Or so you’d think to read the latest screed making its way across Facebook.\u00a0 Kim sent this in and asked for a fact-check.\u00a0 And as it’s not often I get blog requests, I got right on it.\u00a0 The viral status update reads:<\/p>\n
President Obama has proposed a 1.4% pay increase for active duty military in 2011. This is THE LOWEST SINCE 1973! Nice to know that during a time of rampant inflation, while war is fought in 2 theatres, our men and women in uniform get A LOWER PAY INCREASE THAN WELFARE RECIPIENTS!!! Please repost if you support our troops.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let’s start with the easy stuff. Obama did propose a 1.4% increase.\u00a0 It is also the lowest increase proposal since 1973.\u00a0 Those points are true.\u00a0 Now hold on tight because the accuracy drops off steeply right after that.<\/p>\n
“Rampant inflation”?\u00a0 Average inflation for all of 2009<\/a> was -0.34%.\u00a0 Note, that is a negative sign!\u00a0 It was less than zero.\u00a0 Technically that’s deflation, which is an economic concern in its own right, but still means that your dollar buys more now than it did a year ago.\u00a0 There is debate about whether inflation will pick up again in 2010, but the debate is over whether it will be tiny or negative.\u00a0 Nobody (except perhaps the author) is worried about it being rampant.<\/p>\n
On another point, it’s impossible to compare military pay to welfare.\u00a0 Military pay is set at the federal level where the states individually set their own Welfare payment schedules.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The most analogous comparison might be to Social Security benefits.\u00a0 They are set federally, and are similarly subject to annual revision.\u00a0 However, there was no cost of living increase for Social Security in 2010<\/a>.\u00a0 ZERO.\u00a0 Note that there has been a SS COLA increase in every year since 1975 except 2010.\u00a0 The rationale is essentially the same.\u00a0 The Consumer Price Index and inflation were basically flat, so no increase is needed to maintain the same standard of living.\u00a0 The military is doing better than our seniors.\u00a0 Further, the 1.4% proposal is actually pretty reasonable.\u00a0 Most corporate payrolls won’t go up by that much in 2010.\u00a0 Just look at your own paycheck.\u00a0 How big of a base pay raise did you get this year?<\/p>\n