I agree with you except on departmental cuts. I don’t see why the myriad of programs that are clearly noncritical (Department of Education, Peace Corps, Job Corps, etc.) are not eliminated first. How much exactly does Tricare for retirees cost? How much do they expect to save by adjusting it.
True and I agree with you. However, there are some on FR who believe that we veterans think we’re “special”, “elite”, “nobility”, etc. because of our service and the deferred compensation we receive. That we believe our compensation to be “sacrosanct” above all else and that we shouldn’t bear any of the burden.
So, I mentioned accepting a cut only as long as everything else was cut as well, not just the military. As a conservative who believes that we should all be in this together. I don’t think that I should be exempt from accepting some of the pain as long as the gov’t spending is cut across the board in order to get our financial house in order.
But it won’t happen. It will be done on the back of DoD.
As far as the TriCare savings, it’s purported to be in the $20-$30B range. An amount that could easily be gathered up by eliminating the programs you mentioned and many others.
It's really simple: Obama and the Democrats.
The same reason why illegals will continue to get fat Social Security and welfare checks (along with their Food Stamp debit cards, now called SNAP cards).
Veterans and the military are (mostly) their political enemies. Democrats are still smarting over military votes making the difference for GW Bush in the Presidential election of 2000.
By the way, thanks for the sacrifices your family made with all those military moves. We know that drill: bad schools, trying to sell or repair houses when the spouse is deployed or training, and everything else.
Also, today's PCS moves are painful - the military is not paying moving companies enough, so they are balking at supporting PCS moves. If you show up, with orders in hand to your local Joint Personal Property Shipping Office, expect to get hate stares, a hassle, a verbal dressing down, a paperwork nightmare, and then someone telling you that you should have showed up 2 months prior to getting your orders (which you can't legally do) because they are so far behind it will be months before they can move you.