Military Benefits Proposed To Be Cut
 

Before our congress criminals cut military benefits, how about they cut their own benefits first.

When benefits are cut, and the all volunteer army gets no more volunteers, the draft will be re-instated. Might be the plan all along. But then I think that is really a good plan as personally I believe that every citizen should give something back to this Great Country.

I agree, before they cut military benefits, Congress would have to cut their bennies by the same percentage. As a matter of fact, we can do without a Congress but we cannot do without a military. Eliminate congress and increase military benefits.

Check This Out
 

Before more discussion on cutting veterans benefits, please go to the website amarillo.com and read the article about the illegal girl going to college there and the benefits she's getting. It's a real eye-opener, I think. It's high time we start taking care of our own and I don't mean the politicians and their families, starting at the top, right along with the families in other countries.

These service men and women have sacrificed, many ultimately, and now they're going to be required (not asked) to do more? I think not!

(I don't know how to post the link, so if someone else does, please do.)

Dillywho~ I think this is the link you are referring to...The young lady i n the article states that she won't have to worry about paying on student loans.
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/...ffers-benefits

I also found this article on the same website. It is a spot light on a young lady of academic achievement. I like her comment on staying focused and trusting that her hard work will pay off in the future. I wonder how many student loans she will be paying on...
http://amarillo.com/news/local-news/...emic-spotlight

I have also read recently that illegals have a hard time getting jobs after graduation because they are, well, illegal. What a waste of money....

Thanks
 

Thanks for posting the link. I need to learn how. "When all else fails, read directions", huh? (That's what my first ever supervisor told me.)

the current government does wholly follow the concept of taking care of their own....it is focused and limited to the 545 in Washington.

Those wagons are circled tight as can be and they do protect their own. They sorta are forced to do so, because if one of them gets taken to task it may well set a precedence that will affect another, hence not much is ever done about it/them and their actions.

btk

You're right....that's exactly who they take care of, right along with their favorite lobbyists (which this country was promised would go away). Remember, I said that I didn't mean politicians, etc. Maybe they're circling the wagons tighter and tighter because they are learning to read the writing on the wall. Not much is ever done because voters continue electing the same ones over and over expecting different results. (Sounds somewhat familiar to the definition of insanity, doesn't it?)

The 535
 

OK they are taking care of themselves, but understand that they serve their corporate masters, and the corporate masters no longer have a stake in seeing the middle class thrive in America.

Why?
Because they make the majority of their profits overseas.

The Dimensions Of The Problem
 

Just so we all understand the dimensions of what we're talking about here, the amount the government contributes to military retirement benefits has tripled since 2000. The pension contribution is now larger than the actual military payroll. The amount that the Pentagon contributes to fund military pensions is dramatically higher than similar funding by private sector employers. Pension contributions as a percentage of payroll by private companies was about 7% in 2010. In the same year, the Pentagon contributed 136% of it's actual payroll into retirement benefit funding. The contributions by the Pentagon to military retirement benefits is now about 1/7 of the entire military budget, and growing at a dramatic rate.

Do we have a problem with military pensions that needs to be addressed? You betcha'. Will the problem be politicized by the two political parties? You betcha'. Will anything actually be done to alleviate the problem? Almost certainly not.

Everybody wanted an all volunteer army so their little darlings would not get drafted. Don't complain now about your decisions. Bring back the Draft and pension money will go south.

A Well Reasoned Post on an Inflammatory Subject
 

VK, while I believe you are wrong on some of the details, you are right that benefit costs have spiraled out of control. This is not just a problem for military benefits, but all government benefits. It is going to take real courage on the part of our leaders to face this problem. To date they have not. In every election we have heard that the bad old meanies of the other party want to take away social security, Medicare, veteran’s benefits, civil servant retirement benefits, etc. This has been an effective campaign strategy but one that resulted in election by lying.

As you point out, private pension costs are a small fraction of payroll when compared to military pension costs. The same is true when you examine civil service pension costs. To come to grips with out problem we must do a series of things: (1) Put all new military and civil service personnel on a defined contribution rather than a defined benefit plan – the plan for the military needs to be richer because of the nature of the work involved; (2) Restrict access to VA health care to those actually injured in their service and have no other coverage available; we geezers get Medicare and those that were not injured can compete in the workforce like anyone else – this would allow us to close the VA health system; (3) Restrict cola increases for civil service and military retirees –my pension does not increase just because the cost of living goes up and neither should theirs; (4) Means test Medicare and charge more for those who make more; (5) Freeze all civil service pay until the average corresponds to the average pay in the private sector; (6) Bring civil Service benefits in line with private sector benefits (25 days vacation after one year of service! You have to be kidding); (7) Place elected and appointed personnel on the same retirement and benefit schedule as Civil Service employees.

