind at all, but the President has a history of not caring about pesky little things that get in his way. It would be nice if the House Republicans still left over from 1999 would remind George about the bill they passed, but Bush doesn't really care for their opinion either.
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