Congress plans to charge vets for GI Bill
Military Times reports that there’s a plan in Congress to charge active duty service members for access to the Post 9-11 GI Bill;
The plan — draft legislation from House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Phil Roe, R-Tenn. — would deduct $2,400 from future service members’ paychecks to establish eligibility for revamped post-military education benefits. This was first reported Tuesday by Task & Purpose.
Currently, the post-9/11 GI Bill offers full tuition to a four-year state college (or the equivalent tuition payout for a private school) plus a monthly housing stipend to any service member who spends at least three years on active duty, and to reservists who are mobilized to active-duty for extended periods. Troops wounded while serving are also eligible.
Unlike the older Montgomery GI Bill benefit, the post-9/11 GI Bill does not require any fees or pay reductions for eligibility. The new proposal would change that, taking up to $100 a month from new enlistees’ paychecks for the right to access the benefit after they leave the ranks.
It’s funny (“odd funny” not “funny ha-ha”) how all of the people in Washington, DC can only think of ways to make service members and veterans pay for the things they earned, in order for the government to save money.
Supporters of the plan say having service members “buy in” to the benefit would strengthen it against periodic attempts by budget planners to trim veterans education benefits.
Or…they could just stop trying to trim service members’ benefits. There are scads of places that Congress can cut in the budget that don’t have anything to do with Defense. It’s just easier politically to cut the uniformed services rather than domestic spending. Veterans need to change that.
Category: Congress sucks
Fuck them. Square in the ASS.
Why don’t they take $1,000 a month of their pay to pay for their future health benefits?
Got-Damn leaches.
Or, better yet, clean up that mess called “WELFARE”… I’m sure there are a few people playing that scam…
Paul Rieckhoff opened up his cakehole about this (it’s further down the article at Military Times)…
I guess Blood and Guts are not enough of a “Buy In”
Gully Vern, thet ther cudn’t be dumocraps in CON gress cud it?
For all of the things said about the MGIB it was/is self funding
Less than 20% of all of the folks who signed up for and paid into the MGIB ever used even 1 month of benefit
Less than 5% ever used 100% of benefits. The other 80-90% subsidized the rest.
Yep.
I remember having to pay into back in the day.
I got that (GI Bill) and the “College Fund” bonus in lieu of a cash bonus.
Best investment I ever made.
Nothing is too good for the troops, that’s why they get so much of it.
Dumbasses.
Gee, the GI Bill I got was sent to me, not a school and I used it for tuition and books and similar things. I never used all of it, but there was a cutoff date for it. But don’t promise people something to get them to sign up and then not deliver. Word gets around.
I’m using the post 911 MGIB now. When I retired in 2005 I had to write them a check…I honestly don’t remember off the top of my head what is was, but $1200 +/- if I recall.
Having to pay for it and having to pay federal tax on my retirement as well just always seemed like a needless expenditure. How much is spent on handling these fees and tracking the taxes etc. Seems to me that could be eliminated just to save more money.
The state I live in doesn’t tax my military retirement.
That is correct. New active component service members paid 100 a month for the first year into the GI Bill. Though it was if you “wanted” to use it for the Montgomery GI Bill. They changed that at some point to paying in regardless and then maybe 10 years ago? they stopped requiring the 1200 dollar pay in.
When I was in Basic we had a couple guys who complained because they didn’t buy-in but weren’t told the specifics of it by their recruiter (shocker, right?). However, when I went active duty a few years later, it wasn’t a choice. They just took it.
We didn’t get “refunds” of that money though, they just added it to your total funds available.
I remember paying in 1200 for my 1980’s era MGIB. Used most of it but had a little left. I timed out (had to use it within 10 years) so I didn’t use 100% but I did use most of it.
It was only like 10k bu then again, University was cheaper then too.
The more they try and “help” the troops with these stupid fucking ideas the more I suspect they will encounter difficulty recruiting people into the military. And for good reason. When you voluntarily give up your freedoms to serve your nation it seems the least the nation could do is honor their promises to you for that service.
