Military retirees: You betrayed us, Congress

cnnmoney.com ^ | 12/13/13 | Jennifer Liberto

[VerySadAmerican]

So, they really DID write a strongly worded letter.

[castlegreyskull]

“Obama will never bail out the military. They don’t vote the right way.”

They put all of their absentee ballots on a single plane and crashed it.

[Future Snake Eater]

Congress: Yeah, so? What’re you going to do about it?

[RetiredArmy]

No. I knew many who voted for Ronald Reagan in the day. Back in the 1970s and 1980s and early 90s, nearly every GI that I knew voted for Republicans. Because Republicans were supportive of the military. The Dims were back from WWII until the anti-Vietnam war crap started in the 1960s and into the 1970s. But, I voted for my local congress rep back in the early 1970s, he was a dim, but a solid, conservative, PRO military democrat. He has his name on the local reserve center here because of how strong he was for the military. He is the last dim I voted for and that was way back early 1970s.

After the dims went socialist, I was not even considering them. My family was always dims. Most all Alabama was in those days. Not until the dims went commie did Alabama go republican. Now every big state office is republican, control the state house and senate. The state is controlled by republicans.

But, I knew many, many blacks who voted for the republicans because republicans were so supportive of military and our families. When Obama came along, retired black military and active duty blacks went for Obama because he was black. I knew black retirees who were for him because, simply he was a bro. That was it. They did not know crap about the guy. Could not tell you a danged thing about him. Not where he came from, what he was for or against, nothing. Just because he was black. That was it.

[Revel]

The US military needs to think “Egypt”.

[Aurorales]

“My mother had it, and it sure didn’t seem made up to me”
______________________________________

I hope you weren’t being sarcastic with the best wishes for my family.

Anyway, I didn’t say “SOME” people weren’t suffering. I said they are misdiagnosed.
Which is sad because if the correct diagnosis was made, they very well would find relief.

I stand by my statement: fibromyalgia is a made up disease.
It is used by fakers to get disability, sympathy, or drugs.
Or it is used by doctors to write off whiney patients or an easy escape diagnosis for people coming to them with real pain.

[aomagrat]

Just what did the republicans get in return for throwing the military under the bus?

[cherry]

if I see another bammey sticker when I'm on the base or see a "vet for bammey" sticker I'm going to throw up right then and there....

however, guys in WW2 didn't do it for the pension....lets remember that.....

[sergeantdave]

“The stat was only 2% of Americans adults have served any time in the military.”

FYI. Here’s the numbers and a link:

In U.S., 24% of Men, 2% of Women Are Veterans

http://www.gallup.com/poll/158729/men-women-veterans.aspx

[Jet Jaguar]

Active Duty/Retiree ping.

[RFEngineer]

“he was promised”

I’m sympathetic to anyone who thought they were going to get something and it didn’t turn out to be the same deal they thought they were going to get. I’ve been there and done that.

There isn’t enough money to pay everybody everything they were promised by someone in government laying claim to someone elses future productive work.

There IS a superseding promise in our Constitution that limits the governments ability to take other peoples hard work and give it to someone else.

If you are counting on government promises, you’re likely to land somewhat short of those expectations - no matter who you are or why you were promised something by the government.

Another way to put it is that government promises do not amount to anything - especially when government must extract the fruits of anothers labor in confiscatory proportions to fulfill such a promise.

Government doesn’t just betray our military - active and retired, but it betrays those who actually must pay for it all - at great peril to their own retirement and well being.

There aren’t enough of us to pay for everything - and at this point there is a good chance that all those “promises” of some future benefit - military or otherwise - will in fact amount to nothing in the future.

[Alas Babylon!]

Good advice.

Computer careers and anything medical are also good options for young troops. Motor pool mechanic, Jet/helicopter repair...

[xzins]

I agree. PCS moves cost a fortune.

But, can you imagine the lobbies that have sprung up to defend that: trucking, shipping, real estate, etc.

