The Obama administration has called for a 2.9 percent increase in basic pay (over 2009 basic pay rates) for military members, effective January 1, 2010. 2.9 percent is the minimum President Obama could have requested under current law, as this percentage would match, but not exceed, average private-sector wage growth. Under law, each year ’s increase must at least match the private-sector wage growth as measured by the Labor Department’s Employment Cost Index. However, every year for the past several years, Congress has approved a military pay raise slightly larger than that requested by the President, and 2010 is no exception. Both the House and the Senate has agreed to include a 3.4 percent across-the-board military base pay raise in the 2010 Defense Authorization Act. This makes a 3.4 percent raise (1/2 a percent above President Obama's request) pretty much a sure thing.

Why do politicians begrudge out military a pay raise every year? More so than most of our elected representatives our soldiers go to work every day (sometimes for months on end with no days off), work through many of the national holidays that politicians wouldn't dream of working, and actually do the real job of protecting our freedoms. So why is it that our elected officials get an automatic raise every year but it is like pulling teeth to get a fair raise for our troops?

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