COLA Wars
The Washington Post reports that federal retirees will be getting a 1.7% cost of living allowance (COLA) on January 1st;
According to the latest Office of Personnel Management data, as of last Oct. 1, there were just under 2 million federal retirees, about three-fourths of them drawing benefits from the Civil Service Retirement System and the rest having retired under the Federal Employees Retirement System.
Doesn’t sound like much, does it? Well, it really isn’t. Between $20 and $50 per month increase. But it’s still better than what the troops will be getting, according to the Army Times;
But the 1.7 percent COLA increase is still likely to be a bigger bump than active-duty troops will see in their paychecks on Jan. 1. The White House and Pentagon have pushed for a 1 percent raise for service members in 2015.
Military leaders have argued that move will save $3.8 billion over five years, money that can be reinvested into readiness and modernization accounts already squeezed by budget constraints. House lawmakers have voiced opposition to the plan, but so far have not finalized any legislation that would provide for a bigger raise.
Isn’t it strange that the feds can squeeze out a COLA almost double for retirees than they can for the active duty troops, who, by the way are still fighting a war or two and saving Africa from their Ebola epidemic? And still they’re talking about cuts to the defense budget. I guess we know who is more valuable in the eyes of this administration.
Thanks to Chief Tango for the links.
Category: Military issues
This is another example of why no federal employee should be permitted to join or form a union. Anyone paid with tax money, at any level, from city to county to state to federal, should be non-union.
No kidding. There are so many federal regulations “protecting” government workers, why do they need a freakin’ union?
A perfect example of that is the teacher’s union in California. It literally can take over 5 years to fire a teacher because of malfeasance, crime, etc. All the while they get paid. why? Because there are so many appeals boards they go through before they can be officially fired. Let alone that California Teachers are the highest paid in the country, get a crazy pension and free health care for their immediate family for life. But with all that, high school graduates can’t read, can’t do math, don’t know the history of this country, etc etc etc.
But then again, democrats love unions because unions vote democrat a lot of the time.
If you really want to see an example of active duty personnel being screwed over monetarily, look at what was snuck in to the JFTR and JFR merger. Now if you’re TAD over 31 days you get a flat rate per diem that’s 75% of what it used to be. Over 180 days? 55%. It’s sick to have someone spend money out of their own pocket to go somewhere that they’re ordered to go.
Not only that, but they are nickel and diming a lot of the reimbursements.
A simple one would be, No more laundry costs (2 bucks a night if needed for 7 nights or longer TDY)
A big one would be, using your govt travel card at ATM fees and not getting those fees reimbursed. WTF? Some personnel have to use that thing because they can’t afford to use their own, but when they need cash, they are basically paying for it. It’d be one thing if ATM fees were a buck, but most ATMs are charging 4-5 bucks these days.
No more business calls either. A real pain if you’re stationed overseas and TAD to another country.
Yeah I saw the whole briefing for it, pretty ridiculous what they are cutting. Some of those can really add up to be hugely expensive.
So, rather than cutting a buck off higher per diem location rates, they cut things that apply to a small percentage of people and will cost us money out of pocket.
Well hey, they need to cut the military so they can fund more welfare and fund contracts to make driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.
That’s what DOD is there for, to cut, so that social and liberal programs can be paid for.
A Republican Senate can’t get here quick enough.
But didn’t we always say, “Hey I joined up for the money!!?!?!?”
◔_◔
Ironically I was just sent another mail, the second section of which is especially relevant:
1. We are advised to not judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL Gun Owners by the actions of a few lunatics.
2. Seems we constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about Welfare running out of money? What’s interesting is the first group “worked for” their money, but the second didn’t.
Congress actually doesn’t have to propose or enact anything higher than the 1% that Obama and the Pentagon are pushing for. If their legislation is silent on the amount of increase then it defaults to the formula increase. I believe that this would put the active military pay raise at 1.8% for 2015.
This is sort of a apples and oranges comparison anyway. The COLA for retirees is based on a different index than active military pay raises (CPI vs. ECI).
I imagine that we will continue on CRs until after November and then a budget will be passed through that is either silent (House remains in GOP control and either parity or GOP control in Senate), or if the Dems retain control of Senate they will gut whatever recommendation House makes and the 1% will go into effect because the House republicans have 2 years pay checks to look forward to and Americans tend to forget too easily.
Oh, hell, I’m just glad to see anything in the form of a COLA doled out to us peasants down here at the sh–t end of the stick.
Now I can buy those socks I’ve always wanted.
The per diem cuts were in response to the GSA fiasco in Vegas last year where they spent $800,000. And the IRS party conferences with Star Trek skits. So because a bunch of federal civilian employees screwed the pooch, the military has to take it in the shorts.
The joys of having a government card are many. It’s “required” for official travel but DTS takes so long to process claims that inevitably there are late charges. Which the card holder is liable for. So the easiest way is to pay the card off using my own money and just having the travel claim paid into my bank account. Which requires an extra step in DTS to inform them that I have already paid the balance on my GTCC. I miss the old days of a 1351-2 with a bunch of receipts stapled to it!
When was the lat time B. Hussein 0bama & Company even thought of investigating welfare and SSI fraud as well as any other handout? Has he ever foregone ANY luxury or perk while in office? Ditto for all members of Clowngress, when was the last time they volunteered to take pay or benefit cuts? And let’s not forget about the billions wasted on “green energy” projects run by fatcat DNC donors!!
So they save almost 4 billion over five years while the taxpayers spend two billion a year for Obama Phones. That’s right, 2 billion smackers per annum so welfare rats can have free cell service. How would poor folks arrange their flash mobs to loot shoe stores and terrorize the local Mall? There may come a time when we will need to draft people to defend this country. At least it will be easy to contact them by phone.
Yea, shit on the troops again will ya!
“Military leaders have argued that move will save $3.8 billion over five years, money that can be reinvested into readiness and modernization accounts already squeezed by budget constraints.”
That’s the “Military Leaders” sounding off for the betterment of the troops there. Really looking after their guys aren’t they? I can see it now. There’s a spiffy new plane or weapon’s platform they’re drooling over and they need more money for that. Meanwhile, send the tried and true, A-10 Warthog to the Arizona desert! Yep, it’s all coming into focus now. NOT!
Different budgets. DOD and Federal retirement system are not the same.