Posted on 02/25/2012 2:40:05 PM PST by katiedidit1
The DOD budget unveiled February 13 recommends 1.7 percent military pay raises for 2013 and 2014, followed by a scant 0.5 percent increase in 2015, and 1 percent in 2016. Also announced were plans to almost quadruple Tricare Prime enrollment fees for some working age military retirees, impose Tricare for Life enrollment fees on those older than 65, and introduce enrollment fees and increased deductibles on Tricare Standard and Extra users. Included in DOD’s healthcare revenue plan are increased pharmaceutical copayments for retirees as well as military dependents.
DOD also recommends reducing the size of the active force by more than 100,000 troops over the next five years—mostly soldiers and Marines—through attrition, a reduction in force, mandatory retirements and high year of tenure separations, among others
(Excerpt) Read more at vfw.org ...
Felt a need to post this due to the recent deaths of our troops in Afghanistan, the long tours and many wars being fought by America’s finest. God bless our troops and I am saddened that their benefits will be slashed. I for one am forever grateful for their sacrifices.
The product of the McConnell/Boehner super committee crap.
I rarely if ever see any report on the congressional benefit package that they award themselves.
It looks obvious that some veterans voted the Obama way. Obama would not have gotten close if they hadn’t.
Destruction of the military is part and parcel of the whole effort to destroy the nation.
As Lenin taught the world, you have to have a revolution before you can fully institute communism - frustrated hater Hussein’s ultimate goal.
Maybe that was their goal?
How the heck is Obama going to try to justify billions of dollars to Solyndra, Light Squared, etc, which have gone bankrupt but are rewarding their CEO’s anyway - at a time when we’re treating our military people worse than dog poop?
At the same time Obama is supposedly trying to keep the troops safer by refusing to mention to anybody that the Korans were desecrated by MUSLIM TERRORISTS and thus had to be burned by the US military in accordance with Islamic requirements. The heads these Taliban people are wanting to roll are those of their OWN DANG PEOPLE!!!! And Obama could soundly put them in their place simply by speaking the truth.
But alas, the only truth Obama has ever spoken was to the Egyptian ambassador in January of 2010, when he said that he was and still is a Muslim who supports the Muslim agenda.
That’s why he won’t tell the truth about the Korans that the Taliban desecrated. The whole thing is just an excuse to kill more US soldiers who are only there because Obama wants the patriotic soldiers to get killed off; Obama accidentally let slip that it was never his intention to actually WIN in Afghanistan. Why are we there then? To kill off patriotic soldiers while making it appear that he is serious in the fight against terrorism for campaigning purposes. In reality he will do the same thing in Afghanistan as he did in Iraq: tell the terrorists when we’re gonna leave (after enough of our fighters have been killed so Obama doesn’t need to worry about a strong, patriotic military interfering with his communist coup in America when it comes) so that after we’ve burned up all our money and soldiers and leave they can do as they darn well please - which, according to the “Muslim agenda” that Obama says he supports, means that Afghanistan has to get rid of all the infidels and work to push sharia all over the world.
See, when Obama usurped his way into the White House, the regime in control in Afghanistan - like that of Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Kenya, etc - was an ally in the War on Terrorism. But to keep his promise to the Egyptian ambassador (that he would first pass Obamacare and then focus on the world Muslim agenda) he has to get rid of the regimes that were cooperating with us and instead get them replaced by Islamist extremists pushing sharia. He’s got the other ones taken care of already but still has to give Afghanistan a reason to turn from being our ally - which all his apologizing instead of telling the truth actually does. God knows that the apologies only signal to the crazies over there to be even more violent, because it tells them the US is willing to bend over and take anything they want to give us. Gag.
And he’s working on replacing Syria’s regime, which is currently held back from full sharia because the former leader made sure to place people of all different factions and faiths within the government to check and balance each other. That will be replaced by an Islamist regime that will be even more violent than the one in power currently. And unless the WMD’s they had of their own and those they received from Saddam Hussein on the eve of the US invasion have been sent to Iran already, as per their agreement, the 2 Islamist regimes surrounding Israel (Syria and Iran) will be able to come at Israel from all directions while Obama CLAIMS it was just a SNAFU that we didn’t secure the WMD’s...
And he’s abandoning Israel, the one majority-Muslim country that has full religious freedom. He’s actually getting in the way of Israel defending herself from Iran’s nukes, while making sure that the entire Middle East is controlled by Islamist crazies who are just as dedicated as he is to the “Muslim agenda” (destruction of the US and Israel and the institution of worldwide sharia).
He never had to do anything with Iran, since they are already under sharia, America’s enemy, and have been on course to get the nuclear weapons that Ahmadinejad wants to use to usher in the return of the Mahdi.
So things are brewing nicely according to Obama’s self-stated agenda of supporting the “Muslim agenda”. He inherited a world where we had lots of allies in the war on terror and he has managed to get them all to go Islamist instead. He just has Afghanistan left but he’s not gonna fully turn them over from being our “allies” (cough) until they’ve killed some more of our patriotic soldiers and drained more of our financial resources, to prepare for the domestic communist coup he and his buddies have been planning for the last 40 or so years.
By their fruits you will know them.
Obama is the Muslim-in-Chief who supports the destruction of the US and Israel and the institution of worldwide sharia. Everything he has done points to this.
Military pay and benefits just cannot continue as they are right now, but that doesn’t mean that military personnel need to get shafted in the deal. But there are some common sense changes that need to be made.
1) To start with, retirement after 20 years is nonsense. Though it is reasonable to limit military service to 20 years, there should be a direct employment conduit into federal service at the same pay grade. No more “double dipping”, however.
