Misplaced Prorities

During a period of danger and unrest around the world, the Obama Administration is attempting to balance the budget on the backs of our military. Hopefully Congress has more sense than that.

Yesterday The Hill posted an article detailing some of the proposed cuts to our military. I have no doubt that there are places in our military that can be cut, but I believe that reducing the army to pre World War II levels is not wise. I also believe that reducing benefits to soldiers who have been at war for almost thirteen years is also wrong–not to mention the veterans of previous wars whose benefits will be cut.

The Hill reports:

Lawmakers, as well as groups that represent veterans and the military, accused the Pentagon of balancing its pocketbook on the backs of soldiers and their families.

“We know the Defense Department must make difficult budget decisions, but these cuts would hit service members, making it harder for them and their families to make ends meet,” said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA).

Coupled with a 1 percent ceiling on pay hikes and assuming a 5 percent annual increase in housing costs, the Military Officers Association of America estimated an Army sergeant with a family of four would see an annual loss of $1,400. An Army captain would lose $2,100, it said.

The group said those figures doesn’t account for other costs that would affect military families, such as increased prices at military commissaries because of another budget proposal and an increase in healthcare fees for military family members. 

Meanwhile, on August 29, 2013, the New York Times reported:

Paul Krugman and others attribute essentially all of the SNAP spending growth to the depressed economy. They have the general direction right – a more depressed economy will cause unemployment and antipoverty programs to spend more – but have missed the single largest factor increasing program budgets: program rules that are more generous now than they were in 2007.

Veterans benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families all experienced a depressed economy, too, but they somehow managed through it without doubling their spending. Veterans benefits increased the most among these – 49 percent beyond inflation and population growth – compared with 110 percent for SNAP. (These data, which exclude administrative costs, can be found in the Bureau of Economic Analysis’ National Accounts Table 3.12.) Even state unemployment benefit spending, which is directly linked to layoffs in the economy, increased “only” 24 percent beyond inflation and population growth. (The italics are mine)

We are taking money away from people who have earned it and giving it to people who have not. Admittedly, we have to take care of the poor, but we have created a system that encourages poverty–not discourages it.

In May 2013, this chart appeared at The Blaze:

Guess How Many More Americans Are on Food Stamps Now as Compared to 10 Years Ago

As usual, the Obama Administration is punishing the producers and encouraging non-producers to continue not producing. Cuts should be made to both the administration of our food stamp and welfare programs and those receiving aid, and these programs should be redone to encourage work–not poverty. President Obama has undone the welfare reforms that President Clinton put in place during his administration. Those reforms resulted in a decrease in the welfare rolls. We need to bring those reforms back and examine those programs before we begin cutting military benefits.

Just a note. I don’t appreciate it when the President and members of Congress refer to Social Security and Medicare as entitlement programs. The government set up those programs and has been willing to take money from people who work to support them for many years. If they are entitlement programs, then the people who work should not be required to pay into them. As long as the government is taking money from working people with the promise of eventually giving it back to them, these are not entitlement programs.

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