Free Republic

The bottom line is that Congress didn’t achieve for military families what was gained for other American families, at least on adult dependent coverage, through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The armed services committees rejected adding young adult coverage as just another subsidized feature of the Tricare benefit. Doing so would have added $300 million a year to the burgeoning cost of military health care. In debating national health reform in 2009, opponents had argued that a superior Tricare program should not be impacted in any way. Only later was it noted that military families were left behind...

Recently, retired military have received e-mail messages notifying them of a withholding tax increase. The email states: NO ANNUAL COST OF LIVING ADJUSTMENT (COLA) WILL BE ADDED TO MILITARY RETIRED PAY IN 2010. DUE TO RECENT LEGISLATION YOUR FEDERAL WITHHOLDING TAX HAS CHANGED. After much investigating and several discussions with the IRS, it appears the Democrats have played a “cash-flow trick” on working Americans and are taking more out of American’s paychecks across the board–all the while touting the Making Work Pay tax credit. The trick, when looking at the new withholding tax tables for 2010 as compared to post-stimulus...

Author’s note: On May 24th, the start of the Memorial Day weekend, I sent the protest reproduced below to the Pulitzer Prize Committee. If Boycott NYT readers also find this award outrageous, the Dean of the Columbia School of Journalism is Nicholas Lemann (lemann@columbia.edu). The address: Columbia School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, NY, NY 10027. My journalistic colleagues (and there really are some good ones though most are even older than me!) characterize the Pulitzer Committee as “stubborn as mules and dumber than rocks.” The reason: the committee never acknowledges a mistake or rescinds an award, no matter how egregious...

Retired military analysts are reacting with outrage that the Pulitzer committee awarded one of its prestigious prizes for a story discredited by an independent investigation, special correspondent Rowan Scarborough reports.

I really have a great amount of pity for those millions of poor souls who have such undying faith in the promises made by any politician, particularly those who hold nationaloffices. Those who swallow this “Alice in Wonderland” rhetoric will suffer the deepest cuts of all when they step back through the looking glass and view reality for the first time. Perhaps the best available example of the “Promises Made-Promises Kept” lie can be found when viewing the health care provided for career military retirees. Those who enlisted in the armed forces from World War II through the Korean War...

RETIRED PAY TO BE RESTORED FOR UP TO 200,000 DISABLED Congress and the Bush administration have agreed to a $22.1 billion deal over 10 years that will pare back dramatically a century-old ban on ``concurrent receipt'' of both military retired pay and tax-free disability compensation for injuries or illnesses traced to time in service. Up to 200,000 disabled retirees with 20 or more years of service, including reserve and National Guard annuitants, will see their incomes rise, for many by hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month. The deal, expected to be passed as part of the 2004 defense...

Issue 1    Defense Bill May be Done This Month.House and Senate Armed Services Committee leaders have been having flurries of meetings in their efforts to resolve the many differences between the versions of the FY2003 Defense Authorization Bill passed by their respective chambers. Senate leaders announced that their goal was to complete action by September 20.  Other observers think that may prove optimistic, but agree that action likely will be completed before the end of the month or perhaps early in October.The main thing is that Committee leaders appear determined not to let action on their bill drag into a post-election...