Third year running, Obama cuts military pay from already threadbare Armed Forces

Kevin WhitemanAugust 31, 2015

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Lance Cpl. Stephen Ferris of Walpole, Mass., left, with India Co., 3rd BN., 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, advances on the headquarters of the Fedayeen in Baghdad on Wednesday, April 9, 2003.

As most Americans are unaware, by federal law those serving in the nation’s military are suppose to receive a yearly pay raise in accordance with a formula utilized by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The House of Representatives traditionally uses whatever figure the BLS sends them to factor into any given Fiscal Year Budget to be sent to the Commander-in-Chief.

Yet as reported by the Alabama Media Group (The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times, the Mobile Press-Register) on Aug. 31, 2015, members of the Armed Forces will see a barely visible 1.3 percent increase in their proverbial pay envelopes starting New Year’s Day. But as reported by the Heritage Foundation on Aug. 7, 2015, Barack Obama has again decided to use an emergency loophole in the US Code to keep the lawful pay raise of 2.3 percent from the troops.

With the Family Obama still shaking the sand out of their shoes from yet another taxpayer subsidized Cape Cod vacation, Obama used the Chief Executive’s “economic emergency” provision to bypass the BLS formula, the House of Representatives, and Title 5 U.S.C., sections 5303(b) and 5304 (a) to cut military pay. Citing multiple sources here, Obama used the same excuse to slash the legally mandated pay raises from Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015.