Rush has a point for once

Since it appears that people are actually looking at my site (if only momentarily) I'll try to keep posting stuff periodically. Maybe someone will find it interesting. I've decided to keep a personal journal with all the things I want to say but really shouldn't. Or at least, stuff I don't want anyone else knowing about. You know, like where the bodies are buried.

I got a email from a friend with an editorial by Rush Limbaugh. I don't want to say Rush is right, since I can't stand the guy. However, being ex-military myself, he does highlight an issue I've taken exception with since I got out, and that is compensation for military personnel and families. I was well paid as an officer but I felt that there is just something absolutely wrong with enlisted personnel living at on base housing and needing food stamps to live. We can't pay our military personnel enough to feed their families even if they don't owe rent. It just isn't right.

The jist of Rush's editorial is that "victems" of the 9/11 tragedy are getting an average of 1.1 million dollars in "compensation" while families of soldiers that die in battle recieve very little. I won't debate the merits of whether or not families that lost loved ones in the twin towers deserve some sort of compensation. Although some are claiming 1.1 million isn't enough, which doesn't suprise me. Some people are just plain greedy.

To quote some numbers from the editorial:

If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit, half of which is taxable.
Next, you get $1,750 for burial costs. If you are the surviving spouse, you get $833 a month until you remarry. And there's a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments come to a screeching halt.
Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it's not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but for most, they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Soldiers put themselves in harms way FOR ALL OF US, and they and their families know the dangers.


I firmly beleive our military enlisted personnel are over worked and underpaid. Again, I was making a handsome some at the age of 26 as an officer so I had no complaints. If we really "support our troops" like all the ribbons say, we should be outraged and complain about this. If you agree, write your congressman. After all, it's really bad when Rush Limbaugh actually has a valid point about something.

As a closing disclaimer I wish to reitereate that Rush Limbaugh and I do not agree. It just so happens that this time he is intelligent enough to share my views on a single issue. He shouldn't let it go to his head.

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