Military Pay Increase Opposed By Bush Administration

The White house is trying to kill the Democratic plan to increase military pay 3.5% next year. The White House wants only 3%.

In a letter from the White House Office of Management and Budget to congressional committees overseeing the military, OMB director Rob Portman said Wednesday that the administration "strongly opposes" a Democratic plan to bump up military salaries by 3.5 percent instead of Bush's request for a 3 percent jump.

"The cost of increasing the FY 2008 military pay raise by an additional 0.5 percent is $265 million in FY 2008 and $7.3 billion" if similar raises are enacted over the next five years, Portman's office said in a six-page memo outlining concerns about the defense spending bill that was approved by the House early Friday and will be taken up by the Senate this week

Let me get this straight. The President professes to support the troops yet begrudges them a 2.5% additional pay raise over 5 years then what he proposed. This pay raise could be paid for with three weeks worth of expenditures from the Iraq War. I have an idea, how about we cancel the billions in oil company subsidies and use that to pay for this increase. The military is in Iraq fighting for their interests anyway. It only seems fair. Do you still believe that this President supports the troops? These people are disgusting with no redeeming qualities.