No clear path for military pensions fix
Senate Democrats are frowning on Republican proposals to pay for a plan to restore cuts to military pensions, casting doubt on the any quick prospect for a deal. A House plan overwhelmingly approved Tuesday would offset the pension cuts by extending sequester’s Medicare cuts one year into 2024. And a Republican plan in the Senate put forward by Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire would offset the cuts by preventing illegal immigrants from claiming a child tax credit.
Both appear to be nonstarters for Senate Democrats.
With dueling measures being considered in both chambers, the impasse raises questions about whether there’s any easy path to final passage for competing proposals in the House and Senate to undo a provision just about every lawmaker detests. Even Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said he wasn’t involved in any talks to find a bipartisan offset.
With no effort to strike a deal, both parties appear to be using votes on the issue to provide political cover for members who voted for December’s bipartisan budget deal, which put the unpopular pension cuts in place, amid a backlash from powerful advocacy groups for service members and veterans.
But it appears unlikely they’ll actually resolve the issue this week.
___________________________________________________________________
Military and military families are just being used as pawns, again.
“With no effort to strike a deal, both parties appear to be using votes on the issue to provide political cover for members who voted for December’s bipartisan budget deal, which put the unpopular pension cuts in place, amid a backlash from powerful advocacy groups for service members and veterans.”
Yes, it looks like this is just grandstanding with no REAL intent to restore the full COLAs to military pensions. Also, once this step was taken, it sets a bad precedent for worse things in the future.