Hoyer: We should freeze military pay, too
I mentioned earlier that the Obama Administration moved to freeze government employees’ pay today. Not to be outdone, Steny Hoyer, the soon-to-be minority whip from Maryland said that the president should also freeze military pay as well according to The Hill;
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said including the military would have increased savings and add “an element of fairness.” He made the comments in a statement about he president’s announcement of a two-year pay freeze.
An added “element of fairness” would be to freeze Congressional pay including Congressional staff, wouldn’t it Steny? Ya dope. It’s funny because I got an email from a journalist this afternoon who told me that he couldn’t get a straight answer to his inquiries to the White House on the subject of the eventuality of a military pay freeze.
The Maryland Democrat also urged the administration to back a more comprehensive program to reduce the nation’s soaring deficit, along the lines of proposals from the president’s fiscal commission and a separate debt panel.
Yeah, after the Democrat Congress went on the largest spending spree in the history of the world, now all of a sudden Hoyer is Peter Pinchpenny. It sure is easy to be in the minority .
Then Hoyer went on to demonstrate that he doesn’t understand this whole war thingie, he says;
…with a strong exception for the members of our military and civilian employees risking their lives on our behalf in Afghanistan, Iraq, and anywhere else they are serving in harm’s way.”
How would Hoyer freeze the pay of military members who are not in a shooting war and not freeze the pay of those involved in the war? Does he think that one group is perpetually at war while the other is perpetually not at war? I’d like to see his math on that one. Of course, he’s talking to a bunch of morons who don’t know any differently.
Thanks to ROS and COB6 for the link.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Congress sucks, Liberals suck, Military issues
Most people who talk about freezing military pay tend to at least attempt to make it clear they are talking only about basic pay, not “combat pay.”
When a low level bureaucrat is given the same pay scale as a
When a low level bureaucrat is at the same level as a Pfc. and on up the payscale maybe they will take Military pay seriously. Maybe these asswipes should get their medical benefits at a facility equal to the VA then maybe the will get a clue. Calling him “Peter Pinchpenny” is cutting him a huss. I’d just call him a “Dick”.
I thought the Democrats were the oens who kept insisting the military is predominantly minority… now they want to freeze pay?
Racists.
I like the idea of lowering the congressional pay scale to that of the military. All staffers paid the same as an E-2, all senators and reps get paid as an E-5. All federal employees get the same pay scale as the military.
Oh, and they get to get groped by the TSA, same as their bosses(us), no travel on military planes, no health care at military hospitals, and no basketball games at Army bases.
my opinion, for what it’s worth…
cut congress’s pay, give the Military a raise…better yet..
all these “stars” who make gazillions of dollars should be “forced” to “share the wealth” with our Military…just sayin!!!
malclave,
Haha, you nailed it, not only are Democrats racists but they want to keep poor people poor….after all, it’s poor minorities with nowhere else to go that join right?
Demcrats suck cock and make us swallow.
Why not just take away the President’s salary? He doesn’t pay for housing, groceries, vacations, utilities, transportation, recreational activities, etc.
Then you can take away the salary of every Congressman above what’s necessary to live on.
Then you can take away their benefits.
And their trips on our dime.
And require that half of their campaign funding be put into the “support the people” pot.
………….I could go on.
Wow there it is. I figured they’d wait for the wars to end before sending the vultures in the pick the military clean. First it will start with a pay freeze. Then they hit R&D, then base and training costs. Before long we’ll have the skeletal husk of a military that this administration would love to have. Seems odd. If I had a guard dog I’d make sure he was well fed and not resent him for doing his job. Of course then again not everyone thinks like that.
Hey, they gotta pay for Porkulus and all those Trillion-plus dollar deficits somehow, dammit! Whaddya mean has Congress ever read Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution? Racists!
George has it right on the money. (No pun intended)
Has the government ever taken care of all the substandard base housing that was reported on several years ago? Have they been fixing or replacing broken equipment or re-equipping the Nat. Guard inventories that were supposedly raided to bring the regular forces up to full strength? The government is spending money and trying to force the military to “go green” with solar generators and other gadgets in the field “to reduce our dependence on foreign oil supplies” at the cost of millions of dollars but this clown wants to freeze troops’ pay?
I guess the bandwagon is rolling through his portion of town this week…
Really, I can’t believe the politician would even think of frezzing the soldiers pay.The military doesn’t take care of the soldiers they way it is.The are so low paid.What in the world are you politician thinking of.How about a decrease in your pay!!!!!Honestly, all of you are so isolated from the working people’s world.Time to look into what is happening in this world……I really don’t care if your Democrat or Republican,your all the same!!!!!!isolated and don’t know or care what is happening out here where the real people live!
Not one of you are trustworthy!!!!!!!It’s all about saving yourself!
Well, when military folk make an average of $73,000, then I could see it, maybe. Or, when military folk make what Hoyer makes, then maybe.
Until then, Mr. Hoyer, Shut The Fuck Up.
OT–I was gonna say, even with them counting housing and medical benefits, doesn’t the average AD member’s compensation come out to something like $40-45K a year?
But break that down to hourly compensation and you’ll see that isn’t jack shit.
