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Under debt deal, military pay, veterans programs in play for cuts
Government Executive ^ | 3 Aug 2011 | Bob Brewin

Posted on 08/04/2011 11:09:31 AM PDT by SkyPilot

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To: RC2

They had better include the benefits for ALL elected officials including the Ahole in chief. In fact he shouldn’t be allowed to collected any pension until he reaches normal retirement age like the rest of us.


41 posted on 08/04/2011 4:42:10 PM PDT by Always Independent
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To: vette6387
I love and respect our military personnel as much as anyone...

...To my mind, they are just another classification of “government employee...

Oh, OK.

42 posted on 08/04/2011 5:31:32 PM PDT by PalmettoMason (Blacks are not inferior, but it is racist to hold them to the same standards as everyone else.)
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To: SZonian
"Conscription or mandatory 2 years like the Israelis."

Yay. Let's join the Romney and Burr boys up ASAP. Does Charlie Schumer have any sons?

43 posted on 08/04/2011 5:32:58 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: SZonian
"Conscription or mandatory 2 years like the Israelis."

Yay. Let's join the Romney and Burr boys up ASAP. Does Charlie Schumer have any sons?

44 posted on 08/04/2011 5:33:13 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: SZonian
"Conscription or mandatory 2 years like the Israelis."

Yay. Let's join the Romney and Burr boys up ASAP. Does Charlie Schumer have any sons?

45 posted on 08/04/2011 5:33:17 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: BlatherNaut

It’s the first time I saw it phrased that way, “living like a gypsy”; very well put and accurate as well. For me, that was the largest drawback of military service I think. I think the costs of scores of moves over twenty plus years is underrated. Of course, for those that enjoy the travel, it is an advantage I suppose.


46 posted on 08/04/2011 5:37:09 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: SZonian

I agree with you except on departmental cuts. I don’t see why the myriad of programs that are clearly noncritical (Department of Education, Peace Corps, Job Corps, etc.) are not eliminated first. How much exactly does Tricare for retirees cost? How much do they expect to save by adjusting it.


47 posted on 08/04/2011 5:44:03 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: SkyPilot
They could give a rat's a$$ about veterans.

I don't disagree, I was promised free health care for life when I enlisted in 1954.

The point I was making is medicare is being ravaged to expand medicaid, just like Social Security has been ravaged by SSI. Service to country is no longer a plus, whether military or as a taxpayer.

When we have people on death row getting heart transplants, and sex change on the horizon, we have officially lost our collective sanity.

48 posted on 08/04/2011 5:58:42 PM PDT by itsahoot (--I will still vote for Sarah Palin, even if I have to write her in.--No more traitors.)
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To: SkyPilot

I think this will cause MANY things you mention in your post to come under review. The retiree tricare savings are supposedly 4B over ten years. Pell Grants this year are over 20B. Pell Grants versus retiree cuts I suspect will be a losing cause for Pell Grants.


49 posted on 08/04/2011 6:03:37 PM PDT by MSF BU (YR'S Please Support our troops: JOIN THEM!)
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To: SkyPilot
I never thought I would see that day.

Let's see.... active military tend to vote Republican. Maybe the vets as well.

Same thing seemed to happen to the car dealers.

Do you remember this video?

DEAR MR OBAMA.

50 posted on 08/04/2011 7:12:04 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: itsahoot
we have officially lost our collective sanity.

Ideological Subversion. Yuri Bezmenov.

51 posted on 08/04/2011 7:15:58 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: MSF BU

True and I agree with you. However, there are some on FR who believe that we veterans think we’re “special”, “elite”, “nobility”, etc. because of our service and the deferred compensation we receive. That we believe our compensation to be “sacrosanct” above all else and that we shouldn’t bear any of the burden.

So, I mentioned accepting a cut only as long as everything else was cut as well, not just the military. As a conservative who believes that we should all be in this together. I don’t think that I should be exempt from accepting some of the pain as long as the gov’t spending is cut across the board in order to get our financial house in order.

But it won’t happen. It will be done on the back of DoD.

As far as the TriCare savings, it’s purported to be in the $20-$30B range. An amount that could easily be gathered up by eliminating the programs you mentioned and many others.


52 posted on 08/04/2011 7:25:59 PM PDT by SZonian (July 27, 2010. Life begins anew.)
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To: vette6387
Now, let the rock throwing begin!

Then you want to reply to me by FReepmail?

Weak.

To my mind, they are just another classification of “government employee,” and need to be brought into the solution process along with the rest of those in government service.

Guess what "the rest of those in government service" have that the military doesn't?

