It's Our Fault, Chuck Hagel!

angelajean

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Monday November 24, 2014 · 7:49 AM PST

2014/11/24 · 07:49

no image description available — #KeepYourPromise

#KeepYourPromise

Those of us working on keeping benefits intact for military families are wondering if our recent meme may have forced Chuck Hagel to resign. After all, it addresses some of the major issues that the New York Times suggests were problematic- like ISIS and Ebola.

What doesn't get talked about in the NY Times article is Chuck Hagel's role in cutting benefits to military families. The Senate Armed Services committee left for Thanksgiving Break without finishing up the defense budget for 2015 because, rumor has it, they can't decide what do about certain cuts to earned benefits for the military community, cuts backed by the Secretary of Defense.

The cuts currently on the table with the fixes proposed by certain Senators:

Cuts to the Cost of Living Raise. It should be 1.8% for this year and the President and the Department of Defense want to cut that by .8%. That would not only hurt military families for the upcoming year but for those working towards retirement, it would affect their future retirement as well since that earned benefit is determined by active duty salary.
The Fix - Sen. Marco Rubio's amendment (#3906) to sustain the 1.8 percent active duty pay raise established in law.
Cuts to the Basic Allowance for Housing of 5%. For your average enlisted family, housing is 30% of their salary and even a small cut makes a huge dent in the family check. For more on this issue, read a piece from last year when this cut was first proposed. -
The Fix - Sen. Mark Begich's amendment (#3714) to block cuts to the Basic Allowance for Housing.
Raise the Pharmacy co-pay to TRICARE. TRICARE is the health insurance for all military families. Although many families receive "free" health insurance (it is another earned benefit for service to the country), there are fees that can and do apply to all families. Those who do not receive their medications through a military facility pay a co-pay to get them from civilian pharmacies. This raise in co-pay is yet another way to place a higher burden on military families rather than on the Department of Defense.
The Fix - Sen. Kay Hagan's amendment (#3789) to block proposed TRICARE pharmacy copay increases.

We hope that any new incoming Secretary of Defense stands with military families and reminds the Department of Defense that there are several places to cut the budget without making military families pay more out of their pockets for the defense of our nation. Maybe Congress could actually turn to American Corporations and ask them to help pay for two wars. After all, that might work better than asking the American People to go shopping.

If you would like to contact your Senators about the proposed amendments, the Military Officer Association of America offers this easy to use editable message - http://capwiz.com/...

If you would like to join the conversation at KeepYourPromise, we welcome all political views on our Facebook page. It can make for some interesting political exchanges in the comments!

Happy Triple Dipping Veterans Day from Tom Coburn

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 10, 2014 · 6:33 AM PST

2014/11/10 · 06:33

Last week, the Associated Press released an article with an inflammatory title - Report says 60,000 veterans get triple benefits and then proceeded to lead with the triple dipping frame of reference.

You might get the idea that the Associated Press wants us to think that at least 4% of veterans are moochers.

The average payment was about $59,000, but about 2,300 veterans, or 4 percent of the total, received concurrent payments of $100,000 or more, the Government Accountability Office said.
The highest payment was to a veteran who received $208,757 in combined payments in 2013.

Legal moochers, but moochers nonetheless, at least to folks like Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) who requested the study in the first place.

Statistics thrown out in this way are dangerous because they give you just enough information to form an opinion but not enough for an informed opinion. This is journalism at its worst because it allows for the manipulation of the reading public.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 28, 2014 · 8:21 PM PDT

2014/10/28 · 20:21

These are words that came from President Obama today while speaking about the differences between our military and civilians returning from countries experiencing outbreaks of Ebola:

"We don't want to do things that are not based on science or best practices... "

Except for our military. At least, that's what I understood President Obama to have said today on the lawn of the White House:

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday May 11, 2014 · 6:00 AM PDT

2014/05/11 · 06:00

The Lodge just at the base of the green mountains.

Tucked away on the Ecuadorian Coast, just south of Bahía de Caráquez, is a small spot of land with a lodge and cabins, trails into the surrounding forest, and miles and miles of empty beach. The place is simply called Chirije, named after the ancient culture that used to live in this gorgeous location. In fact, an existing excavation is today a museum with multiple examples of treasures found on site.

That was part of the reason we wanted to visit, so that we could explore the archeaological ruins. If you'd like to see pictures of the stone and pottery discoveries, please visit my blog at NotYourAverageAmerican.com. Currently, you can read about Chirije, The Lodge and later next week there will be two other pieces published, Chirije, The Trails and Chirije, The Beach.

Examples of some of the finds at the Chirije archeaological site.

I know you came today for the birds! I took the following photos over 4 days in which we had weather ranging from bright and sunny to overcast and gray to outright rain. The pictures are not all great but even the poor ones show birds that I might not ever get to see again so I thought they were worth including. I hope you enjoy them! Read More

Bankruptcy for Military Housing?

