Posted on 12/28/2013 5:50:47 AM PST by SkyPilot
As someone who is constantly researching retirement, I find the recent funding cuts to military retirees very disheartening. Worse yet, I see this as a move to establish ground zero for the testing of changes to Social Security benefits.
On Wednesday, the Senate passed a bipartisan budget that scales back cost of living adjustments for working age military retirees starting in 2015. Several sources including Military.com suggests that qualified participants could lose between $3,700 and $6,200 per year, or an aggregate between $83,000 and $124,000 before they retire based on rank, age and years of service.
Despite some protests, a few web articles, and assorted angry Facebook posts from former military personnel, it’s pretty much a done deal. The message seems clear: if you’re young (under the age of 62) and capable there will be no perks for you.
Whether you support the decision or not, the rapid process by which these benefits were stripped and seemingly limited public and media anger, may just be setting the stage for related actions within the Social Security program. It’s well documented that the Social Security fund is set to go bust by 2033, with some experts suggesting it could happen sooner. Whether it’s ten, fifteen or even twenty years away, that insolvency date needs to change for the system to survive, and the logical and now accepted way to do it is on the backs of those who can, and already are paying into the system.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
“Democrat-Mass.”
Says all you need to know.
We are retired military.
Scum like this will meet their maker the devil one day and then cry for God forgivness..until then she will keep spouting her hate..and remain a lonely old cow...
Key words: Working Age
Why should healthy veterans who retire in their early 40s believe that getting a check with generous COLAs for the next 40 years is healthy for the country?
This article that uses a figure of $3700 'loss' in one year, based on a 1% lower COLA has to be doing math that multiplies 3700 by 100 equalling 370000.
Please tell me what retiree gets $370,000 a year in retirement checks.
If a Forbes writer and his editor cannot do math what hope is there for any opinion in that magazine.
Government benefits of every stripe are going to be cut. It is unavoidable.
The only way we can pay every check recipient everything they think they are owed or entitled to in the future is to have a vibrant private sector that is prosperous enough to afford to pay for it all cheerfully.
We do not have that. So we will have squabbling between check recipients over who deserves a check before the other, or who gets cut or who doesn’t.
The fact is that without a vibrant and prosperous private sector, nobody gets paid their government checks. Nobody.
How do we rebuild a vibrant and prosperous private sector economy so everybody can get what they think they are owed?
What is the typical military pension for the non-disabled?
And what is the typical military payment to the disabled vets?
What were you saying about running for the Presidency Mr. Ryan!!!!!!!
Our veterans have protected us, and we as a country need to protect them and preserve their well-deserved benefits.
Every American should be offended by the underhanded backroom deals and sacrificial treatment that our so-called representatives are deviously plotting against our veterans. They are in effect shooting them in the back. What kind of country treats its defenders and heros like this?
Offshoring our industrial base to China and the turd world IS NOT a way to do it.
What is the typical military pension for the non-disabled?
And what is the typical military payment to the disabled vets?
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Whatever it is it pails in comparison to the wasteful, redundant, and corrupt spending that goes on in Washington. The real problem is the sheer size of government, not what it costs to support our veterans. That cost is trivial in the overall scheme of things.
Clinton took The Cold War Peace Dividend back in the 90s. Where is our War On Poverty Peace Dividend? The Democrats promise their loyal voters the moon and then run the country into the dirt. If anyone is serious about solving the problems, then the first thing to do is examine all the rules, regulations and laws in this country. We need to stop putting a straitjacket on American business. Turn them loose. Private sector jobs CREATE tax money. Government jobs CONSUME tax money.
How do we rebuild a vibrant and prosperous private sector economy
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Step #1: Shrink the size and functions of government.
Step #2: Repeat step #1.
Maybe because they signed a contract with the federal government. A veteran who has served the last 20 yrs. has been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan numerous times. While deployed he or she is on duty 24/7. While deployed they risk life and limb and do so with a minimum of complaining. Who is more deserving of a pension.....a military retiree or the run of the mill government employee who not only risks nothing but receives a much larger pension than a veteran in the equivocal position!!!