Fucking imbeciles.
WTFingF????
How about we make getting benefits for welfare recipients as hard as it is to get veterans benefits?
I used PART of mine 40 plus years ago to go to vocational school. And I was damned glad it was there.
Exactly…cutting military benefits or tweaking them with hurdles and fees is common.
I’m an academic masochist working on my 7th degree, so I’ve been at this for many years while active duty and retired and it’s always a waxing and waning pain in the ass.
If you don’t learn the system in its current version and have a motivated registrar/student advisor it can be tough to keep going.
From my own experiences with the system I can see why so many people drop out and give up in frustration.
You can’t even talk about reducing welfare entitlements or point out the lunacy of increasing the stipend every time there’s another child born. In the military we get a flat rate when we have dependents. Maybe doing the same with welfare would have a positive effect on limiting the perpetuation of multigenerational welfare families. We’ll never know, because , you know…it’s racist to talk about it.
I remember using tuition assistance and it started out being fairly easy. I barely had any involvement, I just signed a document and uploaded it to goarmyed.
After a couple years, they started dropping rates, they made me start signing up specifically for each class, they started putting out deadlines for signing up and approval. If you didn’t get the approval prior to the class starting, they didn’t pay for it.
It got to the point that they cut it so much, in one Fiscal Year it wasn’t even enough to cover one “term” of classes in full. It was covering 75% of my two classes, no refund for books, and at that point I just stopped using it because it wasn’t worth it. Which was probably their goal in the first place.
The Lejeune Office was at one point absolutely obstructionist. A direct result of a new colonel that took over. being a squidly FMF type and a resourceful bahstid, I contacted the Portsmouth Naval Hospital and started routing my TA through them….big effing difference. Got my TA and the NC grant every time and they let me take as many classes as I wanted and didn’t care if it was “in the degree path” it was pretty awesome.
Hell, I remember in 11/12 time frame when they decided to reduce the amount covered by TA. They were pushing to reduce it from the current $250 per semester hour to something like $60 per hour. Their rationale was “only 13% of the operating forces utilize the benefit.” That went over like a fart in church and about a month later they went back to the original amount.
I’m with you though, I’m an education masochist. Finished my A.A., B.A., and M.S. on Active Duty and as I’m cruising towards retirement I still have 18 months of Post 9/11 to use towards another grad program.
That would be cruel and unusual punishment. They aren’t allowed to do that constitutionally. But it’s okay to do it to service members.
Constitutionally? How so?
cruel and unusual punishment? That’s a nogo, but you know what they say, military personnel “lose” some constitutional rights when they join. So, it is perfectly acceptable to make us suffer trying to get benefits.
Badum-tish!
ah, got it.
Really doesn’t matter what they say or what they call the GI bill cause the government will screw the Veteran over anyway they can. Example: Me. I joined in 1070 under the old GI bill before the Montgomery GI Bill and was told I wouldn’t be effected by the new bill I was grandfathered in under the old one where I was told I would get free college funding for my service. I served 12 years in the Navy and after getting forced out do to the military reductions in 1991 I decide to go back to school but was told no when I applied for my benefits. The reason they gave was “I hadn’t paid anything into the new Montgomery GI Bill” so I got nothing. I informed them I was covered by the old GI bill not the new Montgomery GI Bill. they told me everyone had been converted over to the new bill and I couldn’t get anything for college schooling. So no matter what they want to call any bill they say it is it really doesn’t matter. They will screw over the service members anyway they can.
Well. You were told wrong and stupidly took it as fact
You were covered under VEAP (which wasn’t an “old GI Bill”)
That was a Christmas I didn’t miss, when they let us VEAP era folks convert to post 911 MGIB
VEAP – hah, the best thing about it was the $2700 of my own money I took back when I ETS’d the first time. Going to school now on post 9/11 – much better deal. One thing that concerns me about fiddling with the GI Bill is what are they going to do when all of the states go to free undergraduate tuition – Uncle Sam stands to lose a big recruiting/retention tool if the kids find out they can go to school for free without putting up with DoD BS :).
