[Ninong]

From Army Times::

White House: 3.5 percent pay hike unnecessary

Posted : Wednesday May 16, 2007 17:34:13 EDT

Troops don’t need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.

The Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan. 1, 2008, enough to match last year’s average pay increase in the private sector. The House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-sector pay raises.

The slightly bigger military raises are intended to reduce the gap between military and civilian pay that stands at about 3.9 percent today. Under the bill, HR 1585, the pay gap would be reduced to 1.4 percent after the Jan. 1, 2012, pay increase.

Bush budget officials said the administration “strongly opposes” both the 3.5 percent raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling extra pay increases “unnecessary.”

[Ninong]

Democrats in the House are asking the President to please be more compassionate towards our troops and their families.

Dear Mr. President,

We are writing to urge you to reconsider your objections to H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.

Your office's recent Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 1585 raised several concerns regarding this bipartisan legislation that the House of Representatives passed yesterday by an overwhelming 397-27 margin.

In particular, the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 1585 objected to sections 601 and 606, which raises military pay 0.5% above your proposal, and Section 644, which provides an extra $40 per month for surviving spouses of fallen members of our armed services.

Mr. President, you have consistently called on Congress and the American people to support our troops. Considering the sacrifices that our military families make, the Democratic proposal to provide the troops with the pay raise they deserve and an increase in benefits for the spouses they may leave behind is one small way that we can support our troops.

When it comes to supporting our troops, our actions must match our words. Please join us in supporting our troops by reconsidering both your veto threat to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, and your objections to an increase in military pay and survivor benefits for the brave men and women serving our country in the armed forces.

Respectfully,

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker

Steny Hoyer
Majority leader

James Clyburn
Majority whip

Rahm Emanuel
Chair, Democratic Caucus

Ike Skelton
Chair, House Armed Services Committee

Ellen Tauscher
Chair, Strategic Forces Subcommittee

Steve Israel
Member of Congress

[Poseidon]

What a doophus!

[Ninong]

President Bush wants to support the troops by not supporting the troops!

The President has notified the Senate that he is still "strongly opposed" to the "unnecessary" 3.5% pay raise for our courageous fighting men and women who are risking their lives in his unnecessary and grossly mismanaged war in Iraq.

The Senate is currently debating the Defense Appropriations bill and the military pay raise and other benefit improvements that the President deems totally unnecessary and excessive are part of that bill. This is the bill that the Republican leadership, still under the control of Karl Rove, has said that they wish to filibuster. That's why Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid held the Senate in session overnight last night, to allow his Republican colleagues extra time to engage in their filibuster. I believe Senate rules allow him to keep a session going for 30 hours straight. I'm not sure how much time they have to get off after a 30-hr session but maybe it would be a good idea to just keep holding these 30-hr sessions until those 12 or 15 GOP Senators who have publicly expressed their disapproval of the President's Iraq war policies finally put their votes where their mouths are.

The House approved the Defense Authorization bill by a vote of 223-201, including the 3.5% pay raise for our troops and the requirement that redeployment begin in 120 days and be substantially complete by April 30, 2008. The Senate amendment to the Defense Authorization bill -- called the Levin-Reed amendment -- would add the same April 30, 2008 pullout date to the Senate's version. That amendment is co-sponsored by three Republican Senators. That gives the Democrats an absolute minimum of 51 votes for passage because Tim Johnson is still out on sick leave, Joe Lieberman never votes with the Democrats on Iraq and Ben Nelson of Nebraska isn't sure which way he will vote on a defined pullout date.

The Republicans in the Senate do not want to have to vote on this bill with a pullout date in it. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has informed Harry Reid of their intention to filibuster the bill, which would require cloture to cut off debate (filibuster). It takes 60 votes to invoke cloture. Even though at least a dozen Republican Senators have publicly called for a change of direction in Iraq, they do not want to vote against the White House on this bill.

Even if the Democrats and their Republican allies in the Senate should somehow be able to kill the GOP filibuster and pass a bill similar to what has already passed the House, President Bush has promised to veto it. It would then take a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to override his veto. The House is nowhere close to an override and the Senate is still far short of the 67 votes required. The Senate may have 67 votes by the end of this year but not yet.

[Ninong]

Another Republican filibuster against our troops has succeeded.

The GOP is on a roll. A few days ago they successfully filibustered Sen. Jim Webb's bill that would have forced the military to give our troops a year back here for every year over there. That was supposed to be the standard procedure so that troops could rest and be re-trained adequately before being sent back into combat. Lately the military has been extending the tours in Iraq and shortening the stays stateside. The majority in the Senate wanted to pass Sen. Webb's bill but the minority Republicans refused to allow it to go to a vote. Remember, it takes 60 votes to cut off a filibuster. The Republicans decided to hang with Karl Rove against our brave fighting men and women. Sad!