This can be called “lateral transfer.”
Assuming they left the military at age 40, they can still log in 25 more years in federal service before retirement.
2) Disabled veterans should still get all benefits, but in most cases through mainstream medical care, not VA, most of which was a boondoggle from the start. Granted, there still needs to be a VA, but as specialized care for veterans that would not easily be found in the mainstream and is tailored for them.
3) The US military is too expensive to use for many low intensity missions. For this reason, the US needs to contract with an offshore mercenary organization to provide boots on the ground. Likely based in the Caribbean, they could recruit from around the world, and their equipment, transport and logistics would be handled by the US military.
Instead of costing billions of dollars, using them would cost in the tens of millions. Their contracts would be strictly voluntary, however, to prevent unscrupulous US politicians using them as cannon fodder.
This would preserve the US military for critical missions.
Do you have to excerpt this?
WASHINGTON—The national commander of America’s largest and oldest major combat veterans’ organization is urging the entire military and veterans’ community to “Join the Fight” to stop the Defense Department from penny-pinching service members to the point of dismantling the all-volunteer force.
“There is no military personnel issue more sacrosanct than pay and benefits,” said Richard L. DeNoyer, who leads the 2 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries. “Any proposal that negatively impacts any Quality of Life program must be defeated, and that’s why the VFW is asking everyone to join the fight and send a united voice to Congress.”
The DOD budget unveiled February 13 recommends 1.7 percent military pay raises for 2013 and 2014, followed by a scant 0.5 percent increase in 2015, and 1 percent in 2016. Also announced were plans to almost quadruple Tricare Prime enrollment fees for some working age military retirees, impose Tricare for Life enrollment fees on those older than 65, and introduce enrollment fees and increased deductibles on Tricare Standard and Extra users. Included in DOD’s healthcare revenue plan are increased pharmaceutical copayments for retirees as well as military dependents.
DOD also recommends reducing the size of the active force by more than 100,000 troops over the next five years—mostly soldiers and Marines—through attrition, a reduction in force, mandatory retirements and high year of tenure separations, among others. In addition, DOD gave the White House the go-ahead to create a commission to examine overhauling the current military retirement system in a manner that would benefit the government more through savings than reward someone who first has to volunteer 20 or more years of their youth just to qualify.
Ideas already floated include older programs such as High-3 Pay and the reduced retirement plan (Redux), as well as new ones that would delay the receipt of retirement pay till age 60 (similar to current National Guard and Reserve programs), or be contributory, 401(k)-type programs (similar to corporate America). Newly authorized are 15 year retirements, which accrue at the normal rate of 2.5 percent of base pay annually, minus a 1-percent penalty for every year below 20.
“Those currently serving in uniform or already retired are grandfathered under the existing system,” said DeNoyer, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Middleton, Mass. “Our concern is for tomorrow’s recruits, the young 18-year-old enlistees and new 22-year-old officers who will be fighting tomorrow’s wars with the same force challenges as today—high operations tempos, too little dwell time, and not enough troops to meet worldwide threats and commitments.”
The VFW national commander said 10 years of war has produced a battle-hardened force that’s extremely proud of their accomplishments but 100 percent aware of the general public’s noninvolvement.
“They and their families worry about getting paid on time,” he said. “They worry about what will happen if the car breaks down or if a loved one should get hurt at home or during training exercises or real-world deployments. Most of all, especially with this defense budget submission, they worry about whether the folks who give all the orders really care about the troops who do all the fighting and sacrificing.”
DeNoyer wants America’s 22 million veterans, 2 million service members and all their families to “Join the Fight” to make their voices heard loud and clear to the lawmakers who have the power to override these negative Quality of Life proposals.
“A secure America needs a strong military,” he said, “and whether one serves honorably for four years or 40, messing with military pay and benefits is a clear signal to the troops and their families that the budget is more important than people. That is going to seriously hurt recruiting and retention, and potentially end the all-volunteer force, because nobody wants to work for an ungrateful employer in a vocation as inherently dangerous as ours.” Click on “Join the Fight” and help the VFW tell your elected officials that it takes people to win our nation’s wars. Breaking faith with those who sacrifice the most will signal the end of America’s all-volunteer force, which in this extremely volatile and unpredictable world, is one expense our nation cannot afford.
Civil Service workers may retire well after 20 yrs and many have never served one day in the military. They also recieve excellent benefits as do many public union employees
My nephew, who had planned to retire after 20 years, just informed his dad (my brother) that he is now planning on getting out as soon as he can. The reason: he can’t stand seeing any more Marines holding hands. He only made it about half way to his 20 years. Very sad. He’s a good Marine. We’re very proud of him, he’s accomplished a lot.
Has anybody else noticed that under Obama, in time of war, pay for civilan government federal bureaucrats has gone up twice as fast as pay for thee troops?
Obama believes with all his heart that Bureaucracy is what America needs above all else. He’s actually that stupid.
As the military approaches it’s 50% female goal, including Generals and Admirals, and as they retire and become Democrat politicians, it will become the ultimate government squeaky wheel, and the pay, the benefits, the cost, and so on will become fantastic.
10 to 20 years from now we will not recognize it.
Send your nephew my genuine thanks for his service. Semper fi:) he deserved better and I am sorry over what is happening to our finest.
There will be plenty of volunteers looking for the gay sex.
I’ll help the VFW and the American Legion when they stop inviting the anti miltary and anti-American Obama to speak at their conventions.
Thousands of vets at these events need to stand up and turn their back to a “leader” who apologizes to the murderers of American military personnel.
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