Not to mention the ‘old GI Bill’ grandfathered into osolescence around then – think I got a whole two classes in under it before it died in the early ’90s.
Here we go again with political prostitutes on a “Fuck the Vets” binge. GOD FORBID those self-coronated fatheads give up even a tiny fraction of the luxuries, perks and benefits they give themselves!
“political prostitutes”
Susan Collins
If Paul Ryan thinks he will get away with this he’d better get ready to lose his job entirely.
Charge American’s military personnel for the GI Bill that they worked so hard for.
Not a snowball’s chance in hell that this will go anywhere if they know what’s good for them.
I’m not a Republican, I am a realist and reality tells me that the GOP has no fucking clue what they are doing.
Of all the unmitigated bull shit. this gets my blood just friggin’ boiling…
The services would like bright, motivated, young people. The services do, after all, have competition. What employer doesn’t want such entry-level employees? In that sense, the military must offer more to get the people it needs. Young people aren’t stupid. No one enlists with the notion that he intends to lose life or limb, but the reality is, some do. It’s quite extraordinary work and it should always carry extraordinary benefits, not only for competitive purposes, but because of the nature of military service. These critters ought to be falling all over one another to submit bills to enhance benefits. It’s a sad state of affairs. Check that. It’s a sickening state of affairs.
Yes! ^^^^^^
That’s why I get pissed off everytime I hear someone play the, “But in the civilian workforce you don’t get….”
Yeah, you don’t get blown up? don’t get voluntold to work 24/7? get told where to work at and moved whenever they feel like it? don’t get shot at? don’t get treated like shit by bureaucrats in higher hq’s? Oh and don’t have to worry about doing something you don’t want to because you can just call HR or quit anytime you want.
They always want to slash anything they can for Servicemembers and Vets, but GOD FORBID they ever do something like going after welfare ans SS fraud or cutting illegal aliens off from benefits! Hell, politicians want to treat illegal aliens and welfare flunkies to whatever they can while fucking us Vets every chance they get.
GOP does not give a damn about the troops. They only care about defense spending that transfers taxpayer wealth to the defense industry.
You could have gotten a pass on that comment, Commissar, but then you had to attribute the not giving a damn solely to the GOP. Nice going, numbnuts.
Lars couldn’t be more partisan if he tattooed a donkey on his ass.
He is his own caricature but fancies himself to be an independent thinker when he is neither independent nor a thinker.
But… but, he uses “empiric data”…
I thought he had tats of a hammer, sickle and Che on his ass…
The hammer and sickle are on his scrote, where the seeds of socialism originate. Che is on his diddler to fulfill fantasies of give it to “da man”. The ass can go on the left cheek.
DO YOU EVER look and think for yourself, Babbles McButthead? About all you ever do here is regurgitate the asinine imbecilic liberal bullshit your UC Berzerkely Perfessers spoon feed you and you go apeshit when anyone points out how full of shit you are, o Sparkle Pony of a Fuck Apple!
Commissar, you are an ass. That’s the politest thing I can say this week. Now fuck off.
Yeah, the democrats looked out SO MUCH More for service members and vets!
As if I need to say that was sarcasm.
I wish I could look through rose colored glasses. Too bad I have to live in the real world.
And the only military that the Donks/Bernie support is the “Free Shit Army”, LARS!
Maybe not a direct comparison, but I can’t help but think “Bonus Army” as I read this. WWI vets fall on hard times, ask for the enlistment bonus they were promised, but haven’t yet received, and get refused. They assemble in DC to protest, and get driven out of town at bayonet-point.
Granted, they were asking for a lump-sum payout instead of the installments actually promised. But plenty of them hadn’t even received that. The point is, making lofty promises in times of war (declared or otherwise) to take care of vets afterwards, then sticking it to those very same vets, is nothing new.
