Senators fight cuts to veteran benefits ahead of key budget test vote

AP and Fox News ^ | 17 Dec 13 | AP Staff

[SkyPilot]

Republican senators were making a last-ditch bid to undo cuts to military retiree benefits in the House-passed budget deal ahead of a crucial vote Tuesday morning in the Senate.

Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions filed an amendment late Monday to restore money that was cut from veteran and military retiree pension benefits by closing a loophole that allows illegal immigrants to qualify for child tax credits.

[Abiotic]

Start with welfare to Israel. Congress TRIPLED aid to them over what Obama and the State Department requested, whilst slashing the Veterans’ benefits.

http://www.jta.org/2013/12/12/news-opinion/united-states/house-energy-committee-approves-cooperation-bill

[maica]

Define “slash”

I thought conservatives were supposed to be for reduction in spending across the board. As soon as a ‘cut’, aka reduction in future rate of spending - which can be changed at a moment’s notice by a future Congress - hits a group favored by conservatives, the protests begin.

Pensions for all public employees are paid by non-public workers. Why should a non-government worker work for 35-40 years to pay someone else to retire in 20 years.

I speak about fire fighters, police, and our military retirees, who may look forward to 50 years of retirement checks.

Not sustainable. Adjustments must be made.

[MSF BU]

“The Stupid Party”? I think it is safe to say Paul Ryan can kiss any aspirations for higher office goodbye. It still would be interesting to know how many members of the Ryan family served in uniform. The same goes for Burr in NC.

[MSF BU]

My father had the best Blue Cross coverage and he preferred the VA. The ones in the Boston area (and I speak only through family/friends experience) are quite well thought of.

[NKP_Vet]

Paul Ryan needs to switch parties.

[Abiotic]

Simple way to fund the government. 1% Wall Street sales tax on all transactions over and above a $5 million exemption. Abolish the income tax. This would generate trillions in revenue, reduce the poisonous high frequency trading, and make the true systemic controller’s finance the general welfare of the citizens of this republic. Until you begin to dismantle the global, privately-held central banking system that enslaves us all at different levels (private, local, national, and supra-national) of chattel debt slavery, all else is cheap talk and wishful thing. Neo-feudalism is slamming down an iron curtain on the globe.

[Oatka]

A word of warning to vets who use the VA. My doc said that under obamacare, vets no longer need go to a distant VA clinic. They can now choose a local doc and save on driving.
The hook is that once you opt out of the VA system, you can never go back. (Some may not mention that last one.)
I have a friend that has been going to the VA for 20 or so years . . . He seems to think a lot of it, which surprises me, since it is a classic socialist medical system. What do you think?

In many things, I am to the right of Attila The Hun, but with the VA (at least the ones in Las Vegas), I think that this type of socialized medicine is fine.

Cases in point (outside the VA, stories are anecdotal for the most part).
1) They have signs up stating that if you aren't called within 15 minutes of your scheduled time, come to the front desk.
2) When you show up, you are given a numbered ticket, which will be displayed in a marquee over a sectioned-off booth within minutes. Show 'em your VA card and you are handed a sheet of personal info and medications used, and are asked if there's any changes. (Wife has to bring down a sheet listing all her meds each time.) Then you are called within the 15 minutes - usually less. In my visit there last week I was called before my time. Three days later, with my wife's doc, we had to wait almost an hour past her appointment.
3) Any time the VA doc prescribes a new/changed medicine, they give you a sheet of all the known side effects. Those outside the system have to ask and rarely get a printout.
4) Same with blood tests. The VA has a deal with a local hospital, so I don't have to travel 160 miles round trip. When I see the doc, she hands me the results for my files.
5) This last trip the doc said I needed another EKG. I went to the next room and in five minutes the tech came in and took the test. Same with X-Rays, in about 15 minutes. Private practice users are sent to another doctor days later for the same tests, generating another $250 office visit charge. I pay $50 for an office visit, plus $9 for each prescription. I could go to Wal-Mart at $4 a pop, but I don't want to mess with a system that, for me anyway, works like a champ.

Now God forbid, the doc tells me not to make any long-range investments and I have to go for weekly dialysis or monthly chemo, I might opt out of the VA due to the distance involved. However, I have this Theory on Immortality, and so far, it's working. :-)

[Shadowstrike]

That’s why we keep voting him in. Jeff Sessions, has in the past, voted for “bad” legislation, as has every member of the Senate. But, when push came to shove Sen Sessions has actually LISTENED to the people who put him in office, and he’s making us proud now.