I already got mine, Suckers!
Posted on 10/19/2011 7:48:47 AM PDT by OldGoatCPO
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top lawmakers on the Senate's defense panel on Friday recommended that a special committee searching for ways to slash the deficit consider some of President Barack Obama's proposed changes to health and retirement benefits for the military. In separate letters to the bipartisan panel, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., signaled they were open to cost-saving steps in military benefits, recommendations that have already attracted fierce opposition from powerful groups of retired officers and veterans resistant to change. The Pentagon's health care costs have skyrocketed from $19 billion in 2001 to $53 billion, but lawmakers and various groups argue that members of the military and their families sacrifice far more than the average American, with a career that includes long and dangerous deployments overseas that overshadow civilian work. Health and retirement benefits help attract service members to the all-volunteer force. Levin and McCain said they would support establishing an annual enrollment fee for TRICARE for Life, the health care program that has no fee for participation. Obama had proposed an initial annual fee of $200.........
(Excerpt) Read more at theledger.com ...
These people are fools. Do they not believe that health care will increase when we send our people off to war? We have an obligation to take care of these people and their families, regardless of the costs.
Just change the military retirement to the same thing Congress gets.
My late husband was a retired officer from the USMC. I have Tricare For Life. It is my supplemental insurance to Medicare.
Starting January 1, 2012, Walgreen’s Pharmacy will no longer take Medicare/Tricare insurance for prescriptions. Why? Because they do not get reimbursed by the Government, and it is no longer profitable for them to do so.
So, I now must find another pharmacy that WILL take Tricare - or order my prescriptions online.
This is just the beginning, folks.
I have a neighbor (woman) who has been nothing but a drunk and drug addict all her life, in and out of jail for theft, possession, etc. Well, now she has cancer that is currently in remission. Her SSD claim just came through with a lump sum retroactive payment of 27 grand. She will also get 1200 dollars a month for the rest of her life.
While the hell bother working for a living?
You see stuff like this going to useless dregs, then you see these scumbag politicians talking about hosing the military with benefit cuts.
McCain and LEVIN. Says it all.
But let anyone even mention cutting UNION benes and we get riots.
Congress should get the same pay that the military get ... after all, they are “serving” their country. And there should be no after office benefits for Congress.
Join the military! See the world! Meet strange and interesting people who hate you and your country! Kill them before they kill you.
But wait, there’s more
When you are too old to shoot straight and your hearing’s gone from jet noise, you get a 401K! And an annual enrollment fee for healthcare-set at the whim of Congress!
I would like to add something about spouses’ benefits.
I have many friends with either a BA or a BS who are army wives. Every three years or so, they relocate with their mates to where ever the army sends them.
Most of them spend about 6 months to a year trying to get an entry-level job in their career. They work that job for two years, then have to quit to relocate for the army.
Over and over again, these women disrupt their careers. many times they can’t find a job in their field and have to take whatever comes along.
They never get the opportunity to establish themselves long-term with a company. They never get the opportunity to earn retirement benefits for themselves. Because they’re stuck with entry-level positions for the two decades that are their prime earning years, they never get an opportunity to work their way up.
Add to that the fact that military life is very stressful on a spouse. Keeping the family united and sane without ANY local support is difficult.
For the most part, we don’t complain. We signed up for it and we endure.
Slashing away at our insurance after we’ve give so much and had our own opportunities hobbled for twenty plus years is horrible.
So, I now must find another pharmacy that WILL take Tricare - or order my prescriptions online.
You can also use ExpressScripts and have them mailed. I use Rite-Aid but just signed up for ExpressScripts and will get a 90 day supply for the price of 30 days @ Rite-Aid
How he got re- elected I'll never know.
More moronic words from a member of the most useless profession in the modern world, elected offical who do nothing, solve nothing, steal from the tax payers, enact special rules for themselves and think themselve above laws that they enact for the same people they are sent to represent.
I already got mine, Suckers!
Lamh Foistenach Abu!
Changing the benifits for retired military personnel would help fund the government debt for about 10 seconds, great idea McNut.
Has anyone ever seen McNut walk and chew gum at the same time?
I know of quite a few people similar to that. Some are healthy, strapping young adults but they are getting SSI and totally free medical because of drugs, alcohol, overeating, ADD or some such nonsense.
These people know how to game the system and know all the lawyers who don't mind working to get them undeserved freebies.
Meanwhile, we hear how people like our parents and grandparents who have paid into Social Security their whole lives are going to have to do with less because they are costing too much.
I say get the government needs to get the bums, moochers and illegals off the Handout Train before they look at cutting medical or retiremenmt for the military or cutting Social Security or Medicare for people who have actually paid into the system.
You just can't change a leopard's spots, can you. Attacking the military first is so....how can I put this, so Dem-like.
Does he attack Barney Frank and the 2008 meltdown? No. Does he attack Fast and Furious and the border issues? No. Does he attack Obamacare? No. Does he attack the EPA or the DOE? No. Does he attack the cronyism of Solyndra? No. Does he attack the Federal Reserve? No. Does he attack the international incompetance? No. Does he attack the National Debt? No. Does he attack job losses? No.
No, like a slimy leftist, he goes after the proud and the brave. McCain is, and always was, a turn-coat slime-ball Democrat.
McCain’s military retirement plan:
Divorce wife and marry rich woman.
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