The other day I heard something from the Washington that irritated me more than just about anything those clowns have proposed so far. Instead of starting to give 20 year military veterans a pension immediately upon separation from the service, these idiots want to put the money into a 401k type account and then the retired service member can start to draw that money upon reaching "retirement" age. Wow, what a deal.
It's obvious that people that come up with these brilliant ideas have never put on any type of uniform in their lives. Well, maybe an SEIU uniform, or one of some other communist organization, but certainly not one of the Unites States military. We must also remember that these folks are also receiving some benefits after having served only one "tour of duty" in the US congress. I don't see them reducing those, do you?
So what they are now telling our service members is that you wont get your retirement eventhough you have sacrificed the prime of your physical life, time away from family, going to the ugliest parts of the world to do difficult and dangerous work on behalf of your fellow country men and that you are now going to have to wait for another 20 years probably for the benefit that was promised to you the day you swore to defend this great nation. Outstanding. I bet it makes you want to stay for another enlistment, doesn't it?
What these people don't understand is that it is only 50% of a service member's base pay that is the benefit. There are plenty of other things that are added to a paycheck that are not considered base pay. I remember that I was receiving extra rations along with BAQ (sorry, I can't remember what that stands for) because I was stationed at a place where my wife couldn't join me. That was not considered part of my $700 a month base pay. Yes, I was a private and this was in the early 1980's. No, I did not retire from the military and no I do not receive disability payments from the government even though I received a medical discharge.
Now a person that serves 20+ years gets a monthly check for the rest of their lives. I have no problem with that. Neither should you. This is not a great amount in the grand scheme of things and it should be considered a "thank you" from a grateful nation. Because if it wasn't for fine folks like this, being willing to go fight and maybe even die for all of us, who knows what this country would look like.
We aren't talking about a great deal of money either. My maternal grandfather served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. Remember Mr. President, the "r" and the "p" are silent. Grandpa fought at Gudalcanal in WWII and in Korea. He and my grandmother lived in a double wide trailer after he retired. He wasn't living in a big house on the hill. He worked a normal job after getting out of the Corps, as did my grandmother, and they had a decent life, but the benefit didn't create an atmosphere of tremendous wealth.
Besides, from the news report that I heard, this would only reduce the the total cost by only $250B ($250,000,000,000) over the next ten years. So what is that? I think that's about three weeks of overspending by the current government.
How about we look at reforming the welfare system? How about we eleminate the benefit of our current crop of legislatures? How about we look at reforming Medicare and Medicaid? How about we look at reforming the tax code and making more people pay taxes?
How about we look at changing the addresses of the Obama's and Harry Reid in 2012?
It's obvious that people that come up with these brilliant ideas have never put on any type of uniform in their lives. Well, maybe an SEIU uniform, or one of some other communist organization, but certainly not one of the Unites States military. We must also remember that these folks are also receiving some benefits after having served only one "tour of duty" in the US congress. I don't see them reducing those, do you?
So what they are now telling our service members is that you wont get your retirement eventhough you have sacrificed the prime of your physical life, time away from family, going to the ugliest parts of the world to do difficult and dangerous work on behalf of your fellow country men and that you are now going to have to wait for another 20 years probably for the benefit that was promised to you the day you swore to defend this great nation. Outstanding. I bet it makes you want to stay for another enlistment, doesn't it?
What these people don't understand is that it is only 50% of a service member's base pay that is the benefit. There are plenty of other things that are added to a paycheck that are not considered base pay. I remember that I was receiving extra rations along with BAQ (sorry, I can't remember what that stands for) because I was stationed at a place where my wife couldn't join me. That was not considered part of my $700 a month base pay. Yes, I was a private and this was in the early 1980's. No, I did not retire from the military and no I do not receive disability payments from the government even though I received a medical discharge.
Now a person that serves 20+ years gets a monthly check for the rest of their lives. I have no problem with that. Neither should you. This is not a great amount in the grand scheme of things and it should be considered a "thank you" from a grateful nation. Because if it wasn't for fine folks like this, being willing to go fight and maybe even die for all of us, who knows what this country would look like.
We aren't talking about a great deal of money either. My maternal grandfather served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. Remember Mr. President, the "r" and the "p" are silent. Grandpa fought at Gudalcanal in WWII and in Korea. He and my grandmother lived in a double wide trailer after he retired. He wasn't living in a big house on the hill. He worked a normal job after getting out of the Corps, as did my grandmother, and they had a decent life, but the benefit didn't create an atmosphere of tremendous wealth.
Besides, from the news report that I heard, this would only reduce the the total cost by only $250B ($250,000,000,000) over the next ten years. So what is that? I think that's about three weeks of overspending by the current government.
How about we look at reforming the welfare system? How about we eleminate the benefit of our current crop of legislatures? How about we look at reforming Medicare and Medicaid? How about we look at reforming the tax code and making more people pay taxes?
How about we look at changing the addresses of the Obama's and Harry Reid in 2012?
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