Again Congress passes a military budget larger than asked for. $858 billion that won’t go to education, food security, infrastructure, or health care.
The budget provides an adjustment to contracts to cover the 8% inflation costs of fuel and supplies.
Soldiers will get 4.6% to counter the 8.%+ inflation. They also get to pick up more of the cost of their health care and prescriptions. It use to be a pure single payer system, but since 2012 it has been modified to reduce the government costs.
Soldiers pensions have been cut into a “blended” system with plans on doing away with pensions or delaying access to pensions. (After 20 years of active duty you immediately start drawing a pension, there is a push to delay that till 55 or 60 like the guard and reserves.)
The claim is that the US needs to spend nearly a trillion a year on military because Russia’s military is so powerful and China’s is as good as Russias. And China built an aircraft carrier, so the US no longer out numbers them 13 to 0 in carrier groups.
If anything that Ukraine has shown us is how much Russia is not a threat to NATO out side of Nuclear Weapons.
If the budget had funding for anti-nuclear missile programs in a massive way I would be less annoyed.
At least they could give soldiers a pay increase equal to inflation and increase pay so lower enlisted did not qualify for food stamps.