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The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security. This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Prisoners of war suffer in ways most veterans don't, enduring humiliating forced marches, torture or other trauma that may haunt them long afterward. In partial recompense, the government extends them special benefits, from free parking and tax breaks to priority in medical treatment. Trouble is, some of the much-admired recipients of these benefits apparently don't deserve them. There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data...

The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested. Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100. The projections did not include the potential impact of polar melting and ice breaking off, they added. The implications for millions of people would be "severe", they warned. Ten per cent of the world's population - about 600 million people - live in low-lying areas. The UN's...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2009 – All active duty U.S. military services and reserve components met or exceeded their January recruiting needs, Defense Department officials reported today. The Army signed up 9,658 new active-duty soldiers, 107 percent of its target number of 9,000 enlistees. The Navy signed up 2,948 new active-duty sailors, 100 percent of its target number. The Marine Corps signed up 3,720 new active-duty Marines, 109 percent of its target number of 3,406 enlistees. The Air Force signed up 2,600 new active-duty airmen, 100 percent of its target number. The active Army, Marines, Air Force and Navy also...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2009 – December was a recruiting success for all active-duty and reserve-component U.S. military services, which all met or exceeded their goals, according to a Defense Department news release issued today. -- The Army signed 860 new active-duty soldiers, 115 percent of its target number of 750 enlistees. -- The Navy signed 2,306 new active-duty sailors, meeting its target number of enlistees for the month. -- The Marine Corps signed 2,392 new active-duty Marines, 113 percent of its target number of 2,116 enlistees. -- The Air Force signed 2,967 new active-duty airmen, meeting its target number...

WASHINGTON, May 12, 2008 – All military services met or exceeded their recruiting goals for April, with the Marine Corps recruiting 142 percent of its goal, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said here today. The Army reached 101 percent of its goal, and the Navy and Air Force met their goals. In the re-enlistment arena, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps met or exceeded their active-duty retention objectives. “The Air Force still faces challenges, but they still seem able to meet their year-end strength goals,” Whitman said. All the reserve components also met or exceeded their recruiting goals, with the Air...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2007 – All active-duty components made their recruiting goals for July, Defense Department officials announced today. After missing recruiting goals for May and June, the Army made 102 percent of its goal for July. For the reserve components, all but the Air National Guard made their goals. The Army’s goal for July was 9,750 recruits. The service enlisted 9,972, for 102 percent. The Marine Corps also exceeded its enlistment goal with 104 percent. The goal was 4,613, with 4,793 enlisting in the Corps. The Navy and Air Force made 100 percent of their goals, with 4,173...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2006 – All active-duty military components met or exceeded their July recruiting goals, Defense Department officials announced today, marking the 14th consecutive month the services have met or exceeded their goals. The Army exceeded its goal of 10,450 recruits; it signed up 10,890 new soldiers, for 104 percent of its goal. The Navy and Air Force both came in at 100 percent, with 4,043 and 2,121 recruited respectively, while the Marine Corps hit 112 percent of its July goal, with 3,197 recruits. “It demonstrates that men and women of military-service age are finding that they want to...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

WASHINGTON - Medicare payments for cancer drugs will decline next year but will still exceed what doctors pay for them, congressional investigators said Wednesday. Cancer doctors and some patient advocates have said the Bush administration's planned cuts would imperil office-based chemotherapy treatments and force patients to travel to hospitals for their medicines. But Medicare payments for the drugs will exceed doctors' costs by 6 percent on average, while reimbursements for other services will be more than double, on average, what they were two years ago, the congressional Government Accountability Office said. The GAO study was based on 16 drugs that...