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday April 23, 2014 · 6:56 AM PDT

2014/04/23 · 06:56

Yesterday, I introduced the community to cuts being made to the military Basic Allowance for Housing - a cut that will harm enlisted families far more than the officers who are recommending the changes.

BAH for junior enlisted troops can amount to 30 percent to 50 percent of total monthly pay, compared to officers whose housing allowance may make up about 15 percent to 30 percent of their pay.
http://www.navytimes.com/...

But the problem could be considerably worse for those living on military bases. Companies that have been contracted to manage base housing may have problems meeting their debt payments. You know what that means - potential bankruptcy.

Do we have a mini-housing crisis brewing on federal property?

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 22, 2014 · 10:00 AM PDT

2014/04/22 · 10:00

photo: Wikipedia Commons ; text added by angelajean

When many progressives hear that sequestration is forcing cuts to the defense budget, we cheer. After all, who doesn't want to see the Department of Defense better manage their money and do away with wasteful spending? It's a worthy goal of a department that has yet to finish a true audit of all it spends.

But one thing is becoming increasingly clear. In President Obama's proposed 2015 budget, expenditures at the Department of Defense actually increase while overall compensation to service members will decrease, even while the "Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative" attempts to relieve some of the harmful effects of sequestration.

In this piece, I want to address only a single cut to military families, the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), though four harmful cuts have been proposed. For those of you unfamiliar with military jargon, I promise to explain this in a readable and approachable way! And the truth is, we need civilian eyes on this... without your help, it will be very hard for such a small community to convince Congress on our own. If you truly support our sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines (and their families), irregardless of your stance on the wars, then we need your voice more than ever.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday April 14, 2014 · 6:50 AM PDT

2014/04/14 · 06:50

Today's front page of the Marine Corps Times

Last week during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corp Michael Barrett responded to Senators who were asking what the impact of lower pay raises, increased health care fees, lower housing allowances, and increased prices at the commissary would do to our men and women in uniform. He said:

I truly believe it will raise discipline. You’ll have better spending habits. You won’t be so wasteful.”

Honestly, I would have expected words like this to come from Stephen Colbert, not from the top NCO of the Marines. In fact, all the other service chiefs gave testimony to the exact opposite. It seems as if the Sergeant Major decided to go out on a limb all his own.

In fact, Barrett is playing with political fire but I'm not sure even he knew how dangerous this game can be.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday March 13, 2014 · 7:16 AM PDT

2014/03/13 · 07:16

Welcome to Part II of Our Overpaid Troops. Part I was published on Monday and addressed an issue recently raised in a diary well recommended by many Kossacks, that those who join the military do so in order to kill. As the wife of an Air Force Officer, I have strong disagreements with those that believe our military is solely a killing machine and that those who join are perpetuating a culture of war. You can read my thoughts on that topic here.

Two other diaries have recently made the Community Spotlight and claim that our military service members are overpaid. The writer purports to be an Active Duty Lieutenant Colonel who personally believes he makes too much money. My gut reaction wasn't very nice - that he is underworked, not overpaid. There are officers who manage to do very little and still find ways to get promoted. They rarely make it to Field Grade rank but as with any career field, we find exceptions.

My immediate reaction is somewhat unfair. I truly don't know the man nor do I know the officer. I have no idea if he supports a family or if his spouse, if he has one, has managed to maintain some semblance of a career as they have moved around. I don't even know if he's moved that often, if he's spent time away from family, if he's deployed to war. I don't know if he's in the Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marines. There is so much that I don't know that arguing with him is almost fruitless. If he thinks he makes too much, he obviously does. But I have a problem when he takes his personal experience and applies it to families like my own.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday March 10, 2014 · 8:57 AM PDT

2014/03/10 · 08:57

If you pay attention to military issues here at DailyKos, you'll notice a new theme cropping up in the diaries. To my jaded eyes, it looks like a pre-election push to make Democrats look less than supportive of the troops. It looks like a ploy to remind folks that those on the left hate the military because they are all out to kill people (this diary) or they are moochers of the system (this diary and this diary).

Except that it isn't just a new diarist or two. Our well-respected Rescue Rangers seem caught up in the fray, recommending diaries that say our troops are overpaid.

Full disclosure, I am an Officer's wife and an Senior NCO's daughter. My husband hasn't served a base level position for a few years and we are currently assigned where there are few military. But I know military family life, from both sides of the track, and I can tell you that we are not overpaid nor did my husband or our friends join in order to kill people.

As I was writing this response, I realized that it will take more than one diary. Thus, welcome to Part I - the killing meme.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 13, 2014 · 7:39 AM PST

2014/02/13 · 07:39

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that included an amendment to restore full COLA raises to military retirees. It wasn't a 100% erasure - new recruits as of Jan 1, 2014 will be looking at a different retirement than my husband. And it wasn't a perfect bill. The offset is an extension of Medicare sequestration - instead of ending in 2023, the sequestration is due to end in 2024.

