COLA cuts were just the beginning
The other day we heard from the VSOs that they were worried that the cuts to COLA increases for disabled and retired veterans was just the beginning. Well, it appears that their worries weren’t unfounded. The Congressional Budget Office has suggested six options for the Pentagon in order to meet their budgetary restraints and of course, all six “suggestions” are personnel cuts, according to the Army Times;
The largest savings would draw from what would be the most untenable option for the Defense Department: further cuts to the size of each military service. According to Murray, reductions could yield $495 billion in savings over 10 years, but they would mean eliminating 10 Army brigade combat teams, 34 major Navy ships, two Marine Corps regiments and 170 Air Force fighters.
[…]
Capping military pay raises.
[…]
Replace military personnel with civilians.
[…]
Increase Tricare fees
[…]
Establish an enrollment fee for Tricare for Life
The article reports the amount of savings from each recommendation, but the last two, in regards to Tricare are recommended to “encourage” military retirees to find other healthcare and to punish them for using the benefit that they earned through their service. So in effect, you paid for your healthcare with your youth, your sacrifice and your health, and now they want you to go out and pay for someone else’s healthcare, too.
As an afterthought, CBO recommends some cuts to programs such as the Joint Strike Fighter, but mostly they want to screw the troops and break faith with veterans.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.
Category: Military issues, Veteran Health Care
Holee Fuk…BOHICA. “We have all been here before, we have all been here before”…CSNY’s “Deja Vu”.
Well, come on, Jonn, you can’t expect them to do something like, say, make cuts to welfare or to illegal immigrants, because, let’s face it; those 2 demographics outnumber Veterans at the voting booth.
I knew about the cuts to the Divisions in the Army, but the rest of this shit…
I have not seen one single proposal to cut any of the Social Welfare Spending, whihc amounts for the majority of spending in our National Budget. In fact those are gwoing faster than anything else… creating a whole new class of dependent sheeple.
The Navy could save billions by bringing in new carriers on budget:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/usa-navy-carrier-idUSL2N0IQ1O320131105
I’m not even suggesting cutting them, just control the budget overruns.
The CBO is completely useless with any findings they publish, because there is no actual accounting practices or accountability to their procedures.
The problem with the CBO is in their name….you know who they work for and you know where they get the numbers to run their projections from…it’s why they can’t properly predict a budget farther out than 10 months, and it’s why they performed a miracle and predicted 10 years of positive outcomes with (non)Affordable Care Act….
The CBO runs the number given to them by their political masters….if someone says here’s the defense budget we think we can find cuts in healthcare for veterans that’s what the CBO does….it’s no surprise they haven’t come up with a plan to cut entitlements to parasites…
Yeah, we don’t need any way to defend America should… or rather WHEN we are attacked again. We can just send John Kerry over and he’ll talk to them and make them not want to hate us anymore despite what their religious leaders are telling them.
What got me was, replace Military with civilians. How in the world can they say this will save money?
@7…How can they say it?
The same way we were told that the Affordable Healthcare Act would lower insurance premiums for “everyone” and not “add a dime” to the national deficit.
I found this totally disgusting and reprehensible! And this is coming from a veteran who served under the Clinton administration. Can anyone say “Creeping Hollowness?” Any of you vets from the 70’s wanna chime in? What the hell is wrong with this government, and more importantly, the majority of the U.S. population? Apathy has become our own worst enemy. People should be shouting from the mountaintops for reform for the entire ‘hand out’ system of the current administration. Your telling me with all the government pork, there isn’t any fat they can trim from some of the other ‘fraud, waste and abuse’ programs that are vastly overbudget and overrated? Truly disgusting! I don’t even recognize my country anymore.
“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”
— President George Washington
I pledged to defend the JSF from all threats including my own pay and benefits it’s what this country is all about. I hope we can sell it to middle eastern and central asian countries.