UNION representation, for the most part. Even those clowns at the TSA are protected by a union (or soon will be).

As for your reply to me by FReepmail, in my first post to you I was simply pointing out the inconsistency in these two statements in your post:

I love and respect our military personnel as much as anyone...

To my mind, they are just another classification of “government employee...

I'm rally disappointed to know that some of my fellow citizens think that way.

Enjoy your day.

53 posted on 08/05/2011 3:28:53 AM PDT by PalmettoMason (Blacks are not inferior, but it is racist to hold them to the same standards as everyone else.)
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To: PalmettoMason

rally= really.


54 posted on 08/05/2011 3:32:00 AM PDT by PalmettoMason (Blacks are not inferior, but it is racist to hold them to the same standards as everyone else.)
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To: MSF BU
I don’t see why the myriad of programs that are clearly noncritical (Department of Education, Peace Corps, Job Corps, etc.) are not eliminated first.

It's really simple: Obama and the Democrats.

The same reason why illegals will continue to get fat Social Security and welfare checks (along with their Food Stamp debit cards, now called SNAP cards).

Veterans and the military are (mostly) their political enemies. Democrats are still smarting over military votes making the difference for GW Bush in the Presidential election of 2000.

By the way, thanks for the sacrifices your family made with all those military moves. We know that drill: bad schools, trying to sell or repair houses when the spouse is deployed or training, and everything else.

Also, today's PCS moves are painful - the military is not paying moving companies enough, so they are balking at supporting PCS moves. If you show up, with orders in hand to your local Joint Personal Property Shipping Office, expect to get hate stares, a hassle, a verbal dressing down, a paperwork nightmare, and then someone telling you that you should have showed up 2 months prior to getting your orders (which you can't legally do) because they are so far behind it will be months before they can move you.

55 posted on 08/05/2011 3:41:36 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: SZonian
So, I mentioned accepting a cut only as long as everything else was cut as well, not just the military.

I agree, but that won't happen, and it didn't happen just now. The debt deal didn't touch entitlements, and that is the way Harry Reid, Pelosi, and Obama wanted it. The GOP tried (I guess), but it was never going to happen. Again, those who earned their benefits get screwed - those who broke our laws to get here, and those who are just plain lazy, get protected by the Democrats.

As far as the TriCare savings, it’s purported to be in the $20-$30B range.

I heard the same. Everyone keep this in mind: last August, when Congress was not even in session, Nancy Pelosi called everyone back for a single vote, on a single afternoon, that gave away over $40 Billion dollars away in Federal money to state teachers unions and other state workers (as political payoff prior to the fall elections).

56 posted on 08/05/2011 3:45:34 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: SkyPilot

“It’s really simple: Obama and the Democrats.”

And what was Dubya doing from 02-06? He and the GOP controlled both houses of Congress as well as the Presidency.


57 posted on 08/05/2011 5:14:22 AM PDT by KantianBurke
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To: SkyPilot

The commercial I recall of the Vet returning home to an empty
baggage claim—and empty streets—until a veteran reached out and welcomed home a veteran reflects what many of my generation felt. We flew into a civilian airport in NC. (The
Military airfeild was closed for some reason) It was snowing and the pilot (again for some reason) did not park at the
terminal but on the hardpan. We deplaned and ran through the snow past a group of anti-War types who called us every name you could imagine and some did spit-and some did toss garbage at us. Inside we changed from our summer dress kaki or greens into civilian cloths as quickly as possible. It took many years for veterans to erect that long black wall in D.C. While attempting to be a good college boy — I walked out on a class in 3rd yr. English when the instructor
who admitted he had protested during the War. said to the class “the Vietnam War didn’t mean Nuthin’ —because we lost.” of about ten “Nam Vets eight of us walked out. My feeling was we Never lost on the battlefields -but we did lose on the college campus and in Washington. I ‘ve had to fight the Govt. more after my discharge than I ever dreamed
I would while I served. But that’s just the way it is.
Welcome Home —And I do thank you for your service.


58 posted on 08/05/2011 6:12:15 AM PDT by StonyBurk (ring)
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To: vette6387

So........those SEALs that died today in Afghanistan were just another form of “government employee”??? Seriously??? Do you realize how many of the military are on their 3rd, 4th, and 5th tours of the war zones right now??? Risking it all for their country? Don’t see too many government employees putting their #$$ on the line in that way. You don’t get paid for what you do, you get paid for what you may have to do. Don’t forget that.


59 posted on 08/06/2011 10:09:48 AM PDT by sandboxshooter (Iraq, Afghanistan, War)
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