“But break that down to hourly compensation and you’ll see that isn’t jack shit.”
Ain’t that the truth!!
$40,000 a year (sans benefits) in a regular 9-5 job equals what, approx 18-19 dollars an hour?
In the service, especially for field troops, that same $40,000 is roughly 8-10 dollars an hour or less when you consider actual time on the ‘clock’.
Let’s see, I remember getting a statement from the Army in 1990 that said my pay with all the beni’s would be equal to $24,000/year in the civilian world. (Living in barracks and eating in the mess hall so I had no “adjustments”) The last 2 – 1/2 monthes I was in Saudi Arabia I had to stay and load all of our equipment back on ships. We worked 12 hours a day 7 days a week (save for a couple of odd days off when there wasn’t a ship to load) That’s 84 hours a week. That would have worked out to $5.49/hour. My actual pay was about $12,000/year so my actual pay was $2.25/hour….yup, we need to freeze military pay….
I chose this as an example because it was the only time I knew what my actual working hours were….it went up from there in the field, especially during gunnery…
OT–notice how they didn’t send those “compensation” notes out for a while? I only got them for a couple of years. Be interesting to see if they still do anything like that these days.
Sparky,
I believe that was THE only one I ever got. We all got a good laugh out of ’em and then used them for ass-wipe…
Sparky, I’m referring to base pay, not all the compensation, which means that federal civilian employees make much more than that, plus, they don’t have the opportunity to get shot/blown up/shot down for their trouble. Hoyer is proving, once again, that democrats really don’t give a flying fuck about the miitary. Sadly, some civilians feel the way Hoyer does. I know, I work with some.
That pampered prick Hoyer should maybe sign up and go for a tour in any of the garden spots, but I doubt his candy ass would last a week.
Before I get flamed, I spent a little over 8 years active with one tour in Iraq and I recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan. I am now a DA Civilian. It is the choice of Soldiers to stay in or get out of the Army and pursue a civilian career, so the continuing statements like “They (civilians) don’t have the opportunity to get shot/blown up/shot down for their trouble” doesn’t cut it for me when comparing Soldier and civilian pay. We all volunteered to serve in the armed forces. I in no way support the freezing of military pay and believe that military pay should be raised. Federal civilian pay is based on several factors including the complexity/responsibilities of the job as it is in the military. I make a decent living, but I also pay into my retirement, pay into my healthcare, pay for my dental, and pay for my vision. I am not getting rich as a DA civilian, I make a decent wage for what I do and earn what I have. I am sure I will get flamed, but will answer any questions, defend my stance or admit that I am wrong if necessary.
My post above is from the perspective of a mid-level federal employee, not an elected official or a senior federal civilian. I am also not taking the side of elected officials or employees that have the ability to vote to raise their own pay…….that is definitely a conflict of interest. Down with federal civilians seems to be the buzz words of the day.
Templar, my statement stands from up in #4. Find a pay scale, like the military’s, pay the elected reps and senators at E-5 or even E-6, let the staffers get an E-2’s pay, and adopt the military pay scale for federal employees.
And, for a good start, do away with the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, HHS, and the Department of Labor, and those employees.
Know who Pete Rouse is? He’s a cabinet level officer. He’s the current “acting” Chief of Staff of the WH. And, I’m sure he pulls down a salary commensurate with one of the D.C. do-nothings.
UpNorth, I can agree with standardizing the pay scales…….and also agree with eliminating departments that are wasteful and impair/imepede actual job creation and put a stranglehold on American business.
Templar; yes we did volunteer, however, when some bullshit artist with a fat pension and fat paycheck starts running his piehole about freezing pay for those that are putting their ass on the line, I get a little frosted. Cops volunteer, so do fireman, so your defense doesn’t cut it for me, either. There are plenty of federal employees that don’t have complex jobs, etc. so that analogy doesn’t fit, either. I know of what you speak, since I used to work for a DoD contractor and dealt with both DoD civilians and military and other contractors and their jobs were no more complex than the others.
Old Trooper, I think we are arguing some of the same points. I agree with your take on the BS artist running his mouth aboout military pay…..it is obvious he (they) have not been where we have. Also agree with some DA civilians being overpaid, particularly in the DC area where pay seems to equal cost of living and not complexity of the position. We are fighting that battle in my organization now.
[…] Over at This Ain’t Hell, we give Jonn Lilyea the money quote of the day [bold emphasis is mine]: […]
Data point: I got a “total compensation” letter last year that estimated my equivalent pay (E6 with 7 years, BAH for Tacoma, WA, and $200 foreign language pay) at around $54k.
Wife, two kids, mortgage, used cars. Doing OK.
But I guarantee I spend more time at work than the congressman.
Sig,
When I got those letters, I lived in the barracks so they “added” what a typical single guy would pay in groceries and they “added” what a typical single guy would pay in rent. If you are married and receiving BHA and a food allowance shouldn’t your pay BE equivalent to a federal employee (civilian)? (somewhat rhetorical question) I think that’s the bigger problem, what are they “adding” to your pay to estimate an equivalent? (My point being if you are married and not living on post a military family is STILL behind Federal Civilian employees)