Posted on 12/24/2013 6:25:34 AM PST by Zakeet
With veterans' groups fighting against cuts in military pensions, the Associated Press (AP) is out with a story suggesting that in light of active duty military pay, healthcare, and "quality of life" benefits, retiring military personnel should be able to the weather the cuts that Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) has pushed through.
According to the AP, "compensation" for active duty military "is competitive with the private sector."
They try to bolster this point by showing that "an Army private with fewer than two years of service and no dependents earns on average about $40,000 annually." Later in the paragraph they clarify that the $40,000 is not all salary--only two thirds of it is. The other third is food and housing allowance.
So these privates are only getting about $33,000 a year to go overseas and become targets for Al Qaeda and other terrorists groups, but it is still okay to cut their pensions?
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
There wouldn’t be a 14th amendment without people putting their lives on the line.
How many public union members are in that group? very darn few
It never could be trusted.
Ryan is a scumbag.
When I went into the USMC in 1966, it was more-or-less free of charge...an E-1 Private was paid less than 97 bucks a month.
Three points:
One - my sister-in-law gets a sickeningly fat retirement from the state of Minnesota as a retired state employee. No cuts there.
Two - there is so much Medicare fraud going on and that could easily pay for this supposedly necessary cut to military retirement. No action to stop the fraud.
Three - the budget deal affected Govt civil service employees, but only the new ones. Currently serving civilians had no such comparable retirement reduction. How is that fair? Oh, I forgot, the military doesn’t vote Dem (by and large).
Well said Diana.
The military better be ready to lead, regardless of the hardship. Someone has to, who better. and I’m one of them and have stated repeatedly that I’d better be ready to shoulder a forty percent cut in anything received from government and equal to how much the country is borrowing on an annual basis, or I’m not worth what I’m paid by the good citizens of this country digging deep for their active duty, retired, and veterans.
Then, while so engaged in that fight, step on, or drive over an IED device that literally blows your arms and/or legs off. Survive that horrific experience, and then come home to live the rest of your life with those disabilities...in a veteran's administration that looks for every way possible to deny you care and rehabilitation over the long term.
“Then have some pencil necked geeks in Washington DC tell them that they somehow “owe” it to the country to give up their cost of living adjustments to...while those same geeks earn $150,000+ dollars a year coming up with such ideas.
Only then will you be qualified to make such a suggestion...but then, having lived through that, they never would make such a suggestion in the first place on the backs of those who have already given so much.”
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Absolutely Correct and this has been going on for a long time. I turned 17 in basic training in 1960 and can remember being eligible for welfare at least once. I was told by some newly Ensign that if the Navy wanted me to have a wife and daughter they would have issued them to me. Staying in for 23 years was really tough.
Take a look at who is committing the fraud and it will provide a clue as to why little is being done.
Here in Tampa there is a company called Wellcare. They committed in the neighborhood of $300 million in fraud. They paid a fine of around $120 million but were allowed to stay in business.
Soros is one of their investors.
So do politicians.
“make enough money”
Great!
Now I’ll decide how much is “enough” for you!!!!
Communist Bastards!!!
Bill Clinton collected that Cold War Peace Dividend from the military back in the 90s. I want the government to collect The War On Poverty Peace Dividend now.
AP forgot to add, “and Merry Christmas!”
He knew all about these cut and did nothing to correct it and then tried to justify the inadvertent mistake that will be corrected in the future.
Hey he promised - oh wait did’nt the vets hear that before, never mind.
Back stabbing and lying before and now is still back stabbing and lying.
Exactly. The dum fock Ryan out there doubling down on his stupidity is maddening.
Me either. The best I will say is that they are National Socialist Democrat propagandists who deserve the fate of the Third Reich.
i made about $15k a year as a private if i remember right. i think congressional pay and benefits should BY LAW be equal to an E-1 private
AP numbers are bullshit. An E-1 makes $1,500 a month, or $18K in annual pay. E-1 w/o defendants live in the barracks and eat in the mess hall. Medical care in at the base clinic or hospital. So that is a take home pay of about $1,200 or less a month.
Not really sure what that has to do with cutting retiree pay. An E-7 with 20 years gets about $2,100 a month before taxes, or about $25,000 a year per tax. Not too bad, but being too young to also get SS, you can’t live off it.
And unlike welfare, there is no extra money for the kiddies.
I would not have a problem w/ this if everyone else in govt. took a cut too, including all social programs.
I would bet $$ to doughnuts that, unlike the COLAs for SS/Military/etc., there has never been any ‘tweaks’ DOWN in Congressional/Judicial/etc. ‘retirement’ pay.
Otherwise, you’re spot on. Gov’t’s word is not binding nor truthful (just ask those that live on the reservations).
Of course, if gov’t HAD followed the Constitution, your point re: being there would be moot.
If bullshit were bullion, this guy would walk on streets of gold. Pardon my language.
My teenage son with no dependents is on active duty, is a private, and takes home $1,200 a month, which by my math works out to $14,400 per year. He pays for his incidentals, paid for his dress uniform and had to pay for his plane ticket home for Christmas leave.
Paul Ryan is beneath contempt to me now.
Boy, with as much energy and digging as they put into this little load of bullshit, I’d love to see the same done for the hustlers and freeloaders.
How much does an illegal or baby mama make per year AP? Let’s include every slick nickel the taxpayers give them, should be an eye opening experiment.
What’s that you say? Shouldn’t compare the takers to those who sacrifice?
The point is this, those numbers include every nickel a military member could possibly be making. But as many servicemembers will tell you, not all get all the pay and allowances.
A retired E7 loses a large portion of this “salary” when they retire...base pay is the only pay that is calculated...then any VA disability and the offset if not higher than 50% or combat related (I think I have that right)...
Getting real tired of the gymnastics these bastards are going through to mischaracterize and misrepresent what the real situation is...
but it’s so typical of lying scum who would sell their mothers into prostitution if it made them a buck or helped in their climb up the ladder...
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