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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Doug R who wrote (443198)	8/14/2003 11:44:19 PM
From: DMaA	Respond to of 769670

This is nothing to get upset about because it's not a serious proposal. It's just a cynical ploy by the Defense Dept to extract more money from Congress. We'd HATE to have do this but unless we get more money what can we POSSIBLY do? There are plenty of places to cut the defense budget before you cut combat pay and everyone knows it. School districts are experts at the same ploy. Threaten parents with the most painful options in order to get excess levees passed. There is also the added benefit to the careerists making this outlandish proposal, who feel threatened by change, that with the help of Big Media they can embarrass the President. Won't work though.

To: Doug R who wrote (443198)	8/15/2003 12:29:17 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

What'd I say? The bureaucrats' ploy has back fired and they're already back peddling like mad: No Pay Cut for Troops in Iraq, Afghanistan-Pentagon Thu Aug 14, 6:37 PM ET By Charles Aldinger WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moving to quash a political firestorm, the Pentagon (news - web sites) on Thursday denied that it will cut the pay of nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq (news - web sites) and Afghanistan (news - web sites) by $225 on Sept. 30 when special military pay hikes approved by Congress are due to expire. Defense officials said that even if lawmakers do not reinstate increases passed in April in both "imminent danger pay" and "family separation allowances," the Pentagon will make up the pay losses to troops in those countries in other ways. Undersecretary of Defense David Chu answered sharp criticism from Democratic presidential candidates over a press report that the Pentagon favored cutting the pay of combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because it supported letting the special increases expire. "No one ever said we wanted to reduce pay in Iraq and Afghanistan," Chu, who is in charge of military personnel and readiness, told reporters. "We prefer other compensation powers to ensure that we target benefits on the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan," he added, citing incentive and other packages that the Pentagon is authorized to use. Chu spoke after the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the Pentagon wanted to cut the pay of nearly 149,000 troops in Iraq and another 9,000 in Afghanistan because it supported the expiration of increases of $75 monthly in danger pay and $150 in family separation pay. story.news.yahoo.com