Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Michael Barrett does not object to limiting the increase of military pay.
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Marine Corps Sgt Major speaks
- Thread starter Salty
- Start date
He's an idiot.
rivers1222
Member
Topped out E-9, congressional hearing. Lets see now. Should he stand up for his junior non comms and describe the ENDLESS ways to cut wasteful spending, or throw them under the bus. Read part of this article in the Marine Corp times i believe and he compared the pay and benifits to entitlements. Sure can tell the wars about to wind down.
What we can actually tell is he is an extreme liberal. Probably obtained his rank through political smooching of the backside. I ran into a few of those guys while I was in the Corps and no one had any respect for them because they had no respect for the men. This will hurt the Coprps bad.
rivers1222
Member
Had a lot of that in the Navy "years" ago, but we didnt call it smooching. At that time, having worked closely with them, we thought the USMC had to earn it. Comandant has been investigated for witness tampering. However, I have a couple of friends sons in the Corps and only morale probs they seem to be having are involentary seperations from the service. If you think about it, a 18 yr old HS grad who joined after the Twin Towers out of patriotism, decided to stay, has done several tours with bout 13 yrs under his belt, has no guarentees. Sergent Majors and Master Chiefs of those particular branches are the front lines of defense against the paper pusher warriors. This one let them down.
What is going to happen is those experienced warriors will now go elsewhere and there will be no one left with any experience. That is until we get a Republican back in the whitehouse and have to spend all that money rebuilding our military. Trouble will be that all that good experience will already be elsewhere.
rivers1222
Member
You are probably correct. Probably end up at Blackwater or a private contractor. I hear the employers are more loyal to the employees.
They already don't like Obama. This guy looks like he is loyal to Obama. Not only will they loose good guys but they will not be able to replace them. When I was in the Corps I saw guys like this Sgt. Major. The troops have no respect for them. And it is hard to loose the respect of the men in the Corps.
Did you actually read the article? Something tells me you gave a knee-jerk reaction without due process of thought.
Did you note that personnel costs and benefits amount to 64% of the Marine Corps budget while other armed services are around 40-50%?
Did you read that it's going to go over 70% by 2020 if something isn't done about it?
I think the Sgt Major is right.
I was wondering how long it would take for someone to actually read the article. NOWHERE DID THE SGT MAJOR advocate CUTTING THE PAY of GI's. He recommended that the PROPOSED increase be cut. Interesting, several years ago, this is the exact same thing that Rush mentioned about welfare payments - and conservatives ate that up.
To begin with - even a Private/Seaman E-I receives a decent amount in his paycheck. And married GIs revived a hefty extra amount which is tax free. Don't get me wrong -a GI will probably never get rich - but he will not be destitute. Many GI's have the same problem as the government - spending too much money.
Just goggle military pay - and see for yourself.
Sarge Salty
PS - Hmm, I was just thinking about an instructor I had Economics when I attended Central Texas College - over in Germany.- He was an Air Force E-6. He told us he had enough money in the bank to purchase 10 brand new cars - but the one he did have was about 10 years old.........
There are, apparently, some things you do not know. The Marine Corps "budget" is very small and the Marine Corps mission is much smaller. The Marine Corps is actually part of the Navy and receives its funding from within the Navy budget.
In the end it is not a knee jerk reaction. Marines getting paid less and then having the Sgt Major say it will teach them how to handle money better is ridiculous.
Uh just for your little info I have read about this over the last couple of days from several sources long before you ever posted it just as I have read the op. Cutting the pay or cutting the increase has very little difference and they are both equally stupid and will both produce the same results.
And he is an idiot because he thinks Marines do not worry about pay and benefits. It is the top priority as it is with anyone else. I never heard anything so ridiculous come out of the mouth of someone from the headshed.
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thisnumbersdisconnected
New Member
I agree with him. One percent is less than one-third the inflation rate. That alone makes his statements idiotic.
Not to mention hurting the rest of the military as well. And yeah, he probably did get his rank through knowing what to kiss, when to kiss it, and how to kiss it.
rivers1222
Member
Sir, If you are talking to me? Just because I may not agree with you, you assume I did not read the piece? I can assure you that if I'm going to respond to an article, and you have went to the trouble to link it, then I have read it. As I mentioned, I read about this last week as per the link Rev put up and have talked to a couple of active duty Marines about this since. And by the way, the USMC budget SHOULD have a higher personel budget cost than say the Navy, or Army for that matter. Most of their high dollar equipment (gator navy, helo carriers, etc) are line itemed to the USN. I say line itemed because at the top of every Marines check, before direct deposit, were stamped in big black letters " Department of the Navy." A lot of accounting gimmicks can be made when you have 2 services in one. I stand by what I said. The top enlisted man in the USMC threw his people under the bus.
What is idiotic is his assertion that Marines pay and benefits are not even a top three considerations and somehow it will teach them to be better with their money. It appears he just makes this stuff up as he goes.
Don't listen to them. Some people like to throw that around. It is a shame a simple thread about Marine Corps pay gets turned into this kind of garbage.
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Military pay is not bad – so perhaps a smaller increase is warranted if the budget needs to be trimmed. This is my reasoning: a SGM in the D.C. Area with 20 yrs would make $8,869.15/mo with $3,195 being non-taxable. An E-4 (with a family) in the same location would make $4,719.55/mo, and a private E-1 with family would make $3,923.05/mo – per capita avg. income for 2012 was $45,004. (I was an E-2, with a family, stationed there in 1992 making 1797.40. Per capita avg. income for 1992 was $25,553). Military pay may not get you rich, but it is not bad.
Rippon is right that the article is not speaking of cutting pay, only cutting pay increases. I would rather see this than the continued erosion of benefits and facilities. (Here I am speaking of increases in cost of benefits like health care for family members/retirees, loss of MWR funding, potential commissary closures/decreased openings, etc. that affect the serviceman’s quality of life). Servicemen may realize somewhat of a cut in pay as increases in base pay are decreased while the cost of benefits rise. I guess I should also add that military pay HAS been cut insofar as special duty pays – so many servicemen have realized a decrease in pay. (But they are still paid well and I suppose everyone likes more rather than less when it comes to their paycheck).