Donald Trump lies about everything including military pay:
Trump Brags To Troops About A Fictional Giant Pay Raise He Got Them – The president told military personnel in Iraq that they’ll get a raise of over 10 percent, their first in a decade. But it’s 2.6 percent, and they get a hike every year.
Dave Jamieson even notes that Bill Kristol has called out Trump on this whopper. But to me this is not the story. The real story is that Trump thinks our troops are stupid. As I read this sad account, I thought of a classic paper by Robert Lucas on the role of monetary policy in the New Classical model. Lucas postulated several island economies each with one individual who observes his own wage but not the general price level. Business cycles were generated by unexpected changes in the money supply which drives up everyone’s wages but people have yet to catch on to the fact that the general price index had also increased. I always found this an odd way of explaining persistent changes in output since most people shop at least on a weekly basis. But maybe the soldiers during the Vietnam War did not know their at home spouse and kids were facing higher grocery prices. But with the internet and advance telecommunications, this story is not tenable today even for our soldiers overseas. Dave links to this informative source:
Annual military pay raises are linked to the increase in private sector wages, as measured by the Employment Cost Index (ECI). In the 1990’s, the annual military pay raise was capped at one-half percent below private-sector growth unless specifically granted a larger increase by Congress. The FY2000 National Defense Authorization Act directed that pay raises for 2000 through 2006 would automatically be one-half percent above the private-sector wage increases. Pay raises beginning in 2007 are equal to the increase in the ECI. Pay raises may exceed these automatic levels if authorized and funded by Congress.
Trump got the troops nothing – the 2.6% nominal increase for 2019 was automatic and will capture the nominal increase in ECI. For all this talk of nominal increases year by year, one would think our troops would realize that a nominal increase in ECI that barely keeps pace with the rise in the consumer price index does not represent an increase in real compensation. The point of our graph is to look at real compensation changes from 2006 to 2018 using the percentage increases stated in our link as compared to what has happened to the CPI from 2006 (base year = 1) through today. Note for some years real compensation did rise but for other years real compensation fell. I assumed that a soldier received $30,000 in 2006 and with these nominal increases, his nominal pay had risen to $38,779 by 2018. But with 2018 prices being 29.75% higher than they were in 2006, his real pay on net has declined. We do not know what inflation will be for 2019 but we should not be surprised if it turns out to be around 2.5%, which would mean real compensation will not grow appreciably. Our troops get that even if their Commander in Chief does not.
PGL:
Oh, they knew there was a struggle at home to make ends meet. A young 20 year old with a wife living in a subsidized trailer was not getting much of a subsidy for being married. A PFC was getting $101/month in monthly pay and for a wife, I believe there was another $300 monthly which went to her. There was combat pay ($50 -$60/month) which did not amount to much or TAD pay if in some place like Cuba. Cheap natural born killers. Did we know we were under paid? Hell yeah and I was not married.
The rumor went in the years after Vietnam [and before Carter and Reagan raised pay to compensate for the volunteers at the end of the draft], ‘retires pay went along with SS raise, in a while an NCO who retired in 1972 had bigger check than if he stayed in. I never did the math!
The GI’s deployable body must be maintained! But TRICARE premiums went up in 2019 for their families.
The congress authorizes and appropriates!
They should do better.
It used to be:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, go away ” ; But it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play. The band begins to play, my boys, …………
More at: http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_tommy.htm
Ending:
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! ”
But it’s ” Saviour of ‘is country ” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!
Or “‘as nuttin’ chang’d” since Kristol disses for libruls who are all for war and for holding the line in Syria against enemies of Mohamed bin Salman?
I’m supposed to care what mercenaries get paid?
The problem is that people can often believe bullshit that they should be able to contradict with information they actually know.
JDM:
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