Increase in military retirees' health premiums appears dead

[maxrandb]

Thanks God they stood up to the bastards. Even though they try to screw the troops, they'll be identified by the "lap-dog" media as "strong on defense". Yeah, that's right, it's the Dems that loath the military :sarcasm:

http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=101371&ran=46526&tref=po

"WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s plan to double or triple the health insurance premiums paid by more than a million military retirees nationwide appeared all but dead Tuesday – for this year at least.

As a coalition of veterans groups denounced the proposal in a Senate hearing, a key senator warned that the administration must squeeze excess costs out of the military health system before Congress will force retirees to pay higher premiums.

“Before you ask for a fee increase, I think you need to know how much money can you save through efficiency and reform,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C"

---"Hey Lindsey, before you're re-elected, I think the American people need to know how much money we can save by throwing your lousy-ass party out of power" - Just my .02

[babylonsister]

1. Nice to see a bit of good news - for this year at least. nt

[BOSSHOG]

2. Well shuck my corn

Thats great news for this retired old fart. We gave em hell but I didn't think we'd be successful. I guess someone really does "support the troops" huh?

Yo lindsay, its so whimsical listening to a "conservative" yak about efficiency and reform. Are you guys getting off your talking points? GOP spokesman rush limbaugh said earlier this week that "reform" was a liberal code word. I truly enjoy the federal deficit which is a reflection of gop efficiency huh lindsay.

And to add my two cents worth to MAXRANDB's - fuck you very much lindsay and the lobbyist you rode in on.

Thanks very much for the post.

[maxrandb]

5. My prediction will come true

I said a while ago, that despite the fact that they control all three branches of government, and have for the past 5 years, their plan would be to run in 2006 as the "ouside the beltway/reform" party.

Kind of like a Republican promising not to steal again.

My sig line says it best.

[Divernan]

3. "Squeeze excess out" =s double the 10 month delay to get VA appt.?

YO! Sen. Graham! ! ! There is NO excess in the military health care system to be sqeezed through "efficiency and reform." From what I'm told by people trying to get care from the VA, such care is already too little AND too late.

Here's two (2) examples:
(1)For soldiers with battlefield stress, delayed stress reaction, or whatever you want to call the mental illness resulting from spending a tour in hell, the VA offers 1/2 hour of "therapy" a month.
(2) For my friend who is in his late 80's, and a much decorated Marine from World War II, and has multiple medical problems, his wife tells me it takes about 9 months to get an appointment with the VA near Chicago, so she drives him over to the Indiana VA near their former hometown where a sympathetic doctor will treat him.

[maxrandb]

4. Plan was the DOUBLE, or TRIPLE!!! Veterans Health Insurance Premiums

"WASHINGTON — The Bush administration’s plan to double or triple the health insurance premiums paid by more than a million military retirees nationwide appeared all but dead Tuesday – for this year at least."

This country, if they keep the repukes in power this November, has gone completely "effing" insane.

If anyone in the below groups votes for a Republican, they DESERVE THE SCREW THEY GET.

- Union members
- Poor
- Middle Class
- Woman
- Men
- Minorities
- Veterans
- Active Duty Military
- Reserve and National Guard Members
- Hurricane victims
- Homeowners
- Renters
- Small Business Owners

etc...

In other words, anyone not in the top 2% of wealth holders in this country that vote for a Republican this November needs to bend over and grab their ankles. Oh, and the Repukes won't even have the common decency to give you a "reach-around".

I weep for my once great country.

[LynnTheDem]

6. If yer retired, yer no use to bush & Cabal so fuck you.

bush has been fucking the troops over since 2000. Ask the VA how much they like bush. (then run away very fast before they beat your ass.)

[fasttense]

7. The proposal would have destroyed us.

My military medical care premiums would have gone up 204%. I wrote all my Senators and Representatives. I couldn't believe they would increase our payments that much yet give the oil companies their welfare. Screw the middle class and the military should be the new bush slogan.

[maxrandb]

8. Did you See this?

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is mulling a dramatic military pay and pension overhaul aimed at putting more cash in the pockets of current and future troops while delaying their receipt of retirement payments.

The change, advocated by a panel of retired senior officers, former civilian defense officials and economists, would be the largest modification in decades to a complex system of cash payments, health and pension benefits and tax breaks

One of the proposals for this "overhaul" of military pensions was to delay paying pension benefits until a veteran reaches age 60.

I'm looking for the whole story.

[Mandate My Ass]

9. jeebus! Delay benefits until 60?

Umm, most of them will be dead. First they wanted to look for PTSD fakers, and when that met with howls of outrage they sneakily met to plan how they would redefine the criteria to diagnose it. They're screwing the military every chance they get.

[maxrandb]

11. They want to "privatize" the military

that's the bottom line.

[maxrandb]

10. Here's a little more on Bushies military pension "overhaul" plan

I've bolded some things that stood out to me. Granted, getting a 50% pension after 20 years is pretty darn good, provided you don't get the shit blown out of you during that time.

If they allow Rummie to continue playing with the military like they're his own little GI-Joes, there is going to be hell to pay. As we say in the military. This guy as SECDEF is about as "effed-up as a soup sandwich"!!!

"Committee members were surprisingly frank, however, in criticizing the current compensation system as outdated, inefficient and weighted too heavily toward "deferred compensation" such as retirement and retiree health care. Rumsfeld and Chu, who shaped the panel, have struck similar themes in testimony before Congress and other venues. Panel member Frederic W. Cook, chairman of a consulting firm on executive compensation, noted that the idea of someone retiring at age 38 with full benefits doesn't exist in the private sector. Also unique to the government are "pensions indexed to cost of living." Private-sector retirees, he said, get a "flat pension" when they retire, "and then periodically the company can take a voluntary, pro-active action and do a catch-up to inflation." In that way companies "get credit" for helping retirees. With annual indexing, he said, retirees come to view adjustments as "a right, an entitlement" and take them for granted. "I'm not saying that's how we ought to proceed," Cook said. "But I wanted to point out the differences." Cook, a former Marine officer, also touted the private sector practice of delaying a "full" annuity until age 60 and giving a "haircut" to anyone who elects to retire earlier

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I guess the promises made to our military don't fit Chimpy's "privatization" plan.

How many years do you have to serve as president before you get life-time pension???