USA VOTE

Denise,

I'm sorry but, you are extremely uninformed on the topic of military service and the benefits there of. The GI Bill is also not a free benefit. You have to select the option and then have your payment deducted from your pay while you're serving. As Steve pointed out, life insurance, food, and housing are all deducted from your pay. Also, tricare (medical insurance) is deducted from your pay so even the healthcare is not free.

As for the cost of education vs the GI Bill benefits, I have looked into it. In fact I used my GI Bill already and I'll tell you; it's nowhere near worth it's cost. Didn't even come close to paying for half my bachelor's degree at one of the cheapest (credible) universities in GA and using the GI Bill automatically eliminates you from being eligible for most other scholarships.

Yes, you get some skills from the service, yes there are some benefits but, it's nothing like what you seem to think it is. It's mostly on the job training and I would say the pay scale is not nearly equal to what most 18-22 yr olds are making. In fact, looking at my E-2 pay statements (since that seems to be the measuring stick in this discussion) I was bringing home 775.00/month at 19yrs old. My gross pay was a little higher, however, I was paying almost 5oo.00/month to live in a 16x16 room with 2 other guys and about 200 a month for food, plus my GI Bill, tricare and SGLI and taxes were deducted before I got any money. Also, keep in mind, these amounts are removed from my pay and I was given no choice about what I ate, where I lived or even who I lived with. On top of that, I enlisted in 1998, during peace time, when it truly was a competition to even get in the service.

As far as relegating yourself to flipping burgers, that's a personal choice. Some people enjoy it and wouldn't dream of doing anything else. Others want to push themselves to what they consider to be better than that.

David

One thing I find consistent in supporters of a certain side is they generally are living in a fairy land, with all kinds of made up stuff to support there side, and even when confronted with facts they still don't believe they are wrong.

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/payandbenefits/a/UnderstandingMilitaryPay.htm
http://www.military.com/benefits/military-pay/charts/historical-military-pay-rates.html

Where did I say those other benefits were totally free?

So you weren't living like a rock star or pro athlete at 19--most of the old folks like myself didn't either.

And how much do you think minimum wage pay is today? And what benefits do you think most of those minimum wage jobs subsidize? College grads,not just kids straight out of high school, are having tough times finding jobs in some of the better paying jobs.

LOL, yes. I believe it's referred to as "the Republican bubble".

Regards

Notice I didn't specify, there's some in every crowd. I generally try to vote whoever I think will be best for the job, although this time I had to vote for, to quote Rick Burten "the evil of two lessers".

I'm thinking we both chose "the lesser of two evils". We differed on which was which.

Regarding the Republican bubble, it appears that no one was more surprised with the results of the election than Romney and Ryan. People should broaden their sources of information, in order to make better decisions. I had a $100 bet that Obama would win, and I won. LOL I may have lost a client, but Que sera sera. It was worth it. By the way, If Rush and Shawn and Carl and Glen are for it, you can bet it's a bad idea.

Edit to add: Throw in "Jenny Beth" and Grover.

I'll admit I'm somewhat of a closet political junky , but this is likely the last you'll hear from me on this thread. I'm believe in the value of agreeing to disagree. We're all Americans, and in my mind the next four years have been decisively settled.

Regards

Denise,
Find a friend or family member who is about to leave high school whose only prospect for employment is flipping burgers, and have them go see a Military Recruiter to see if they qualify to enlist.

Looking at past statement your exact words were, "Those that are eating "for free" are serving their country in the military."
Pretty much states that you think everything in the military is free. After reviewing another pay stub $258 a month was deducted from my pay for the G.I. bill option. If i recall correctly i payed that for about 2 years, but not exactly sure on that. I think its fair to say you don't quite know as much about the military as you think you do. It seems as though you feel that we were paid fairly huh? Well we didn't sign the line for the pay, more like pride for our country. $900 a month isn't much money for the sacrifices that were made, not to mention that sacrifices that the families made either, b/c it takes one hell of a spouse to be married to someone in the service, being that the divorce rate in the military is higher than civilian rate (3.7%). Lets not forget one thing if it wasn't for all the veterans you wouldn't be sitting behind your computer practicing your first amendment. Keep voting for a liberal and you won't have many of those left...just kiddin


David,
Thats why i joined the Air Force, i didn't have to share a room with anyone. I was 5 seconds from being a marine until they told me there was a good chance i could be stuck on a ship in a huge ass body of water.

