Support the Troops not the Contractors
Is it any clearer than that?
Ever listen to Bush on one of this tirades when he says we need all this money to fight the war? That our troops need the money?
Well - what exactly does that money go towards? Seriously, what? Budget for Blackwater guy at $1000 per day (tax free I might add)? Damn - even our soldiers pay taxes (and so should Blackwater and the like) on their pay.
So, what, are we finally funding body armor? Trucks? Hummvees? What exactly does all this money buy?
I remember seeing that there are more contractors than troops in Iraq.
Guess that is where the money goes….
stlo7, I agree with your point, but I must correct you. A soldier’s pay is tax exempt from the day he deploys to a combat or hostile fire zones, to the day he leaves. When Don was called up, his Army pay was taxed from his first day of callup, through the train-up / pre-deployment period. Once he was in Iraq, taxes were automatically withheld from each paycheck, but then they were given back in a seperate transaction about 10 days later. Very strange system.
Fair enough - Combat zone being the difference.
Still for a contractors pay you can get two or three “Dons”
The very concept of these contractors piss me off to no end. A colleague’s step-daughter served a tour over there and made squat. When she got out of the service shortly thereafter, she could have gone back as a contractor for four times the pay.
Why can’t we say…double… the salaries of our soldiers? It would almost certainly help the recruitment issues, which would in turn reduce the need for contractors and actually save us money.
There is no way the contractors should be getting a substantial salary OR have it be tax free.
Contractors have been around the military for a long time the concept is OK in my opinion. I’m sure when the Military buy a new plane or something there is an engineer or support person available.
At issue is the outsourcing traditional military functions to contractors.
In my mind there is a fundamental difference between the variations of Military oaths that include the phrase
“…I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic…..”
and
The purpose of a company
which is to maximize shareholder value.
Huge difference….