Soldiers still waiting for tour bonuses

[Are_grits_groceries]

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has not started complying with a law requiring the payment of monthly bonuses of up to $500 to soldiers forced to remain on active duty beyond their enlistment period, military officials said.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged the five-month delay in paying the bonuses and said the Defense Department is working on a plan to start paying the almost 13,000 soldiers currently under the Army's stop-loss orders. Although Defense Secretary Robert Gates wants to end the policy, the number of soldiers affected has risen since the middle of 2007.

Congress added $72 million to pay for the bonuses in its plan for the budget year that started Oct. 1. The money was to be paid after the Pentagon submitted a plan outlining how the payments would be made.

But no plan has been provided, Rob Blumenthal, a spokesman for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Friday.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-02-22-stop-loss-pay_N.htm

SHAME!!

[hankthecrank]

1. The Soldiers should not have to wait for this very wrong

[Javaman]

2. Another legacy from the moron* years. he* seems to enjoy

repeating the past.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

3. Here is a related story

LBN:
Probe finds Army charity is hoarding millions
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3751384

[gratuitous]

4. Well, they volunteered,didn't they? Why are they grabbing for more money?

Greedy bastards, every last one of them. Don't they know the hardships being faced by Rick Santelli and the traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange? Some of them are piloting last year's yacht into their slip at the marina! Oh, the sport being made of those unfortunates over snifters of fine brandy at the club.

And here are these ungrateful wretches, hand out for money over and above their agreed-upon wage! Where, oh where is Rick Santelli to explain it all to us?

[Still Sensible]

5. This is an issue the administration should be all over

Gates about. When Congress has already appropriated the money, there is simply no excuse. The pay mechanism is already in place and so basically the only "decision" that had to be made was whether they would simply increase the service persons' pay by $500 a month so each paycheck would be larger or if it would be a separate once-a-month payment disbursed through the same mechanism.

It's bullshit and the President needs to have Gates on the carpet over it. The whole economy is in the shitter and the families of servicemen and women, who often tend to struggle financially as a matter of course, need those funds.