Step #1: Shrink the size and functions of government.
Step #2: Increase import tariffs and decrease/eliminate income taxes
Conservatives complain the poor have too many benefits and then they turn around and complain veterans’ benefits should not be cut.
Its not a case of principles but defending your favorite constituency’s entitlement. Every one it seems, has one they want to keep. That’s why we can’t get a handle on runaway spending.
Keep off your hands my benefits - take away the other fellow’s. That’s an attitude that not going to make our current social safety net solvent for future generations and truly help those in need.
We need to have a debate on how much sacrifice is acceptable. When the bread and circuses come to an end, what happens to the stability of the country? And those most mad at Paul Ryan are not offering any alternatives on how they would reform the system that keeps Washington in the red year after year.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.
Military retirement is not about fairness, it is about retention.
Retention means you keep people who would otherwise go off and do their own thing, like making a career, earning their fortune—or not, and just being a civilian.
The military values and needs mid-rank officers and NCOs. If they cannot be retained then you wind up with a force that cannot make a good decision and you ultimately lose wars and wind up with a lot of people killed. How much does THAT cost the USA?
It’s insurance. Sure, you could save a lot of money by cancelling all your insurance policies, but what will you do when events occur (and they ALWAYS do)?
At some point, this will hurt the military—and our nation—as it will be much harder to retain those people they really need, and frankly, it is those people who are the primary reason why our nation’s military is number 1 in the world.
We can lose efficiency very, very quickly, too. All it takes is 5 percent a year drop in reenlistments and you’re back to late 1970’s era hollow military. A US military that, in measuring effectiveness in NATO exercises, for example, that ranks bellow Belgium and Denmark! I was in then. I remember at Fort Carson, Colorado (around 1978) they had a battalion of child molesters, rapists and other sociopaths that they were trying to rehab rather than let go because the Army couldn’t afford to lose any more NCOs.
It bothers me that in all the discourse on this issue no one—here or elsewhere—is looking at the costs from a retention standpoint.
They don't want to cut a thing and live in la-la land of violating the Accounting Equation with a Printing Press. Remember when who was it Hank Paulson under GWB wanted to buy Real T-Bills and not the funny money IOU's in SSI and he got heck for it? And how about GWB attempting real SSI reform and nothing was done and he got eviscerated for it. In the grand scheme of things he was right and it is what 8 years later and nothing has been done?
We all know SSI, M-care, M-caid are insolvent models, what they don't get it the Tea Party is in fact a screed for them to treat us like adults, sit down and have the conversation that changes are needed, they will hurt and they are too dysfunctional to do so....
Don't you think "import tariffs" are a form of welfare for businesses that otherwise would not be profitable? Such tariffs might make sense to punish other countries who are exploiting their people, for example. As a crutch to create employment opportunities at home I think this is a dangerous economic drug which will support an ever-growing addiction.
“Every American should be offended by the underhanded backroom deals and sacrificial treatment that our so-called representatives are deviously plotting against our veterans. They are in effect shooting them in the back. What kind of country treats its defenders and heros like this?”
Every American ought to be offended by a lot more than that.
“we as a country need to protect them and preserve their well-deserved benefits.”
We need to first protect Americans against an ever encroaching government (remember, the military is a part of that problem, too) so that prosperity can return to the country as a result of citizens enjoying their freedoms and ability to succeed or fail as a result of their own hard work and good or bad fortune.
Military benefits, and every other government activity is secondary to that. The Constitution says so.
If America is not vibrant, growing, and innovative, there is no money for benefits, or increased benefits for anyone, I don’t care who you are or why you think you deserve a government check.
If we have prosperity, private sector taxpayers can pay for it all.
If we don’t have private sector prosperity, we can only afford a small fraction of it - and everybody complains about everyone elses check.
“it is those people who are the primary reason why our nation’s military is number 1 in the world.”
No. It is freedom-loving Americans who prosper, pay a fair level of taxes that pay for everything that is the primary reason we can pay for a military that is number 1 in the world.
Want to get PO’ed?
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