[Osage Orange]

They been getting screwed since the “Bonus Army”

[House Atreides]

“...May the name “Paul Ryan” be forever associated with shame. If he (or any Republican that votes for this travesty) attends ANY ceremony on Veterans or Memorial Day, may they be booed off the stage....”
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Paul Ryan sold out the military to the liberals/progressives, PERIOD. He might as well have been saying “Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, if you like your COLAs you can keep them, period.” all along and it wouldn’t have been a bigger betrayal.

[House Atreides]

“...The article says 1%. I believe they must mean 1 percentage point? The article also says it would cost the average retiring E7 about $3700 a year. That must have been one hell of a COLA....”
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That would be a 1% reduction per year, 1% the next year and so forth. I guess you’ve never heard of compound interest? It’s like that, only in reverse.

[xzins]

I read Ryan’s write-up on retirees. It is stunning deception.

His argument is that retiree benefits have disproportionately grown over the last decade or so.

Pure deception...he knows that the Bush era recognized that the military lagged behind comparable civilian jobs and began a program to increase pay. As pay was increased for a while at 2 times COLA and at others at COLA, OF COURSE, it increased faster than other parts of the federal system.

And, since retirement pay is connected to base pay, retirement pay increased.

PURE sleight of hand and deception.

[csmusaret]

1.If a COLA is, let’s say, 2% of base pay then 1% of that is chump change.

2.The example given was $3700 a year. Again; if the COLA was 2% that means base pay was $185,000

3.It appears you don’t understand the difference between a percent and a percentage point either.

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks for the ping, JJ! I am neither active duty or retired - just a four year vet.

My dad was a career officer in the Navy - a Mustang. He enlisted before his 18th birthday in 1945, a little too late to get into combat. He went to college under the GI bill and was called back as a Radioman 3/C in 1950, served on the USS Borie - DD-704 - in the waters off Korea. The Borie was involved in the Hungnam Evacuation in December of 1950 after the "Frozen Chosin."

He earned a commission in the MSC by examination and served until 1969 when he retired. He was boots on the ground in 'Nam - 1964. During most of his career, we barely scraped by - salaries in the Military were low at the time.

He, like millions of others, served faithfully, zealously and professionally for the best years of his life, when he could have made considerably more money in private industry.

This move in Congress is nothing short of despicable and is a sharp stick in the eye to anyone who has ever worn the uniform. Not everyone who serves in the military goes into combat, but every one of us who joined up wrote a blank check to Uncle Sam secured by our lives.

As Oliver Wendall Holmes said in his poem "Old Ironsides,"

"The Harpies of the shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea!"

America demands Justice for the Fallen of Benghazi!

O stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their command.

Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)

[RedEyeJack]

The second and third order effects of this action have not been considered. Studies have shown that the retirement system serves to keep active duty personnel in the service when they reach the 10-15 year mark. Otherwise, the drain on talent, particularly technical skills, would be significant. The military is not a career that you can recruit people for at mid-career. You have to grow them and invest in them to develop the right mix of talent and maturity in a given cohort. If they walk replacing them takes a long time and that is dangerous for force effectiveness. Tampering with the effectiveness of the experienced officers and senior enlisted, who have been screened and found capable of greater authority and responsibility, is a road to future defeat. Third order effect will be to require higher and higher re-enlistment and continuation bonuses.

Additionally, if and when the economy improves, the ability to retain and recruit will be negatively effected. Reduced benefits will intensify the problem. Retention and recruitment have been easy, despite the danger during the last decade of serving in wartime, because the economy has been bad. Finding high quality in a vigorous economy will cost much more than we are paying now. Accepting lower quality will undermine the combat capability of the force and push us toward becoming the “hollow force” of the Carter years.

The current system, including the retirement benefits has PROVEN successful. It ain't broke... It doesn't need to be fixed... Using it to fix other economic, social, and political problems is a mistake UNLESS this is a burden that is equally shared across the public sector... Let's “spread the wealth around” and apply the same policy to all government retirement programs including those for civil servants, congressmen and senators, and all other elected and appointed officials including Presidents. That might make the additional (shared) sacrifice less onerous to past and future military retirees.