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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama promises troops help, pay raises, health care |
| 2009-02-26 |
| President Barack Obama said his upcoming budget would increase the number of US soldiers and state the true cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while outlining a number of other plans geared to get the faltering economy back on track. Setting out his priorities for military spending, Obama said late Tuesday in his first address to a joint session of Congress that he wanted to provide relief to men and women in uniform with higher pay and a larger ground force. "To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines," he said in the speech. "And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned," he added. They gonna get an extra thirteen bucks a week too, like the rest of us? It'll help pay the increased Tricare premium ... More than seven years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq have put unprecedented pressure on the all-volunteer military and their families, with top officers blaming a recent spike in suicides in the army on the relentless pace of deployments. Obama's promise to raise the number of soldiers and Marines appears in line with the military's plans to expand its ground forces by nearly 100,000 troops. Vowing to restore "honesty and accountability" to government spending, Obama said his budget "for the first time includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. "For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price," he said to applause. Obama's jab at former president George W. Bush referred to his predecessor's controversial method of accounting for the cost of the two wars through "supplemental" funding requests outside of the main defense budget. Obama said his administration would scrap wasteful contract work in Iraq and impose tough scrutiny on mammoth weapons systems that grew out of the Cold War, though he offered no specifics. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 controversial method of accounting for the cost of the two wars through "supplemental" funding requests outside of the main defense budget Funny how nothing is mentioned about the Congressional circus that might've been the cause for the supplementals. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2009-02-26 13:29 |
| #2 Of course not. Every military family will get its own unicorn. Skittles for everyone! |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-02-26 10:01 |
| #1 did he promise a pony too |
| Posted by: rabid whitetail 2009-02-26 00:40 |