Posted on 06/30/2012 4:18:52 AM PDT by Kaslin
The audacity of the Obama administration never ceases to amaze. On Friday, they threatened to veto a defense appropriations bill because it, in part, does not include hikes in healthcare fees for members of the military. The House bill passed 299-120 in May. The official policy statement offers this objection:
TRICARE Fees and Co-Payments. The Administration is disappointed that the Congress did not incorporate the requested TRICARE fee initiatives into either the appropriation or authorization legislation. The Administration asks the House to reconsider the TRICARE fee proposals, which are essential for DOD to successfully address rising personnel costs. The $1.8 billion in savings are part of a carefully balanced FY 2013 Budget request.
The proposed increases in healthcare payments for members of the military members were reported by The Washington Free Beacon in February:
“The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.
The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.
The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.”
Of course, it all goes back to propping up ObamaCare…
“Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.”
If the administration had their way:
"Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.
According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.
The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.
The changes are worrying some in the Pentagon who fear it will severely impact efforts to recruit and maintain a high-quality all-volunteer military force. Such benefits have been a key tool for recruiting qualified people and keeping them in uniform."
This just makes it abundantly clear how the administration regards those who serve this country and have already given so much.
Obama and the DNC have made SLAVES of Americans
(who are not in Congress, SCOTUS or are Moslem)
to illegal aliens.
And Congress and SCOTUS LOVE the TYRANT for it.
“Free Health Care for life” sure is getting more expensive for us retired folks.
we say it’s a tax increase and we say to hell with it
virtually nobody affected by this makes $250K a year
hail to the liar in chief
Just a thought here, Let’s do a thought experiment: Let’s imagine that one of the strategies of the Obama is Martial Law after fomenting civil unrest and riots. Besides the National Guard and the Local LEO’s who’s up to enforce Martial Law?
Why the Military of course, the same people who he despises and wants to cut back and financially penalize some more. Remember at the beginning of his term he want the Military members to buy personal insurance policies to pay for their health care when they got wounded while following the directives of the Commander-in-chief. And of course he and his crony’s are also going to cut way back on the DOD’s money also.
Sometimes you just have to smile and hold back, while your enemies make dumb moves. Just like Napoleon did.
America is only going to be valuable for its rail, road and oil, and the rest, it’s going to be turned into a vulgar Lot Lizard business for whores, gamblers and drug dealers.
Because with Zerobamacare, all the rest of the jobs, including services, except for black market jobs, will go over seas. Our education system will be useless. Foreigners will churn out the international university elite system to make Koreans or what not feel good about themselves for not having to depend on America to get that education nationalistically speaking, because the world is filled with peasant f@gs.
...unless you are an avowed homosexual.
Indeed, these Fabianistas like Zero still do not realize from their pampered manipulated positions that even the like of Saddam or Khadaffi would not trust muslim men as body guards.
Only IN AMERICA DO WE LOVE AND PUT MUSLIM PSYCHOS IN THE SECRET SERVICE!!!!!!
These paranoiacs switch and bait and play all of us up, including that whore crypto-muslim-marxist Obama. They all f each other.
Yeah, it’s like you wont get honorable discharge unless you pledge allegiance to the penis in your arse. It’s how seriously they take questioning authority nowadays. And that in turns allows enemy agents within our ranks who infiltrate as homosexuals to never be questioned no matter how they treat the troops because of this sadistic infuration against questioning traitors and cowards.
Hate to tell you folks but retired colonels aren't the bulk of the military retirees. What do you think the impact is to a retired master sergeant with a family of four? His base pay (which is what retirement pay is based on) is one heck of a lot less than a retired colonel.
BTW - not all retirees are paid at 2010 base rates. If you retired in the 1970’s your base pay is well below the base pay of the 2010 retirees regardless of their rank. Add to this the fact that retirees cost of living increases are always less than the active duty's and you can begin to get an idea of what the real impact of these health care increases really are!
You got it exactly right - I joined the AF in 1974 and "retired" in 1998. When I joined, I was promised free health care for life 9for me and a spouse if I had one), and that went doen the tubes before I retired. Half of base pay = about 25% of what I was actually getting while in and the adjustments hadn't happened yet, so it's about $1K/month. Now, to add insult to injury, Obama wants to start gouging the military and retireees to ensure complete subjugation to "health care".
As many others have, I gave the government a lien payable with my very life and they gave me a promise of free life time medical care for me and mine.
Look at how much it costs now. And they want to raise it some more?
Just look at who IS getting free stuff. Free loaders, illegals, and such, just because they might vote for more free stuff promised by the libtards.
Should someone elected to office have the right to dictate when most of the people do not approve of these radical policies? These people refuse to enforce laws they do not agree with.
Amen, brother!
You are right. The average retiree is an 40 year old E-6 with 2-3 school age children trying to re-enter the job market in a lousy economy. Many of them were in Combat Arms MOS’s in the Army and the Marines. They made up the backbone of those services but have a hard time transferring their skills to the civilian workforce. They need every break they can get.
“.....minor infractions on a soldier’s record, once dealt with by a letter of reprimand, are going to now constitute a bar to reenlistment.”
Both letters & bars are commander’s tools to straighten someone out without use of Article 15 or UCMJ. A bar requires a general officer’s signature. If they are now being used to end an enlisted soldier’s career, that would take a major revision of Army regulation.
Of course, a letter of reprimand, especially if issue by a G.O., will kill a commissioned officer’s career. This almost sounds like the Clinton years when officers including myself had Article 88 UCMJ waved in our faces for criticizing the Draft Dodger in Chief.
Nothing this Priezy of the United Stiezy does against the military should amaze anyone.
If we don’t reverse course, there will ONLY be Obamacare. No Tricare, no Medicare and no Medicaid. Only Obamacare.
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.". — September 12, 2008
- Barack Hussein Obama (Note: he was not counting fees, penalties, or Supreme Court approved taxes on the working poor and the middle class in that promise)
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