Actual facts regarding the 1.4% military pay increase…
After reading this:
“President Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS. Please repost if you support our troops!”
on a couple of facebook updates, I decided to look it up to see how true it really is and found this (taken from http://politifailed.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-only-proposing-14-increase-for_05.html:
By law the administration’s pay increase proposal is restricted to no more than the Employment Cost Index (ECI). The ECI is a quarterly economic series detailing the changes in the costs of labor for businesses in the United States economy. The ECI is prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in the U.S. Department of Labor. It is 1.4%. The 2009 inflation rate was -0.34%. Negative inflation is generally not considered ‘rampant’. Social security, which is national, did not increase in 2010 for the first time in three decades and is expected to not increase in 2011 either. Welfare payouts are determined at the state level, not by the President or Congress.
Also last years initial proposal was 2.9%. It ended up being 3.4% because Congress decides on the final increase, not the President, who submits the initial proposal based on law, not his discretion.
Sources:
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/moneymatters/a/2004payact.htm
http://www.military.com/news/article/white-house-offers-14-pay-raise-in-2011.html
http://www.inflationdata.com/inflation/Inflation_Rate/CurrentInflation.asp
Are you serious?! 
Belle said,
March 8, 2010 at 9:18 am
Love it! Thanks for putting the truth out there!