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I must be missing something. Military retirment pay and veterans' disability compensation should both be generous, and a person eligible for both should get more money than a person only getting one, but why should anyone get full benefits under both programs at once? Most of us are both Patriots and Taxpayers here at FreeRepublic. I guess I should go back to work.

What if you put in your 20 years at the Ulcer Factory in your town? You had retirement benifits earned with a potential to work another 20-30 years but an injury disabled you at 20 years to where you could not work those remaining 20-30 years either at the Ulcer Factory or the Heartburn plant across the road. Now do you think it is right for your pay to stop and for you be told to live on the 20 year retirement pay at the Ulcer Plant? Especially when you had the potential to earn 20-30 years more wages there or elsewhere? That's what this is about. Military Retirement like any other retirement is a condition of employment.

Disability payments are not retirement benifits but disability benifits. It's not double dipping by any means. They like you have paid for their Socical Security dues and disability coverage in case this unfortunate event should occur.

You should not compare the veteran's disability payments to private sector disability insurance because in almost any private sector disability plan benefits would cut off completely after only two years if the person could hold any job. The VA plan sounds alot closer to Worker's Compensation, which is no picnic because employers actually fight claims.

You said: Now do you think it is right for your pay to stop and for you be told to live on the 20 year retirement pay at the Ulcer Plant? Especially when you had the potential to earn 20-30 years more wages there or elsewhere? That's what this is about

Even if the 60% limitation were put in place, that does not mean that a vet eligible for both retirment and disability benefits will not also find good work. If this was really just about vets who can no longer work then Congress then I would agree with you. Congress should write a bill that fixes that problem rather than throwing together two programs that were specifically designed to have an offset.

First I am not a disabled Vet and don't know all the details of this story but I can tell you about mine. I am disabled and get SSA and private insurance. I worked for the State of Arizona before getting ill. I paid into SSA, a retirement plan, and half the cost of long term Disablity insurance. They offset my private insurance by 64% of my SSA amount. So instead of getting $1366 from my insurance I get $811. Plus I get the joy of paying taxes on half of my insurance payment.(I pay taxes on some of my SSA benefits too, but that is a different story) So this offset isn't just happening Vets. I don't mind it as I feel I being treated fair. The only thing I don't like is paying taxes on any of my SSA.

BTW: This is zanarchist, Marajade's husband. I don't dare log her out so I can log in until I figure out how to log her back in after I post.