Pointing out that MacArthur was the OIC of the troops who ran the vets out of Washington in 1932’s edition of “Screw the Vets” is guaranteed to get you LOTS of pushups at Benning’s School for Boys. Trust me on this one.
Actually, they were asking for -early- payout. The Bonus would not start to pay until 1945. The campaign was for a hardship change to an early (immediate) payout.
Yep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_Adjusted_Compensation_Act
More info;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
I would also like to note that this was not a benefit promised at the time of enlistment; it was created in 1924.
Actually they are trying to make the benefit more useful, and going back to the MGIB-style buy-in ($10 per month)to cover it. I don’t have an issue with that. Adjusted for inflation, it’s less than what my generation paid.
In the GI Bill I used long ago, a flat fee was paid, whether one attended Harvard or, as I did at first, a community college. That result was that a check came each month to me and, after the small tuition was covered, the money was mine, for books and beer. Was that too good a deal? Perhaps.
I received $180/month for the school term. U. of Fla. was on the quarter system so I got three checks every quarter. One covered tuition, one covered rent, and the last was for books, food, entertainment, etc. Fortunately I also had a part-time and summer job, otherwise it would have been a beerless existence.
The reason that Vet benefits and Serviceman compensation are easily gutted,and Welfare benefits are effectively untouchable, is the relative unlikelyhood of Vets and or Servicemen acting out directly in frustration.
The “earned benefit through service” types tend not to riot, nor even complain particularly loudly, versus the “entitlement” crowd, which has been known to escalate into serious newsworthy behaviors.
the Entitlement Crowd also votes D-rat, thus pols can’t hand things to them fast enough.
What are the names of these critters trying to take away our shit?
1) It’s a draft plan, has not been submitted, numbered or referred to committee yet.
2) From the article, the plan is to have the extra cost used to EXPAND the benefits, not take them away.
Yeah, but that when voices need to be heard…before it gains any momentum.
What’s wrong with increasing/extending GI Bill benefits?
I read your comment incorrectly …posting on the fly while working and only having 2 hours of sleep. My bad.
No worries – been there myself….
Right, just like they’re “improving” retirement and compensation?
They might very well “expand” it and then later cut it again because “well its more than you were getting before still!”
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
“Supporters of the plan say having service members “buy in” to the benefit would strengthen it against periodic attempts by budget planners to trim veterans education benefits.”
Now there’s a crock of shit if I’ve ever heard it. Said another way it reads, “We want to fuck you over now and forever because we planned on fucking you over anyway. This way, we get our money up front on the screw.”
Those politicians have been listening to their prostitutes and learning.
Oh, like Social Security taxes (ducks for cover)
We already had to pay $100 a month during our first year of service, so this sounds like it’s extending the payments out to year two.
Sadly, fucking with our benefits is one of the reasons I’m choosing to ETS rather than retire. I don’t trust that, when it comes time to retire, everything I was promised will be there. I can make more on the civilian side and do my retirement planning that way.
And to think if Bernie sanders had his way, college would be free for all…I slammed some bimbo a while back who was carrying a “free college” sign…I said talk to a recruiter and earn it…really, an enlistment or commission should be enough “buy in”…
I had to pay into the VEAP (Veterans Education Assistance Program) system. Not sure how this is different.
Other legislation this supposed miscreant, veteran-hater has sponsored so far this session:
VA Accountability First Act of 2017
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for the removal or demotion of employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs based on performance or misconduct, and for other purposes.
Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act
prohibits, in any case arising out of the administration of laws and benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs, any person who is mentally incapacitated, deemed mentally incompetent, or experiencing an extended loss of consciousness from being considered adjudicated as a mental defective for purposes of the right to receive or transport firearms without the order or finding of a judicial authority of competent jurisdiction that such person is a danger to himself or herself or others
Caring for the Families of our Wounded and Fallen Heroes Act
To amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the amounts of educational assistance payable under Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Just saying, don’t swallow hook, line and sinker the story-line put forth by Gannett News Corp. or Paul Rieckhoff of IAVA.
well…NAVIENT and the VA still are da debbil!
