Posted on 12/12/2013 11:24:42 AM PST by Sleeping Freeper
Edited on 12/12/2013 11:27:38 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Military retirees are outraged that Congress will start voting Thursday on a budget deal that trims military pensions, calling the move "an egregious breach of faith."
The Military Coalition, some 27 military groups, wrote to leaders in Congress and President Obama late Wednesday about their "strong objection" and "grave concern" over the budget deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Was this included in the final draft of the bill they voted for on Thursday PM?
Do they really want to goof with military retirees and veterans? Millions of people who have from 3 to 30 years experience and training in death and destruction? How smart is that? 535 against roughly twenty five million veterans. That’s about HALF A MILLION veterans for every congressman!
I have no problem differentiating this at all. Detroit and their employee unions (not just the city of Detroit, but car companies working there) are not (or SHOULD not) ever be beneficiaries of MY tax dollars. I don't live there, have never worked at a GM plant or whatever.
What happens to their pension plans is between them, the City of Detroit, and whatever locality is paying for those pensions. I don't wish ill on them, but when one sees some of the pensions offered to various municipalities (especially in states like California and Massachusetts) that are completely and totally unsustainable due to bad agreements AND bad planning/execution, that is not my issue.
But as someone paying federal taxes to cover the benefits that should go to our military retirees and veterans, I DO feel that this is something I should have an interest in.
And, just to be clear: I am NOT saying "DON'T CUT ANYTHING", what I AM saying is "If we are going to cut military benefits, I will not concede to a single cut until ALL areas of ALL budgets are subjected to the SAME scrutiny, as a minimum..."
According to the US Census in 2010, there were 22,658,000 vets in America.
22,658,000/535 = 42,352 per total.
They have more welfare, illegals and unions thugs not working than they have vets.
That is why they are trotting this stuff out.
My numbers came from the VA, but no matter. How many “welfare, illegals and unions thugs not working” have gone through 10-14 weeks of basic training, advanced schools and leadership training, not to mention marksmanship, small unit tactics, intelligence, communications, heavy weapons, artillery, reconnaissance, ambush, seaborne/airborne/jungle/desert/mountain/urban warfare scenarios? Some, I’m sure, but many of them? Doubtful. I’m 53, overweight and nowhere near the stamina I had at 18, but I’d still recommend you don’t **** with me, and many veterans are 22-49 years old with recent combat experience and n good shape.
There is a difference between should and would. Or in this case can but won’t.
I get the gov’t can’t pay everyone everything. Please stop posting to me that same sentence every which way to Sunday.
I believe our military retirees are more important than welfare queens and bums.
My problem with this is that they cutting our heroes but not the fakers and bums.
It is obvious you do not see a difference between volunteer heros and welfare takers.
HoooAhhhh then. :-)
I agree with you.
The problem is each day, more of us old Vets leave this orb.
Statistically/demographically, the rats and rinos in Congress know that our numbers are decreasing and have decreased to the point that our votes don’t represent any threat to them anymore.
So they don’t care anymore.
If it wasn’t for the military..there would be no private sector
“Most post 1950’s veterans aren’t “joiners” like the World War I and II and Civil War veterans were.”
That may be part of our problem. Fewer and fewer of us each day, and less voting impact each day as we have no central group to yield power.
Haven't you heard? This same bill will change the hours of the House and Senate gyms from round-the-clock to 00:10 to 23:55 and the price of a 5 course lunch in the House and Senate dining rooms will jump from $1.50 to $1.75.
That's what I call sacrifice.
The real “cut” (like all “cuts” in Washington) is a cut in the growth rate. Our (yes, I collect a military retirement) annual COLA will be capped at 1% below inflation. -1%/yr over 20 years is a 20% delta over what the outyear number would have been without this “action”.
I hear ya. 24 years in the Navy and wow how they are screwing us. Such a shame really. I it pisses me off that they cry about the “bonus” in food stamps being taken away, while we get a huge deduction for practically life. Not a peep about welfare being cut a percentage point a year…why not? UGH!
Thanks, Dave.
This is going to cost the military and taxpayers a huge amount and not just in dollars but in the breakdown of the country and military.
“I have a tremor, it’s getting worse and affects my voice. The doc doesn’t know what it is so he pronounced it a, “familial tremor”. No one in my immediate or extended family has ever had it. Never mind, it’s a familial tremor.”
One of our younger relatives has this diagnosis, and it happens with his fingers when he tries to do some small and precise work and sometimes when printing or writing.
No one in his gene pool and sibs have this. He is a dead ringer for his dad when his dad was his age, so it wasn’t a gift from the milkman or postman.
His Family Doc had/has the same diagnosis, and no one in his large family has it. His doc told our relative, that was one many reasons, he didn’t become a neuro surgeon.
read
“Yes, it was paid. That you and other taxpayers borrowed it so you could buy things you wanted without being charged for it does not change the fact that it was paid for, in advance, by money from the Department of Defense.”
I obviously disagree with you, but you set up another interesting point that bothers me.
You seem to draw out two distinctions - classes of citizens - 1. In the dept of defense, 2. outside the department of defense.
The more the military sets itself apart from the citizenry (a huge mistake, in my opinion) the easier it will be to subdue that same citizenry for some perceived slight, like the one you (quite incorrectly in my view) laid out.
Point is - it doesn’t have to be true - it just has to be seen by a large enough portion of the department of defense to be in their best interest. This was unthinkable in my time in the military, but it bothers me because I don’t see it as unthinkable as it once was.....slippery slope there.
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