Cover of the new Navy Times: "Obama Targets Your Benefits"

[maxrandb]

"Obama Tagets Your Benefits"

Big bold "blanking" headline. I haven't figured out how to load a picture of the Navy Times, but that's the headline...and it's the headline on all of these papers. Navy, Army, Marine and Air Force Times.

Will post more once I'm able to get the article, but this needs to be pushed back on hard and fast.

[highprincipleswork]

1. Too bad it's at least partly true.

[Drahthaardogs]

2. I hate to say it, but it is more or less true.

Obama has gone after the low lying fruit...the benefits of feds and the military. I would not mind if the Wall Street Boys had to pay their dues as well, but to date, they have not. Of course, God forbid Perry or Romney gets in. The carnage will be the stuff of legend if that happens.

[MADem]

4. I want the House and SENATE to pay for their Cadillac Care--and they

do NOT deserve a retirement after working for only twelve (half) years. That's just bullshit.

[littlewolf]

5. I was under the impression that they got retirement after only one time

2 years in the house and 6 in the Senate .....

[MADem]

7. They are "vested" after five years, but they don't get the full Magilla for that timeframe.

The longer they stay, the more they get--up to EIGHTY percent of their original salary!

You need to do 12 or so years to be able to get by without doing any other work, and if you can hang on up to 25 years, you're rolling in clover. No matter--most of those guys just ease on over and start lobbying their old buddies if they don't get reelected, the bums.

To get around the lobbying rules, they first hire on as "non-lobbying advisors" or lawyers to the lobbying firm. Then, they go out to dinner with their old pals and a registered lobbyist (who ends up parking the car and picking up the check).

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

They changed the system in the mid-eighties (before that, they didn't even have to kick in to Social Security), either way, it's a great way to make a buck--nice work if you can get it.

They also get to keep their little round House/Senate PIN and have access to the Hill--even having done less time, but they need to do a minimum of 5 years (with plenty of RECESS) to get a check.

Oh--and don't get me started on RECESS!! A juvenile term, reminiscent of grammar school...and boy, do those bastards know how to PLAY. They commandeer military aircraft and spend their summers shopping in Europe, fishing in Alaska, seeing the sights in Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, etc. They force base and unit commanders to stop everything and play "spit-n-polish" as well as jinn up all sorts of briefings so that everyone can pretend the trips have a purpose. The truth is, they could do all that shit by teleconference....save the shopping, sightseeing and dinners out at fancy restaurants.

In the winter, they find a pressing need to examine Quality of Life issues in Hawaii, or any military installation with good weather and a better golf course.

Even when they're heading to the 'Stan (which happens in time for them to get plenty of flak jacket and helmet "on the front lines" pictures that are displayed in four color glossy campaign handouts and on their Elect Senator/Rep Asshole websites) they manage a stop-off in a luxury environment.

It's nauseating. I've seen enough CODELs to last several lifetimes, FWIW.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

[Drahthaardogs]

6. Their "Cadillac Plan" is basic BC/BS, Aetna, etc.

They have the same health care as all other feds, and they pay expensive premiums. They also cannot retire after twelve years unless they are of minimum age, they would have reduced benefits. I understand your anger though and appreciate the outrage. They are all federal employees too.

[MADem]

8. I have personally seen them kick military active duty off the operating table

for "elective" procedures at military medical facilities in the DC area. Other feds cannot go to Bethesda or Walter Reed, and have the Chief of Staff of the Army or the CNO of the Navy fretting at their bedside after they've had a frigging polyp removed.

You do know Strom Thurmond (and others, too) LIVED at Walter Reed in their dotage? He had several rooms, and was awakened, dressed, and driven to the Hill for votes.

You show me a federal employee who can get a check after five years who isn't a Congressman (and who wasn't injured on the job, of course). I don't know any bums who work for HUD, the FEEBS, IRS or any of those other alphabet agencies who can saunter into a military medical facility and say "I have time for that polyp/arthroscopic/prostate operation today" and surgery is then cancelled for active duty members.

They believe their own bullshit, and way too many think they are more important than We, The People. They aren't. They need a serious course correction....IMO.

So long as money--reelection money, lobbying money, corporate money, soft money--remains a part of the whole election process, though, we're just screwed. The system is rigged against We, The People. And the people who cheerfully do the rigging are those same bastards who never hesitate to vote themselves a healthy pay raise every year, even while they deny others the same consideration.

Those kids who are protesting at Wall Street oughta park themselves in front of Congress and ask those guys for some accountability for their behavior. There's more than enough criminality and corruption in that building to shake several sticks at.

[MADem]

3. All of those are published by the same publishing company in Springfield VA. It's not a gov't paper

It's a private paper that they charge too much for in the PX!!



Unless they're covering a specific "big story" about one branch of service (e.g. US Army sex scandal at ABERDEEN; Mike Mullen becomes CJCS; something like that) the headline on all papers will sometimes be the same, particularly if they are covering a DOD-wide story like this one.

MOAA is already on this, as are Fleet Reserve and other agencies that function as de facto lobbyists for the servicemembers and retirees.

