Pentagon to Congress:Stop spending so much money on the troops

This is the same Pentagon with no problem at all shelling out billions to defense contractors with absolutely no oversight on where the money went, what they were billed for or what they were getting for the money in return. This is really the same Pentagon now saying that Congress is being too generous to the troops? The same troops we keep sending over and over and over again back to Iraq and Afghanistan no matter what it's doing to them and their families? Amazing! Just amazing now they are worried about spending too much money. Well maybe the saying is true, troops are expendable but contractors are expensive.

But Congress -- including members opposed to the wars -- has made clear that it considers military pay and benefits sacrosanct, especially when service members and their families are struggling to cope with repeated deployments to faraway conflicts.

Pentagon asking Congress to hold back on generous increases in troop pay
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Pentagon, not usually known for its frugality, is pleading with Congress to stop spending so much money on the troops.

Through nine years of war, service members have seen a healthy rise in pay and benefits, with most of them now better compensated than workers in the private sector with similar experience and education levels.

Congress has been so determined to take care of troops and their families that for several years running it has overruled the Pentagon and mandated more-generous pay raises than requested by the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. It has also rejected attempts by the Pentagon to slow soaring health-care costs -- which Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said are "eating us alive" -- by raising co-pays or premiums.

Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.
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Stop spending so much money on the troops