Today’s quote comes to us from Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN).
Rep. Banks is ,100% justifiably, upset that the Biden administration “strongly opposes*” a pay raise for junior enlisted service members in the military at this time – even as we spend many multiples of the cost of the proposed pay raise to prop up the military of The Ukraine.
Says Banks:
“When accounting for inflation, the average American makes less today than when Joe Biden took office. The White House wants to block Republicans from giving our troops the raise they need to make ends meet in the Biden economy
“Meanwhile, they’ve sent the Ukrainian government $11,500 per Ukrainian household. It’s shameful.”
Unbelievable. It is harder and harder to recruit for our military as it is, so let’s make it that much harder by keeping the new guys at disproportionately low pay.
I award Jim Banks Quote Of The Day honors for bringing the pay raise rejection to our attention. I hope he – and other officeholders of both parties – shame the Biden administration/its Budget Office into reversing this awful decision.
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*The actual wording from the White House Budget Office:
“The Administration is strongly committed to taking care of our Servicemembers and their families, and appreciates the Committee’s concern for the needs of the most junior enlisted members, but strongly opposes making a significant, permanent change to the basic pay schedule before the completion of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation,”