I need to say Thank You. This community helped support this effort, not only by paying attention to my writing, but by contacting Representatives and Senators, by tweeting and retweeting messages, by sharing articles on Facebook, by spreading the word in any way you knew how. Our full COLA was restored because of a military/civilian partnership that worked. Thank you.

I want to write about what made this possible because there was something behind our partnership that made this work.

Back in 1995, Congress also made cuts to military retirees. They cut health care - changing a free system to a pay system even though Congress had promised free health care for life not only for the career service member but for their spouse. In the months that followed that cut, veterans organizations banded together; new groups came into existence; they tried to get the law reversed; they even went as far as to sue the government. And then lost. They were told, quite succinctly, that Congress doesn't make promises, they makes laws. And that was the end of it.

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 06, 2014 · 6:49 AM PST

2014/02/06 · 06:49

Representative John Boehner is promoting a doozy of an idea!

Boehner proposes linking debt-limit hike to a restoration of recent cuts to military benefits

In case you hadn't heard, families like mine with a service member who has served his or her twenty years (career military you might say) or is just about to have finished serving their twenty, had their retirement benefits cut by Congress back in December. It was a pittance according to many, just 1% of COLA every year until age 62. And then Congress will give some of it back. Just not that $80,000 to $120,000 per family that would have accrued in between. Those same legislators conveniently forgot that military pensions are actually deferred compensation - a benefit earned while serving but paid after retirement. Those same legislators conveniently forgot that our career military sign a contract at 15 years specifically accepting that cut with a cash payment or refusing it and choosing to retain full COLA. Those same legilators conveniently forgot that these so-called retirees can be called back to active service at the President's discretion. They may be retired but they are not finished serving their nation.

These same legislators shed crocodile tears and lined up by droves to co-sponsor legislation that would fix the broken promise. Yet no legislation has actually come to a vote so it's very hard to tell who really supports reinstating full COLA and who is just trying to cover their ass.

And now, John Boehner might be a hero or he might be a pariah... depends on how you want to write the story. Mind you, we know that John Boehner has no desire to fix this cut:

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, signaled in a brief hallway conversation with The Associated Press that he would oppose a broader drive to repeal the entire pension provision, which saves $6 billion over the coming decade by reducing the annual cost-of-living adjustment for working age military retirees by 1 percentage point.
http://cjonline.com/...

Veterans have just become a pawn in the political game called The Debt Ceiling Hike. Read More

@Senate_GOPs : You Borrowed to Fund Two Wars But That Isn't Good Enough to Fund Bill for Veterans?

angelajean

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday February 05, 2014 · 6:28 AM PST

2014/02/05 · 06:28

Military families and veterans have been patiently waiting for Congress to fix a small problem they caused back in December when they passed the Bi-Partisan Budget Act of 2013. Not only did they fail to renew unemployment benefits, but they also cut COLA on military pensions. The cuts, though small to the overall federal budget, are huge to the individual pocket books of those who have served their country; as much as $80,000 to $120,000 will be lost over time to each of these families.

The uproar that ensued has guaranteed that both Representatives and Senators have started to say the right thing. More than 100 Representatives have co-sponsored HR 3790 and HR 3804, identical bills that are a straight repeal of the cuts with no offset. And, yes, Republicans are a large part of the support of HR 3790. But rumor has it that it will never make it to a vote in the House Armed Services Committee nor the floor because Speaker John Boehner has openly said he does not support restoring full pensions. Welcome to our Democracy.

In fact, some are so insistent that this will be fixed, they wonder why military families and veterans are still making a fuss:

“You guys have already won,” Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, ranking Republican, assured military association leaders who testified against the recent devaluation of military retirement as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act.
http://www.stripes.com/...

Let me tell you why we continue to demand an immediate fix.

Military families and veterans have been placing their bets on a different bill, one that offers not only a fix for military retirees but other solutions for many veterans issues. That would be Senator Bernie Sander's S 1950. Senator Harry Reid has placed it on the fast track and yesterday we read that the bill would be ready for a vote on the floor of the Senate on Monday.

But Republicans are already lining up in opposition:

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It's Our Fault, Chuck Hagel!

Happy Triple Dipping Veterans Day from Tom Coburn

"We don't want to do things that are not based on science or best practices... " Except to soldiers

Dawn Chorus - A Lodge Called Chirije

Bankruptcy for Military Housing?

Making Enough Money to Pay the Rent (A Tale of Sequestration)

Lower Pay Raises Discipline - Updated as Sgt. Maj. triples down

Our Overpaid Troops - Part II

Our Overpaid Troops - Part I

Thank You For Making A Difference

Boehner Uses Veterans as a Pawn in the Debt Ceiling Crisis

@Senate_GOPs : You Borrowed to Fund Two Wars But That Isn't Good Enough to Fund Bill for Veterans?