The Rangel Roadshow
Charlie Rangel is making the rounds whining that his brilliant proposal to reinstate the draft should have been considered before Nancy Pelosi publicly kneecapped him. He's also saying (I think) that the troops are only doing this for the money. Let's take a look at that allegation, shall we?
Let's take the case of a US Army soldier with the rank of specialist, pay grade E-4 with two years in service. That person can expect $1748.10 each month. Now, there are various additions to that pay when someone is deployed in a war zone, but I don't have those figures - they are not real huge, though. So assume SPC X gets just the basic amount. Working that out, that comes to 12 X 1,748.10 = $20,977.20 annually. Now let's break that down on an hourly rate and assume that said SPC X is "on the clock" for only 8 hours per day with a 5 day work week - in a war zone. Using 2080 hours (52 X 8 X 5) and doing a straight division we arrive at: $20,977.20 / 2080 = $10.09 per hour. Let's expand that to seven days a week on the clock to get more realistic. The number becomes $20,977.20 / 2912 = $7.20 per hour.
But the fact is that SPC X is not "on the clock" for 8 hours. SPC X is on the clock for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the entire year they are deployed and is subject to sudden violence at any moment. So if we do that calculation, the pay rate becomes $20,977.20 / 8760 (hours) or a whopping $2.39 per hour. So if anyone joined the military to get rich, shame on them. If politicians make charges that money is the incentive, shame on the politician. (Incidentally, add on all the bonuses Charlie says are there - I think he says $40k enlistment and $70k education. I do not know if those numbers are even close to accurate, but you'd have to divide them out over the seven year enlistment so that would come to around $15,700 per year. Add all that in to the above. It is still bupkiss. The men and women who enlist do so for reasons that escape good old Charlie).
What we have proven here is that Charlie Rangel is a) a fool, b) a liar c) not fit to be in the same room as an American soldier or d) all of the above. Multiple choice, have fun.
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Blue Crab Boulevard » Get Your Wallet — Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 8:53 am
By TC@LeatherPenguin, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 12:41 am
The answer, obviously, is “d”, but that’s not the point.
The point is, Charlie’s going nuts, and Pelosi can’t stop him. So pull up a comfy cushion and pass the popcorn, because this is gonna be Oscar-worthy.
By Guy, Tuesday, 21 November , 2006 @ 7:36 am
Charlie, even if he lives to be 100, will never understand why young men and women place their lives on the line for what they are paid. He may have at one time. But, no longer.