“Many of these men have permanent disabilities caused by too many jumps, too many loud noises, too many deployments. They put their families through hell for a pittance and the love of their country.”
Yep. The ones who have actual disabilities (not the “wink-wink” disabilities assigned at the retirement physical that are endemic fraud in the military) get priority, hopefully they’ll even get help after we reconstitute an economy after we fall off the cliff.
“But you stay focused on those pensions so you can save a couple dollars off the backs of soldiers/marines/sailors/airmen.”
We can’t afford to pay a pension to an able-bodied person. We probably can’t pay any government pension, including military ones in the long term - given that we refuse to even discuss the issue.
Like I said - repeatedly by the way, I wish we had a vibrant private sector that could afford to pay all these folks the money they think they were promised.
As it stands we don’t, and we can’t.
It’s math. You can pretend I’m advocating stealing canes from old vets, but I’m not. I’m pointing out the obvious math problem. Promises made by government backed by future revenue that will not be realized are the problem. Deal with the reality.
Cut the Department of Education, BIA, Homeland Security, EPA, OSHA, etc. etc. etc.
Let's do some math:
1 Promise made to men and women you send to war
+ 2 million men and women who go to war for you for practically no pay based on your promises
+ paid low lifes and bureaucrats who didn't serve
+ broken promises of compensation to those who went to war = X
I'll give you a hint. X does not = love and tranquility.
This issue is water under the bridge. No one promised welfare to the welfare queens. No one promised free housing, cable tv and Obama phones. Once that is cut, then you'll have a leg to stand on. Until then, pay your debts. This is compensation earned. It is nonnegotiable.