Carter suspends debt collection of bonuses
Fox News reports that the Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter has ordered the Pentagon to suspend it’s efforts to recover bonuses from soldiers who were paid the stipend a decade ago;
Carter said there was a process in place to assist soldiers who sought relief of such obligations, and in this case, “hundreds” of Guard members have already sought and have been granted relief.
“But that process has simply moved too slowly and in some cases imposed unreasonable burdens on service members,” Carter said. “That is unacceptable.”
He did not mention any timeframe for the suspension, but he insisted that it would be in place until he was “satisfied that our process is working effectively.”
Yeah, well, we’ll see. This administration is real good at creating issues then acting like they’re fixing the thing they created in the first place. This is just another distraction/public relations move.
Category: Big Pentagon
More “We’ve CF’d the vets again, let’s quit before they sheeple come after us”?
That’s not enough. Some soldiers took second and third mortgages to get this monkey off their backs. Those who didn’t toss and turn with worry every night and could not have their pay garnished should not alone benefit.
Yeah, what about all the people that already paid it back? Do THEY get it back with interest?!?!?
Fuck EM.
Unless they get fucked as hard as they fucked the Vets, Fuck Em Back harder.
/fuckers
Fuckers. Fuck.
Ash Carter found some time out of this busy Social Justice schedule to do something about this? I’m betting that he was the cocksucker that approved it in the first place.
FUCK. HIM.
While I don’t like him or his policies, its highly likely that this didn’t rise to his level until it hit the LA Times.
It sounds, at this time, that most if not all the folks who requested relief have had those requests granted. Since its a system wide problem caused by fraud, its needs a more systemic approach to granting relief and granting relief after the fact.
Update from the Times today – the Pentagon told California Congresscritters two years ago they were doing this. Way to represent your constituents, guys… I’m sure it was “they’re military, right? Fuck ’em, they volunteered.” Not hard to imagine coming from the lips of people like Boxer, Pelosi,F einstein,et al.
Apparently it wasn’t until other Congressional folks became aware of the Times report that anyone started raising any hell.
“The Pentagon” could be anyone associated with the building and Congress could be any junior staffer on the Armed Services Committees. I’d be interested in who said what (“there were some illegal contracts were moving to recoup the money was you required us to do”) and what facts were presented.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bonus-guard-20161024-snap-story.html says “The California National Guard told the state’s members of Congress two years ago” is pretty explicit.
“This is just another distraction/public relations move.”
Nailed it.
Carter is a cocksucker.
The word “suspends” leaves a lot to future interpretation.
How about “eliminated, stopped and we’re sorry!”
Second for a vote
As I said elsewhere, when someone offers you something that seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Be suspicious, get documents and keep many sets of copies in a safe place, and for something like this, don’t spend it. Since you have to pay the tax on it, the Big They should have to reimburse you for that, plus interest, plus a whole lot of other things too numerous to mention here.
And, in addition, a lot of justifiably loud and noisy angst in the media is appropriate.
It wasn’t a matter of them not having paperwork. It was a matter of some fuckhead in the Pentagon who claimed the paperwork they had wasn’t legit.
And in some cases, the paperwork indeed wasn’t legit. Remember: at least 4 people have been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to fraud in conjunction with bogus bonuses relating to this screwed-up situation. See the story linked in Jonn’s 1st article for details.
They were getting too much negative media attention and backed off due to that. Maybe they thought it would have some sort of down-ballot effect on some of the races in California, but otherwise they didn’t just agree to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do.
President Ashton Carter doing the job that the rest of the executive branch is apparently too incompetent to do.
I remember seeing guys get overpaid.
And they knew it, too.
As a Private, I knew how much I got paid. And it was not a lot, believe me.
But that did not stop them from going out and blowing it all (as young privates tend to do).
Don’t know much about the NG side of the house, but AD had to pay the shit back. No choice. They just garnished your check.
True. And I also learned as a young private not to trust recruiters or your friendly reenlistment NCO and to read the fine print on your enlistment contract. I will bet money that at least some of the “victims” knew exactly what they were doing.
Some of the “victims” were full-time T32 folks, including people who worked in recruiting, who knew full well that the bonus money was for “traditional” Guard Soldiers and not the greedy chodes holding the highly sought full-time gigs.
What I don’t get is that Finance 101 if you know you were improperly paid, you absolutely do not spend it with DoD. Shit might as well be radioactive. They will get it back sooner or later, one way or another.
Yep.
As referenced above, I find it hard to believe that they did not know.
So, does anyone know what the actual story is here?
My experience was you had to practically hold a gun on the unit clerk to get your bonuses and stuff, so this all seems very odd.
I don’t get it.
Carter was quoted in a news item as saying something to the effect, “some accepting the money knew they were not entitled to it.” It shows how out of touch he is with troops. Have any of you ever known an enlisted man or women who questioned Uncle wanting to give them money? The bonuses were offered by someone in authority in the chain of command, nuff said. What a f’in jerk.
Help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN so we can rid the DoD ranks of these assholes
Go back and read the original LA Times article in Jonn’s 1st story, CM. At least 4 of those involved have either been convicted of or pleaded guilty to fraud. Some did indeed know they (or others they were “assisting”) weren’t entitled to the bonuses paid.
This reminds me quite a bit of the ARNG enlistment referral bonus scandal from a few years ago. And there, yeah – quite a number of those involved indeed did know they were being shady or stepping over the line.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-backlash-from-army-largest-criminal-investigation/
Here’s a thought: let the troops, who are innocent of wrongdoing, keep the money they were promised, and take it out of the asses of the dickheads who promised something they shouldn’t have.
One of the guy’s who got this media attention had already gotten a “go fuck yourself” from Senator Feinstein’s office (I saw the memo on his FB postings) back in July.
The only reason this issue is “suspended” is due to the media being involved and putting it on TV. That, along with the upcoming election make this a big deal that needs fixing.
Without the media involvement, they would continue to be told “fuck you pay me.”
Carter:
Fuck you, you fuckin’ fuck!
Part of what complicates this is the exceptional pressure put on recruiters to hit target numbers. Recruiting is an awful, thankless job. I once remember a recruiter telling me that he got his wife to divorce him so that he could claim hardship to get out of recruiting because he would be the “sole caregiver for their two small kids”. He got the hardship and immediately remarried his wife!
Jack _Ass
The current administration once more correctly identified as buttwipes?
Priceless.
Yes, some gamed the system. That’s almost always true. But, some simply saw some extra bucks with which to support their family and they entered into with and continue to have clean hands.
Now, if only we could separate the wheat from the chaff …
If I were affected by this, I’d look carefully at the word ‘suspend’. To me, that word could suggest something temporary in nature. I would feel more comfortable with words such as ‘ended’ or ‘cancelled’. I think I would be stashing some bucks if I were able to do so. The tools in the puzzle palace may un-suspend the suspension when they feel it is safe to do so.
Gee, I notice Prez Gutsy Call hasn’t made a statement on this.
Thought he was all about the troops and shit?