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June 14, 2005
Military Recruitment
On military recruitment problems, David R. Usher asks, "What is the real reason why men are not enlisting?" The answer, he says, may be found in divorce rates among military men and the dispiriting hostility they face from divorce industry bureaucrats. For instance:
A man on duty overseas can be hit with a surprise divorce, lose everything he owns, and have a "temporary" child support order levied against him. There is nothing in any federal or state law or the SSCRA requiring that child support orders be based on real contemporary income.
Courts are quite likely to base the child support order on imputed civilian pay – which is commonly much higher than military pay. It is not exceptional to see military men paying over half of their pretax income as child support.
He concludes:
This has risen to become an issue of national security. Our failure to address the dual problems of irresponsible (feminist) divorce, and the usurious child support (nee welfare) system, has left us with too many men unwilling to risk being demolished and criminalized at home while being shot at overseas.
To be fair, it's hard to say whether this problem alone is at the root of recruiting problems, and ridiculing attempted solutions accomplishes nothing.
Just as incomprehensible, though, is the pittance of a death beneft paid to survivors of soldiers killed in action. After it was increased, effectively speaking, by 140% two years ago, it stands at a less-than-whopping $12,000, tax-free. 140% sounds is worthy of a politician's pat on one's own back but consider the incremental cost to Uncle Sam: less than $12 million. More perspective: the average payout to 9/11 victims was an unassailable but hefty $1.65 million.
I don't agree with Kos and the loonie left that Darth Bush is to blame for recruitment troubles, nor do I think finances explain everything. But there's certainly been a lack of vocal leadership in Washington, and Lord knows it won't come from the Democrats. So what are we waiting for? At a minimum, shouldn't the military find a way to streamline active soldiers' legal and financial matters, and increase survivors' death benefit? (Quadrupling the benefit from $12,000 to $48,000, retroactively to 9/10/01 (same retroactive date as the '03 changes) would cost: $62 million dollars. A pittance, one would think, to Washington's Hall of Shame porkers.
Posted by bill at June 14, 2005 12:31 PM
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