>From NEWSMAX.COM
>>Remember the axiom: Those who have no military experience are most likely to
use it to solve foreign policy problems.
}}>Begin
Lieberman Shafted Military
Arthur G. Sharp
Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2000
Now that the euphoria has died down concerning the choice of Connecticut's U.S.
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman as Al Gore's running mate, let's take a look at his
possible Achilles heel: his hypocritical failure to support the military in
1999.
Lieberman gave a speech Aug. 7 to the Connecticut AFL-CIO convention in which
he chastised the Republicans for being slow to support a $1-an-hour
(approximately 19 percent) increase in the minimum wage to $6.15. He also
accused them of deploying working people as "just props" at their convention in
Philadelphia. That was the same Joe Lieberman who voted against a 4.8 percent
military pay raise in 1999.
The Senate passed S. 4., The Soldiers', Sailors', Airmen's and Marines Bill of
Rights Act of 1999, on Feb. 24, 1999, by a vote of 91-8. President Clinton
signed it on May 21, 1999.
The bill provided for a 4.8 percent military pay raise (which took effect Jan.
1, 2000), reform of the military pay tables and retirement system, and
authorization for active-duty military personnel to participate in a Thrift
Savings Plan - none of which Lieberman supported. Are military people "just
props" in Lieberman's eyes?
Lieberman, who has no military experience, did not exactly endear himself to
armed forces personnel with his vote. Indeed, there is some question as to
whether he will garner support among them in light of his approach to the
military. Retired and active military personnel compose a rather large bloc of
voters. They may not have enough clout to swing the presidential election in
favor of either major party by themselves, but they can influence it
considerably.
Let's face it: military personnel have not fared well financially in recent
years. They have been overworked, overdeployed and underpaid. Morale and re-
enlistment rates are low and, with the exception of the U.S. Marine Corps, the
services have been unable consistently to fill their enlistment quotas. Thus,
military retirees and active-duty personnel have legitimate concerns about the
treatment accorded the armed services throughout the Clinton administration's
eight-year tenure.
As recently as 1998 there were about 6,300 U.S. armed forces members on food
stamps. Granted, that is not a large number, but it is an indication that
members of the military need every bit of financial assistance they can get.
That is why Lieberman's anti-raise vote aggravated many veterans and active
duty military personnel - possibly to his and the Democrats' detriment. They
find it a bit difficult to understand why Lieberman would castigate "the other
side" for denying people working for the minimum wage a 19 percent raise while
vetoing a much smaller raise for the military. He had a plausible explanation,
though.
"I opposed S. 4. because this bill has not been fully examined by the services,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of Defense or Congress," he said
shortly after casting his vote. "Before Congress acts, we should know more
clearly what the costs will be, and where the funds will come from. We should
have held hearings to try to determine what are the steps we can take which
would increase recruitment, retention, and our troops' quality of life."
In fact, he continued, "The Clinton administration, including Secretary of
Defense William S. Cohen, has indicated that the money projected to be added to
the defense budget, or any foreseeable increase, will not be enough to
completely cover current readiness increases and meet the modernization
requirements of all the services. With the proposed pay raises, higher cost-of-
living adjustments, and other miscellaneous items, it is estimated that S. 4.
will cost an additional $7 billion in discretionary funding through fiscal year
2005."
The bottom line, according to Lieberman was this: Let's give our military
personnel the money they deserve - but only if we can find the money buried
somewhere in our ever-escalating projected trillion-dollar surpluses.
Certainly, finding money was not a problem in July 1999 when Congress approved
a cost-of-living increase for itself. (In a convoluted political move, the
Senate approved its share of the increase by not voting.) Should our
representatives and senators be so callous as to deprive service personnel of
the money they deserve, yet give themselves raises? They should not begrudge
Marines, Navy, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force men and women a raise every now
and then. Lieberman's failure to vote for one in 1999 may yet come back to
haunt him and the Democratic Party.
Copyright 2000 by Arthur G. Sharp.
End<{{
A<>E<>R
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational
tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the
State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate
repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the
"democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist
by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse
of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of
taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between
the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that
the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State
has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to
accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a
share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded
subjects.
[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard,
Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]]
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