NYT provides cover for Obama on Vet and Defense cuts
The New York Times knows, like we all know, that Obama won’t keep his promise that he made to the assemblage of Legionnaires in Minneapolis on Tuesday that he won’t the national budget to be balanced on the back of veterans. So the Times, provides excuses for the president;
Yet just how much power Mr. Obama will have to prevent such cuts is not quite clear. The bipartisan “super committee” created to recommend $1.5 billion trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade will undoubtedly include some veterans programs on its agenda; already some of those proposals are floating around Congress and inside the Pentagon, including one that would revamp military pensions to make them similar to 401(k) retirement programs.
And if Congress cannot agree with the committee’s plan, then across-the-board cuts will be mandated, some of which will almost certainly fall on the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has seen its budget increase by more than 20 percent since Mr. Obama took office.
Yeah, see it’s not Obama’s fault that he and Congress have no intention of keeping their promises to veterans. It’s the political forces involved. Probably those Tea Partiers.
Of course, dicksmith at VetVoice just takes the President at his word;
“We’re pleased that President Obama has committed to not balancing the budget on the backs of veterans,” said Ashwin Madia, Iraq War Veteran and Interim Chairman of VoteVets.org. “We have always made a deal with those who served that we will take care of them when they get home.
I’m sure everyone is prepared to blame the Tea Party when the President and Congress make their final plans to make veterans and their families pay for this country’s irresponsibility once again.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Congress sucks, Media, Veterans Issues
I’m glad they mention that Ashwin is an Iraq Vet, because I wasn’t told that in every media spot that was run when he was campaigning for congress. It was almost as annoying as the John F-ing Kerry crap (did you know he served in Vietnam?).
“…revamp military pensions to make them similar to 401(k) retirement plans…”
That’ll be just fine…as soon as OSHA can put in place regulations to make the military a hazard-free workplace.
/sarc off
“revamp military pensions to make them similar to 401(k) retirement programs.”
But worth a whole helluva lot less. If you go by “High 5” or even 16 percent of what a person earns in a 20-year career in the military (assuming they retire at E-7), I came up with something like $100-120K assuming normal rates of return.
I had that in less than five years after I got out.
Between shitty retirement and a GI Bill which, on the surface, makes leaving after the initial enlistment and going to school a lot more enticing, all this administration is doing is gutting our senior NCO and officer corps.
But hell, maybe that’s what they had in mind all along.