i was thinking the opposite, they are already getting paid and it's part of their job description
Posted on 06/19/2016 5:40:12 AM PDT by efs111
WASHINGTON — The next base Christmas party might not feature any active-duty flutists or tuba players.
The House on Thursday passed legislation sponsored by former A-10 pilot Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., that bars the military from using its many troop bands to entertain at dinners, dances and social events.
The bill limits performances to formal military ceremonies and funeral honors.
It is the latest attempt to cut back the roughly $500 million that the Defense Department spends annually on bands, which date back to the birth of the country’s armed forces but have recently run into criticism as Congress wrangles with tight budgets.
Read more at: http://www.stripes.com/1.415169
Not surprised by that figure. The bands are large, and have a big transportation budget. For budgetary calculations, figure 20 years at full pay and benefits, and funding another 40 years of retirement and veterans’ benefits.
BTW, cost of fulltime employees at private/public owned corporations that offer similar benefits are the same, if not more (thing UAW workers).
I’ve got news for you. Those multi million dollar vacations are not in the budget. The president’s salary is about $450 K per year. The extras cannot be cut back on. They’re off the books
i was thinking the opposite, they are already getting paid and it's part of their job description
I’m surprised at the extent is all. My experience 1968-1976 didn’t give me any sense that Music was this much involved.
I did funeral detail in 69 before going overseas and we had a bugler but the others among us were volunteers who got per diem mostly and a day off from duty if the funeral conflicted with work.
I started as an E-1 making about $94/month and ended as an E-5 after 8 years making about $600/month. Hardly budget breaking then I guess.
What I DO agree with is cutting out all Military Honorifics for f@cking politicians. To my mind, they should be lauded by Prison Bands, if that.
They are not doing away with the bands entirely, just limiting where they can play at. So at the end of the day just how much of that $500 million are they really saving?
A lot of budget projections comes down to book keeping and future cost projections. In terms of actual man hours, the bands cost no more today than when you were in. But, the Dollar buys about 10% today of what it did when you first went in.
As a side question, do you remember the minimum wage in 1968? I do, and kids today would laugh and not believe anyone would have worked for that.
When I worked before going in, pay was $1/hour. In FACT, I regularly got more than DOUBLE what the military paid me as an E-1.
Deep sigh and shaking my head here...so glad I’m retired and no longer have to deal with the PC BS. I do not encourage anyone to serve in the military nowadays, I have to clamp my mouth closed about my opinions to my active duty stepson, and I am totally not in favor of women being drafted ( I volunteered to serve, I knew what I was going to be doing for my job, and my job was hospital admin, not infantry!)—so now I add the worry over my teen daughter being drafted to the other worries I have as a mother! We are a military family, we volunteered to serve: me, my husband, my dad, his dad, his stepdad, our youngest son, my BIL, my niece’s husband, and so on. Morale is being beaten out of our service members. And after that military service, then we fight the VA for justly earned and well deserved benefits ( my dad exposed to Agent Orange, my BIL and niece’s husband PTSD from wartime activity, my husband exposed to asbestos in the Navy now dealing with mesothelioma... How much we have all given, how much we love our country. Is the mere pleasure of listening to a military band at a mandatory fun social event now too much to expect? Add that to the lousy commissaries overseas, the alcohol ban currently imposed on Navy service members and their spouses in Japan, the numerous deployments to hellholes and the burdens of the families, the diversity push, the rainbow flags, the ban on christianity, and every other insane policy running rampant—when will we see the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
The members of the band are getting paid the same whether they are performing, field training, or just plain rehearsing. Generally, dinners and dances are done by smaller ensembles, not the whole band. I don’t see where this saves much money, except maybe travel expenses.
And that pay included room and board, and full medical insurance as well as earning a pension?
But they voted to allow illegal aliens to join the military which has always been illegal until now.
Legal non-citizens have long been able to serve, but illegals? WTF?
Robert A. Cook, PE wrote:"The balls and the dances ARE the social events that make the hardships worth going through for years.
The military “pomp and circumstance” have - sice the Babylonian era, the Greeks and Romans, the middle ages and the Napoleonic wars, been what builds the social “attitude” and morale behind the armed forces between the troops and the officers and their wives behind them.
Well said. ======>worth repeating<======
18 years old don’t need much medical unless its something which the service causes in the first place.
Room, board, meals? You ever try it?
I did 8+ years and I never got a pension, nor a thank you from anyone there - ever. Just 2 months TDY in Iceland before I was sent back to the UK to process out for release with just 3 days to process and clear out (Wife, kid, House and car).
can’t risk anyone’s feelings, you know.
But seriously, they could probably cut half the administrative staffs in the Pentagon and throughout, and have a sizable increase in efficiency.
common sense.
One set of rules for me, another for thee...
We need to spend the money we save for unisex bathrooms for transgendered and bones for the transpecied.
If you know the name of the MST, its history can be found.
I remember the “E.D. Patrick” casting off from the Yokohama pier in 1957. I thought all the ticker tape would hold it fast. IIRC, military families of a certain size got to go back by ship.
Found the E.D. Patrick on line. Quite a story.
Anyway, I hope Congress doesn’t restrict military band performances. Our society needs the reminder of what the military does for us.
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