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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

Someone on reddit pointed out something the other day that made a lot of sense.

The GOP is afraid of subsidized health care and subsidized/free college, because it would remove the two biggest recruiting tools the army has -- free lifetime healthcare and money for college.

Without those carrots, few would sign up for the military.

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Living in the UK here. We don't have money for college anymore, but we still have the NHS. And we've never had that much trouble recruiting.

Perhaps they should send a fact-finding mission across.

While this makes a lot of sense, I really hope it's not true.

I don't know any Republicans who felt this way or even brought up the topic.

Congressional Republicans. Particularly the ones on the Armed Forces committee, who are acutely aware of the recruiting problem.

> Someone on reddit pointed out something the other day that made a lot of sense.

I'm afraid I'll need a better citation than that.

What's undesirable about this situation? We need a military force to protect us, I don't think that is a controversial idea. With certain political groups doing their utmost to absolutely kill any kind of nationalism or patriotic feeling, what incentive do we have to put our lives on the line for our country if not for the rewards?

We could increase military pay to make it more attractive but the overall budget to be gained by axing healthcare and education spending probably would not make a huge difference in the bottom lime for most soldiers. What are the proposed alternatives?

Why do you think they fight abortion? Unwanted babies that grow up in mishandled homes are ripe for army recruiters!

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