House votes to restore military pensions

CNN ^ | 11 Feb 14 | Jennifer Liberto and Deirdre Walsh

[SkyPilot]

The House on Tuesday passed a bill to restore pension increases for some 750,000 military retirees.

The House voted 326 to 90 to undo cuts to cost-of-living hikes for military pensions for all current retirees and anyone who enlisted before Jan. 1. The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday.

[SkyPilot]

Related action in the Senate:

Senate to consider bill to cancel reductions to military retirement pay

[VanDeKoik]

It will take more than this to wash out the taste of that debt ceiling increase.

[SkyPilot]

Ping.

Jet - can you ping the list? Thanks buddy.

[chiefqc]

Back stabbing “intervertant mistake” ryan is greatly saddened.

[SkyPilot]

It doesn't look like a done deal. Far from it.

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.

[Popman]

I wonder if Obama will veto it...

If he did, nothing would shock me anymore

[DJ Taylor]

Veterans have known for decades that Democrats in Congress didn’t represent us, but when Republicans passed Paul Ryan’s Budget cutting military retirement benefits, we learned that veterans aren’t represented by either party.

[SkyPilot]

Amen.

[SkyPilot]

The political winds on this are shifting by the hour......too early to tell if the Senate Republicans will go along and vote for the House bill, but this story was just posted a half hour ago.

Senate Dems warm to House pension fix

_______________________________________________________________

The Senate is likely to embrace a House-passed bill to restore cuts to military pensions that at first received a tepid reaction in the upper chamber, senior Democratic aides said Tuesday evening. Senate Democrats balked earlier in the day at the prospect of having to find a funding offset for their a plan to undo a cut to pension cost-of-living adjustments for military retirees. But as a snowstorm bears down on Washington and Congress prepares for a long Presidents Day recess, Democrats are warming to the House’s pension plan, which would offset its $7 billion cost by extending for a year the impact of sequestration on mandatory Medicare spending.

The Senate could vote on the House-passed bill as soon as Wednesday. “There is support among a number of Senate Democrats to take up and pass the House-passed COLA fix as soon as tomorrow,” a senior Democratic aide said Tuesday evening. “With no other passable options on the horizon, there is a realization that veterans shouldn’t be asked to wait any longer and an expectation that bipartisan support should coalesce in the coming hours.”

[Rider on the Rain]

I want to know who those 90 bastards are.

[Jet Jaguar]

Active Duty/Retiree ping.

[CharlesWayneCT]

He could veto it, and then sign an executive order to fix it, and then complain about how he has to do everything himself.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks SkyPilot.

[Sola Veritas]

“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.

[Skybird]

The measure was added to the bill S-25 and voted in the House.

The 90 “NO” votes against restoring the CoLA to all military retirees were (note that Paul (RINO) Ryan votes to twist the knife one more time):

Barton
Bass
Becerra
Blumenauer
Brady (PA)
Cartwright
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Clyburn
Collins (GA)
Conyers
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeGette
DeLauro
DesJarlais
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Fattah
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Grayson
Grijalva
Hahn
Hanabusa
Heck (NV)
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Huelskamp
Huffman
Jeffries
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
Kelly (IL)
Kinzinger (IL)
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Luján, Ben Ray (NM)
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meehan
Meeks
Meng
Miller, George
Moran
Mulvaney
Nadler
Napolitano
Negrete McLeod
Nugent
Pallone
Payne
Pelosi
Pocan
Ribble
Rokita
Roybal-Allard
Ryan (WI)
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanford
Schakowsky
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Schweikert
Serrano
Shimkus
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stutzman
Thompson (CA)
Tonko
Velázquez
Visclosky
Waters
Waxman
Wilson (FL)
Wolf

[Rider on the Rain]

Thanks, Skybird.

[RetiredArmy]

90 hard core socialist, communist, DIMOCRATS voted against it. It okay that we bled and died to keep these pukes free, but screw us for doing all that. They are COWARDS. They want to live free here and do what they want. They cannot do it in Moscow or Pee-king. They cannot be real communist. They want to be free, Amerikan communists. Free to live the good, full, high paying, government paying, government pension paid, full medical care. Couldn’t get that in Moscow. The Russian Mafia would not pay them that way in Moscow. These dimocrat cowards want it free from the tax payers of Amerika. Stinking cowards. Puking cowards. Low-life coward dimocrats living the high life off the backs of hard working, getting screwed into the ground, FORMER middle class Americans. Screw those who spilled their blood for the past 200 years giving them this gravy train to live off of. Like ole dead Ted Kennedy. Never had a job. Never sweated one day, except running away from the car crash. Nope. Sat on his fat, drunk, @$$, collecting tax payer money for free. But screw those who put on the combat kit and went into harms way to defend the flag. My distaste for dimocrats is only out weighted by my distaste for dimocrats.

[SkyPilot]

Amen to your comments.

The Senate just voted to repeal the cuts by a margin of 95-3. That is amazing for the Senate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/12/us-usa-military-cuts-idUSBREA1B26A20140212

In the House, Paul Ryan voted to keep the pension cuts. Remember, this was our Vice Presidential candidate just a few months ago!

Paul Ryan’s military pay gambit backfires

I think Paul Ryan is finished as a national candidate, and he should know it. If he doesn't, he will.

[RetiredArmy]

RINO pig will never, ever, under any circumstances get my vote for anything. Not even dog catcher. I would not lower the hard working position of catcher with his lousy name. Stinking bum can go over to his beloved dimocrats.