I got caught up in VEAP back in the day, but it was fixed before I retired in 2000. But yeah, lets do this again, because retention is too high and the pool of new recruits is higher than it’s ever been. And fucking with retirement just isn’t enough. /S
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not up in arms about this because once they added the living expenses to it that essentially doubles benefits yet they didn’t double the initial entry cost. Having just missed out on 4 years of living expenses paying an additional $1200 for them seems like an non issue.
“GOP does not give a damn about the troops. They only care about defense spending that transfers taxpayer wealth to the defense industry.”
Lars continues to post false statements as fact. 2/17 Air Cav likes to call them larsfacts. I prefer to call them lies told by a cocksucker.
It is obvious that the zika-commie has no idea how Google works.
EASY there ex-OS2, we don’t want Babbles McButthead whipping out his “Empirical Evidence”, do we?
Lars has retreated into his tiny home working on his rebuttal to the American Lung Associations “State of the Air 2017” report that shows six (6) California cities are in the top 10 of the most polluted U.S. cities.
California again leads list with 6 of the top ten most polluted U.S. cities
The Montgomery GI Bill happened in the Jimmy Carter era – it was part of his plan to make military service less desirable. A hundred bucks a months was a lot of money in those days.
Still is to an E-1.
And boy, do I know……(Smile!).
“The Montgomery GI Bill happened in the Jimmy Carter era – it was part of his plan to make military service less desirable. A hundred bucks a months was a lot of money in those days.”
This is completely wrong. The MGIB was introduced in 1984 by Congressman Montgomery as a vast improvement over the Post Vietnam Era GI Bill that was awful. The brief Post Vietnam Era Bill topped out at around $6000 in benefits. It (PVEGIB) was so bad that conversions to the MGIB were offered for a buy in price.
I figure over the years I cashed in around $75K in education benefits from the military. That does not include the year in school where I was on full pay. There is a lot out there if you take it.
They should in no way make back door cuts to education benefits for vets. Too many vets use it as a ladder to get out of poverty and find steady employment.
So let’s see: pay for GI Bill, pay for retirement, BAH getting cut.
Pretty soon the only thing they’ll be able to buy with their paychecks is a can of dip/pack of smokes and a 40 of OE.
Of course since tobacco costs the same on base as it does off base, they won’t be able to afford that much longer either.
Starting to regret putting off retirement for 1 more promotion.
Nobody will be interested in reading this at this hour but it is something I have wanted to say for some time and it sort of fits in this thread so this’ll get it off my chest. Thank you, US Army. In 1954, you were honest when recruiting in that you delivered what you promised, at least from my experience. You told me that you’d pay me $110 a month to go to college for three years once I was in for two. Furthermore, you implied that you would train me to be the best at what I was most capable of doing, while I was in. Armed with those promises, at 18, I trotted down to my draft board and asked them to draft me in next month’s call. This they were more than happy to do.
$110 a month for full time college was a good deal in the 50’s (the GI Bill at the time), and even more than I made as an E-2. They only got one year of service from me for all of that because they put me in a technical school for the better part of a year after basic. For the year’s deployment in Japan, of the two years total, awaiting the expected next round of fighting with NK, the duty was good. We’d gripe that things weren’t what we agreed to, but hind sight says that we were just being normal. Hind sight also tells me that we really had it good. Best part is that once we got out, we got that promised college without any whinging on the part of our government and I was able to build on that excellent technical schooling the Army provided me. Retired now, finally, and doing well because of the foundation our Army built for me in the days when they could be depended upon to do what they promised.
How the military is able to recruit sufficient numbers today given the broken promises, is a mystery to me.
Hi, my name is Mark L. and I’m a pillow biting bone smuggler. I used to be able to post comments here, but I don’t read past the headline so the entire community is dumber for my pointless and insulting comments. I won’t go away because I want some Jonn in me. I’m basically a coward and a fag