Just a little while ago, the Republicans succeeded with their filibuster of the Levin-Reed amendment to the DoD Authorization bill. That's the one that would have required substantially all of our troops be redeployed from Iraq by April 30, 2008. Harry Reid finally called for the vote to invoke cloture, after the Republicans had shot down five formal motions for a vote during the all-night session, and it failed, as expected (52-47).

The Republicans were triumphant! They defeated the best efforts of the Democrats and four Republican Senators to force the Bush Administration to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Besides the three Republican co-sponsors -- Chuck Hagel, Olympia Snowe and Gordon Smith -- Susan Collins joined in at the last minute. She was playing coy yesterday on TV saying that she objected to the stunt the Democrats were pulling with the all-night session and it wouldn't have any effect whatsoever on her vote. Yeah, right! Well, I've got news for Sen. Collins -- it's too little, too late. You're not getting reelected! Forget about it!

Joe Lieberman voted with his GOP colleagues, as instructed by Karl Rove, to continue keeping our troops in the middle of a sectarian civil war. All of the Democrats voted for cloture. In a strictly procedural move, Harry Reid voted against so that he can recommit later.

I hope all those Republican Senators who have criticized the war are proud of themselves now. They managed to have it both ways. They publicly speak out against the war to show how independent they are and then when push comes to shove, they vote with Deputy Leader Dick and Karl Rove to continue the war forever. The Bush Administration has no intention of withdrawing troops. If anything, they will probably tell us in September that it's time to send in even more troops to finish the job since it's going so well already. We're making wonderful progress in Iraq.

[weez1959]

I couldn't help myself!

[Ninong]

President Bush's lies and hyprocrisy are without limits!

I wonder if he actually knows what his postions are on anything? Maybe he just reads whatever they hand him without realizing that it's the exact opposite of what he said the week before?

The topic of this thread is the fact that George Bush "strongly opposes" the "unnecessary" 3.5% pay raise for our troops. Those are his exact words.

He also issued orders to the Republican leadership in the Senate that he wanted them to filibuster the Defense Authorization Bill that the Democrats and four Republican Senators were trying to pass that included this 3.5% pay raise plus a requirement that we begin deploying our troops out of Iraq within 120 days and have substantially all of them out by April 30, 2007. It was the withdrawal requirement that the President was particulary incensed about. So, in spite of the fact that at least a dozen Republican Senators have publicly called for redeployment of troops from Iraq, most of them caved in and voted to continue the Republican filibuster blocking the DoD Authorization bill from coming to a vote.

The Republicans in the Senate succeeded in blocking this important bill with 47 votes. They only need 41 votes in the Senate to continue filibustering forever.

Get a load of the way Bush is twisting this around now:

Incredibly, Bush yesterday morning blamed the Senate Democrats for yanking the Defense Authorization bill from consideration -- after Republicans successfully filibustered yet another Iraq vote -- and implied that Democrats are against a military pay raise!!!

Our unbalanced, unchecked and out-of-control boy king thinks that we're all a bunch of Fox News viewers who are too stupid to follow what's actually happening in this country. He thinks he can say whatever he pleases and the people will buy it because, after all, "if the president does it, it can't be illegal." That little bit of constitutional bullsh!t was put out by a former unbalanced and out-of-control Republican lunatic by the name of Richard Nixon.

Bush said yesterday, "It is time to rise above partisanship, stand behind our troops in the field, and give them everything they need to succeed. Even members of Congress who no longer support our effort in Iraq should at least be able to provide an increase in pay for our troops fighting there."

Bush is trying to imply that the Democrats don't want to give the troops a pay raise. The truth is that the Democrats want to give them a 3.5% pay raise and Bush wants to give them only a 3% pay raise. He is "strongly opposed" to that extra .5%.

And the truth is that it is the President who ordered the Republicans in the Senate to block the Defense Authorization bill by filibustering it. That's because he's too much of a wimp to allow the Senate to pass this bill (the House has already passed it), forcing him to veto it. Of course, he's not forced to veto it but he has promised that he would. He just doesn't want to veto something that 70% of Americans support, so he would rather have his lackeys in the Senate filibuster it to death. You see Bush thinks that if it doesn't reach his desk, forcing a very public veto, the American people won't wake up and realize what he's up to. He has no intention of pulling troops out of Iraq. He has been telling us that for the past two years. Gen. Petraeus has been telling everybody who will listen that this battle in Iraq will last for decades, just like the troubles in Northern Ireland. Actually, I believe the troubles lasted for centuries, not decades, but our current military leadership is not known for their knowledge of history.