BONUS TIME

Below I wrote that I read somewhere that military bonuses had reached $1 billion a year and I found the source:

Military re-enlistment bonuses soar in effort to maintain forces
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press
© April 12, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon poured more than $1 billion into bonuses last year to keep soldiers and Marines in the military in the face of an unpopular war and battlefield deployments that are getting longer and more frequent. The incentives - including tax-free payments for those who re-enlist while in the war zone - have jumped nearly sixfold since 2003, the year the war in Iraq began.

All told, the Army and Marines spent $1.03 billion for re-enlistment payments last year, compared with $174 million in 2003.