IMHO, far too many will reply, “But that was promised to me!” The simple fact is that our mouths wrote checks that our bank accounts cannot cover. We can blame this on the rich, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Tea Party, the WSJ demonstrators, Bush, Obama, etc. It does not matter how we got here, the simple fact is we are here and must take an ax to ALL the benefit programs before they destroy us.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I was trying to say that those in charge (the politicians) need to take care of the people of this country that they are supposed to be serving....not themselves, not their lobbyists, not their corporate buddies, and/or everyone else on this planet while people in this country starve and worse. I just think it sucks that illegals are given what our own have to scrimp and save to maybe eventually have like this gal in the article is getting.

The only reason this latest push is about creating road/bridge jobs is because those jobs can't be shipped overseas. I still want to know what happened to the "promise" to bring jobs that had been shipped overseas back home? Campaign promises were the last word on the subject. Mum's the word since.

BBQMan,

You are really bashing the Federal retiree in your posting. First, the federal civil service retiree paid into the Civil Service Retirement System at a higher rate than Social Security. We do not collect Social Security benefits. Social Security benefits do increase with a cost of living adjustment based upon the Consumer Price Index - same as civil service pensions. So, you do get increases based on COLA. Secondly, Federal civil service pay was frozen for the past 2 years. Civil Service benefits are good. It is not 25 days of annual leave after 1 year, though. It is 13 days. The maximum you can earn is 26 days per year and that does not go into effect until after 15 years of service.

Federal employees and retirees pay for health insurance each and every month.

How can they pay when they receive taxpayers money? We the taxpayers pay.

A Classic Answer
 

B1 is the first to whine, "But this was promised to me." Yes, you paid more into the Civil Service Retirement System than you would have paid Social Security but are you trying to get by on $1300 per month? You did not pay three or four times as much as the person in private life, especially when you consider the matching employer contribution. Thirteen days is more than virtually any private company pays after one year. Did you bother to check schedule B that many federal employees receive? That is the schedule I used and my number is accurate. I pointed out that private pensions do not have a COLA adjustment. BTW, people on Medicare pay for health insurance each and every month as well.

How can it be any clearer? This country is facing bankruptcy because we have more unfunded liabilities than we can pay. These liabilities are promised benefits. Anyone who receives government benefits will have to take a cut if we are to survive, the greater the amount of the benefit, the greater the cut. Unfortunately, you will be joined by millions of other whiners crying, "Don't touch MY benefits - cut his. I'm more deserving." We will be Greece on a scale so large that no economic bailout will be possible.

BBQMan, how many overseas tours did you serve? How many times did you get sent on an unaccompanied tour? Being career military and career civil service are two different things, as is working in the civilian world, where if you don't really like what your boss tells you to do, you can quit and go someplace else. Don't work that way with Uncle Sam, once you sign on the dotted line, he owns for for the amount of time. Yes, I earned it and I want every penny coming to me.

If you can read, thank a teacher, if you can read anything you want, thank a vet.

You are certainly entitled to what you have worked hard for and earned. I agree that you SHOULD have every penny coming to you as long as the giver of that money has an ample supply coming to them...If the well is dry, soon no one can drink! Life isn't always fair, sad but true.....

Figmo, Katz got it right when she wrote, “Life isn’t always fair, sad but true…” You did serve your country and you are right that employment outside the service whether it be in private industry, the Civil Service or any other government position is different but like the service it is a job and you get paid.

My family has a tradition of service. My father served in WWI; my brother in WWII, Korea and Vietnam; I served in Vietnam: my elder son has done tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and is planning on making the Army a career and my younger son did his tour in Iraq. Nuff said.

Ben Franklin said it clearly, “We must hang together or we will most assuredly hang separately.” If everyone does not share in the sacrifice, we will ‘most assuredly hang separately’ as this country goes belly-up. Are you going to be a part of the solution or one of the whiners to continues to say, “take it from them but not me”?

As soon as the "career politicans" start sharing, then we can discuss the rest of us sharing. Until that time, no deal, no way, no how. Public service is NOT a career option as the "career pols" have made it out to be.

Figmo, I can agree with you on that. We need to get rid of the idea that politicians or employees of government agencies are 'serving their country.' They are no more serving their country than anyone in private industry whether it be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a kid flipping burgers at BK. They are doing a job and getting paid for it.