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There are reasons why it is important to document claims. It is also important to understand some perspective. Let's look at an actual source on your claim about the "civilian pay gap" and the proposed military pay raise: MOAA: Military Officers Association of AmericaMilitary Pay Raise Gap
First thing to note is this:
ECI = Employment Cost Index, which is basically measuring the gap between military and civilian jobs.
Obama's proposed pay increase was based on the ECI. Why was the proposed pay increase so small? Because civilian pay did not go up much. Now, let's look at the whole picture over the course of time. The highest comparability gap was in 1998 and 1999, when it was 13.5 %. Today, it is 2.4 %. Last year it was 2.9 %, which is the level that Obama's proposed military pay raise would have reduced only trivially(remember, ECI + .5 %). In other words, with military pay very close to civilian pay, and civilian pay not going up much, and people making a big deal out of spending, Obama proposed giving a raise slightly higher than civilian pay went up.
You're not paying much attention to the fact that the military pay raises throughout the Clinton administration were consistently lower than civilian sector pay raises resulting in a larger gap that Bush administration attempted to narrow. (reference is CBO) President Obama's 1.4% percent pay raise will re open that gap. Further, reenlistment bonuses have been drastically reduced or eliminated this year and are expected to go down further next year.