They want us to pay more for TRICARE. See this article:

Obama plan calls for new Tricare fee hikes




By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 19, 2011 12:48:01 EDT



President Obama’s $4.4 trillion deficit-reduction plan proposes additional increases in Tricare pharmacy co-pays for military beneficiaries and would begin charging an enrollment fee for older retirees using Tricare for Life health benefits.

But the plan postpones any fundamental changes in military retired pay until yet another commission studies the issue.

A White House statement says the current 20-year military retirement system is outdated and needs an overhaul, but it pledges that any change should not apply to those already retired or currently serving.

Unveiled Monday amid bitter partisan fighting over economic policy, Obama’s deficit reduction proposal calls for a modest but a symbolically significant $200 annual enrollment fee for retirees aged 65 and older to receive military health care benefits.

The first-ever enrollment fee for Tricare for Life would take effect in fiscal 2013, which means no sooner than Oct. 1, 2012. The fee would generate $6.7 billion in revenue over 10 years, according to White House estimates.

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-tricare-benefits-cuts-obama-091911w/

[Autumn]

11. So it's going to generate $6.7 billion in revenue over 10 years

Now what about those tax breaks for the wealthy?

"The tax cuts cost $1.8 trillion in the first eight years, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, whose reliability the last administration went out of its way to praise. Those cuts were heavily weighted toward the people candidate George W. Bush famously called "haves and the have-mores . . . some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

In the two years since 2008, the cuts' total cost grew to $2.3 trillion."

That's from Tax.com

So what we have here is a pathetic little shake down on retirees, and Widows and Widowers. Pretty fucking sad if you ask me.

[MADem]

14. I agree with you. It's a dumb thing to do, tone deaf, in fact. NT

[roguevalley]

17. given the peanut salary our soldiers, et al make, this is a travesty

[TwilightGardener]

9. Tricare fees going up sucks, but since they broke the promise to retirees

years ago of free health care for life, it's expected. The retirement pay, that is sacrosanct. The military is not comparable to civil service, and it's certainly not comparable to civilian life. Aside from the obvious hardships and family separations, it is difficult for a military family to ever get ahead financially when you are forced to move every 3-4 years (and the spouse quits his/her job, and has possibly months with no paycheck, and then he or she starts at the bottom of the pay scale again--and you either can't buy a home or build up little equity). The pension helps make up for that. I hope somebody counsels him to leave the fucking retirement pay ALONE, let the Repubs fuck with it and earn the wrath.

[Autumn]

10. How does one push back on that article when it's

basically the truth? Of course a better headline would say the "Pentagon and Obama Targets Your Benefits" .

[FarLeftFist]

12. So now the military is a hyper-partisan organization?!

[TomCADem]

13. Crazy! John McCain and Other Republicans Vote Against Veteran Benefits Supported By Obama

And Republicans get a free pass.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-24-candidates-veterans_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-05-24-candidates-veterans_N.htm

[1776Forever]

15. Here's the article & cover - Obama plan calls for new Tricare fee hikes

Obama plan calls for new Tricare fee hikes
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 19, 2011 12:48:01 EDT



http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/09/military-tricare-benefits-cuts-obama-091911w/

President Obama’s $4.4 trillion deficit-reduction plan proposes additional increases in Tricare pharmacy co-pays for military beneficiaries and would begin charging an enrollment fee for older retirees using Tricare for Life health benefits.

But the plan postpones any fundamental changes in military retired pay until yet another commission studies the issue.

A White House statement says the current 20-year military retirement system is outdated and needs an overhaul, but it pledges that any change should not apply to those already retired or currently serving.

(more at link)

..........

Of course we know most of this was caused by failed Bush policies and loopholes along with GOP Tea Party cuts but they are blaming it squarely on the Obama Administration.

[maxrandb]

16. That's my point

Any sensible plan that is going to reduce our long-term debt is going to have to address some of the military programs. I'm active duty with 28 years in, and even I accept that.

First, there is absolutely no proposal that changes the current retirement program for folks that are currently serving. A modest increase in Tricare fees (equivalent to $0.57 a day) might be necessary to ensure Tricare remains viable.

It's the damn sensationalist headline that pisses me off, and is going to drive military member's even further to the right, DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE RIGHT IS GOING TO SLASH THE CRAP OUT OF BENEFITS...and won't even have the common decency to give you a "reach-around".

Obama is "targeting" current benefits about as much as Perry "supports Social Security". It's a lie to say Obama is "targeting your benefits". He is simply proposing a change to "future" military retirement that puts it more in-line with the rest of America. That may, or may-not, be a good idea...and it's a debate that is worth having, but to use a fraudulent headline like this to pit the Commander-in-Chief against the troops is not only wrong...it's damn dangerous.

Maybe I missed the large, bold, red and black headline in the military Times pubs back when Dumbya was Pretzledent and deceiving us into war that read; "Bush Is Trying to Kill You".

I have to ask; "would Navy Times run a headline like that"?

[Octafish]

18. Gannett pubs.

Awesome is their greed.