In 2003 I learned why I should have joined the AF after being on the Rock at Ali Alsalam Air Base in Kuwait and seeing how the AF deploys. A real eye opener for me!!

My Uncle Bob said the Army was the best job he ever had. Three meals everyday and $40 a day, once a month. That was 1939 to 1945. He was a Fireman at the Army Air Field next to Pearl Harbor. Only saw one day of action.
Seriously though, anyone who says that the Military "gets" anything, sort of brings a lot of what that person says into question.

Rick, everyone talks about how bad Romney was but it's a good thing no one dug to far into Paul Ryan or the company that his family owns. I worked for them for about a year, pretty shady business practices, hiring illegals, etc.

I have a friend that was in the Army, she has assisted in trauma surgeries and was trained to perform all sorts of task dealing with trauma related injuries as a nurse. When she got out she wasn't qualified to dump bed pans in a real hospital.

It seems you and everyone else has misinterpreted what that was suppose to mean (I shouldn't be surprised). It was a made-up scenario--- where everyone pays a 10% tax, the military (below a certain salary) would not have to pay tax and they get to eat for free.. Should have phrased it: Those that are serving will be the only ones that get to eat for free. And not that you in the military don't deserve it, but no steak and caviar nightly. Sorry, it'll have to be hotdogs and macaroni and cheese like everybody else (course we know Mittens won't be eating hotdogs and mac and cheese; he's not like "everybody else")

I happen to have tremendous respect for those serving in the military and how dare anyone question that. One of my brothers was a Marine, another Navy. My brother-in-law was Navy Captain, Commander at Gitmo. I don't need to be the one serving or married to one to understand the sacrifices.

Things have sure changed since I became a PFC* in 1972. Back then, my basic pay was $430.00 a month. Now it would be over $2300.00/month.

However, I did not have the cost of meals in the chow hall deducted from my pay. I lived in a barracks in a cubicle with three other Marines. Had one foot locker and one wall locker for my clothes. I did not have medical expenses deducted from my basic pay and, I was eligible for the 'old' GI Bill where I didn't have to pay into a fund for my education. Even as an E-5, in those days overseas, I didn't get a private room in the Barracks. That only happened when I finally got stateside and was waiting for RELAD(release from active duty). The GI Bill paid, in full, for my college education. I always thought it was a bad deal when the GI Bill was changed to its more current iteration.

IMO, for what they are asked to do, members of our military are very undercompensated. And, under the current buffoon-in-chief, if I had a son or daughter who was considering enlisting, I would counsel them to wait. And if I was already serving and had enough time served to retire, I'd be putting in my papers.


*Proud Free Civilian

This coming from the guy that dropped the A bomb on Japan, Started the cold war, Initiated the Korean War, Ratified the United Nations, Seized a steel company in the name of the government from it's owners because of a labor dispute, and also declined to run for re-election because of a poor approval rating.

Current minimum wage is 7.25 (it was about 5.15 or so during the time frame that I was a PFC). However, you must consider, PFCs (or E-2s) are not paid additional for working over 40 hours. So, if the E-2 worked 40 hours per week, the pay would be similar to minimum wage. However, I never saw a week go by without at least 2 days of extra work and the normal work day in the Marine Corps is 5:30-4:30 with an hour lunch.

I'm not disputing your patriotism or respect for the military, I'm only saying that you are uninformed on the benefits received by service members and veterans.

Still, the military is a better deal than working at minimum wage with no subsidies and no benefits at all. It probably wouldn't be a good deal for a college student who can just get the money for college by just asking mom and dad (as dear Mittens suggested)

Was there misinformation in either of those websites? Regardless, whatever the benefits are now, they will get worse during the next four years; no question there.
To me, the election was more about voting against a particular candidate, not necessarily voting for a particular candidate. Vote independent and Romney wins, or vote for Obama and make a vote count against who I really didn't want. Lesser of two evils, or evil of two lessers. Poor candidates either one.