They are doing the military another favor

[Fred78]

Just saw the news the politicians have decided to help out the military by cutting their generous pensions. These a---holes have absolutely no shame the entire bunch should be replaced.

 

[Mgderf]

They need that money to give to illegal aliens.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Haven't seen this. What's changing?

 

[threedhuntr]

Is this what you are referring to?

White House backs overhaul of military retirement, health coverage - U.S. - Stripes

 

[Thor]

Once again the government shows they can't be trusted to fulfill a contract.

 

[cook4army]

They want to replace our retirement ben fits from a monthly stipend to a 401K type plan?? Sure, everyone knows how great people with those plans do when the stock market crashes. Damn politicians. How about we move the money from congressional pensions to help fund military retirements, lord knows few of them have truly earned it.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

The panel has advised the military to eliminate its 20-year pensions in favor of a 401(k)-style retirement system, and replace Tricare health coverage with a wide variety of private insurance plans.

Wait, INGO should love this. Privatization, free market, reduction of "bloated government". Next we need to eliminate the pay scales and defined GI Bill and the like and have each soldier negotiate his own wages, to communist to have everyone make the same thing as everyone else of their rank, after all. No "uniform worship" or the like, its just another job, right?

 

[T.Lex]

At the risk of appearing insensitive, there are very real issues surrounding the current military retirement system. For many reasons - mostly due to political avoidance of real decisionmaking - our military is very near to becoming a pension system that fights wars. (Or at least trains to.)

Reforms need to happen. I'm absolutely not advocating that military pensioners should be screwed. I'm just saying that, as a society, we're going to have to make some tough decisions.

 

[wtfd661]

They want to replace our retirement ben fits from a monthly stipend to a 401K type plan?? Sure, everyone knows how great people with those plans do when the stock market crashes. Damn politicians. How about we move the money from congressional pensions to help fund military retirements, lord knows few of them have truly earned it.

This has my vote!!!!

 

[phylodog]

At the risk of appearing insensitive, there are very real issues surrounding the current military retirement system. For many reasons - mostly due to political avoidance of real decisionmaking - our military is very near to becoming a pension system that fights wars. (Or at least trains to.)

Reforms need to happen. I'm absolutely not advocating that military pensioners should be screwed. I'm just saying that, as a society, we're going to have to make some tough decisions.

If you were to step back and take a look at all of the money the federal government takes in, where it spends that money and beginning assigning priorities the decision would be pretty easy in my opinion.

 

[T.Lex]

If you were to step back and take a look at all of the money the federal government takes in, where it spends that money and beginning assigning priorities the decision would be pretty easy in my opinion.

Totally agree. In an INGO-led totalitarian regime where you or I were sitting on the throne, I'm sure there would be no worries about the military pensions or the ability to make war.

Alas, that is not our form of gov't or society. We have to figure out how to accomplish the reforms in a larger context. That will not be easy.

This is also not a new issue for Americans, although the numbers are much bigger.

Bonus Army - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[D-Ric902]

Just saw the news the politicians have decided to help out the military by cutting their generous pensions. These a---holes have absolutely no shame the entire bunch should be replaced.

Only a politician would call military retirement "generous"

 

[D-Ric902]

At the risk of appearing insensitive, there are very real issues surrounding the current military retirement system. For many reasons - mostly due to political avoidance of real decisionmaking - our military is very near to becoming a pension system that fights wars. (Or at least trains to.)

Reforms need to happen. I'm absolutely not advocating that military pensioners should be screwed. I'm just saying that, as a society, we're going to have to make some tough decisions.

Tough decisions ..........

department of weights and measures
department of protocol
department of international studies
deprtment of energy
environmental protection agency
congresses "generous retirement"
jaunts
conferences
fact finding missions to the Bahamas
Global Warming grants

in half an hour I could cut 15 to 20 percent of the budget just by getting rid of some of these
http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml

 

[D-Ric902]

The government doesn't know how many agencies there are | The Daily Caller

we we have to start another commission to figure out how many agencies we have.

the only tough decisions require a reduction in military retirement?

 

[Kutnupe14]

The idea is sound just so long as it only applies to soldiers that enlist AFTER this policy is adopted.

Kut (thinks people should know what theyre getting into)

 

[actaeon277]

Well, they have to support all those people that don't work, and give money to businesses, and research the mating habits of the Tetzie fly.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

Okay folks, military retiree (reserve) here. The military retirement system changed at least once during my 39 year career (1970 - 2009 - or 2011 depending upon how you figure it). Just like when the police pension system changed in Indy, service members at some point will be grandfathered under the old system and new folks will come under the new system. I'm not certain what effect changing the retirement and benefits system will have on retention and enlistments, but you can bet your sweet Aunt Fanny that the military will look very closely at those issues, since they are heavy drivers in an all-volunteer force.

 

[actaeon277]

So, a career in the military meant poor pay, but good benefits and pension.
So, now we'll have poor pay, and poor benefits and pension.

sure, that's not a recipe for disaster.

 

[Blackhawk2001]

I noted upon reading the Stars & Stripes article that SecDef mentioned that 80% of service members leave without any retirement benefits whatsoever (probably very true) and that the proposed changes would allow every service member to have some sort of retirement options to carry forward. That is probably a good idea in itself. I'm not very familiar with the efficacy of Tri-Care, having only been on it briefly. I'm eligible for "Tri-Care for Life" but frankly have no idea what sort of coverage it provides or at what cost, so I'm not certain if transitioning to civilian medical plans would be a help or a hindrance. Certainly the type of plans available under ObamaCare will be beyond the means of junior enlisted and officers and their families, though.

 

[1775usmarine]

You should send Donnelly your thanks