Government Unions, WHY????

[Just Curious]

Originally Posted by flatrat

So why are "private contractors" making so much more money than government soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan? You should be familiar with compensation for private contractors. I suspect it is higher than the govt employees. What about executive salaries for defense contractors like UTC and EB?

And if you dont think it costs more to live in DC or NYC than Meriden, you dont get out much.

You fail to convince me that a $79,000 median income is necessarily inappropriate prima facie.

and when you open war jobs to private contractors, they are exempt from UCMJ and government training and operational standards. We are all familiar with the Blackwater atrocities and the Haliburton negligence and corruption in Iraq. Haliburton has stolen enough money from the government to give every fed employee a huge bonus. That's every American government worker, not just its former CEO, Dick Cheney.

Are you arguing for or against my point?

You've just highlighted how the federal government pours money down the drain without regard to anything. I can assure you no private sector company can operate the same way the federal government does as highlighted by you. If they did they'd be out of business.

Bravo, thanks.

Just for fun can you tell me what it costs the federal government to enlist, train and deploy one US soldier to Iraq from start to finish.

[flatrat]

Originally Posted by Just Curious

Are you arguing for or against my point?

You've just highlighted how the federal government pours money down the drain without regard to anything. I can assure you no private sector company can operate the same way the federal government does as highlighted by you. If they did they'd be out of business.

Bravo, thanks.

Just for fun can you tell me what it costs the federal government to enlist, train and deploy one US soldier to Iraq from start to finish.

Yes, I am arguing for and against your point. The inference that the median federal salary of 79,000 is inherently representative of the problems today is ridiculous. We pick on the middle class while the corporatists steal us blind.

And yes, the federal government has poured billions of dollars both into the military and to private contractors in two pointless overseas wars. Iraq was waged under false pretenses, and Afghanistan has yet to be justified either morally or politically. But a ton of people has made a ton of money. With the money spent,we could have affordable healthcare for all and plenty of stimulus money left over. Some of that stimulus could have been in the form of tax reductions. 70% of our federal budget is for "Defense." But of course we are a peace loving nation. The Republicans don't want to pass on the "bill" for health care reform to their children, but were all too quick to pass on the war bill to them. I dont want to hear about fiscal prudence from conservatives who supported and voted for the Iraq war.

And with all that money spent, lost and wasted, the Bush crime family understaffed and under equipped the Iraqi troops. As Donald Rumsfeld said "You go to war with the army you have, not with the army you wish you had." Rumsfeld's army had them "Jerry rigging" their own Humvee armor, and families were sending supplies overseas bought out of their own pockets.

I don't know exactly what it costs to equip a soldier, but the cost to his family of his absence or injury or death cannot be measured in dollars anyway. You would think we might treat them better, both while they are over there and when they get home. The Walter Reed scandal was on Bush's watch and Republicans consistently cut or argued against VA funding.

Dick Cheney had five draft deferments during the Vietnam war. Yet he is so willing to send everyone else to war to satisfy his Neocon paranoid fantasies.

[jessereynolds]

If I've yet to win an election- does that make me a politician?

I don't think that I've lied about anything here- and my Twain reference was a cheeky way of saying "consider the source." Not calling anyone here a liar- just questioning the interpretation of the data being used.