UASIT

Military retirees: You betrayed us, Congress - Dec. 12, 2013

MikeF16

To prevent myself from authoring a full manifesto I'll keep it brief: this really makes me angry. Really angry.

WARich

I was afraid this would happen at some point, unfortunately I feel this is just the beginning. There is no limit on what they'll do in Washington these days. Literally.

chignutsak

Spending is spending is spending. If we need to cut back, everything should be on the table.

Tweetdrvr

Yes, but military retirements are not the entitlement program that some make it out to be.

First, no other profession could legally tell you to go die today in the performance of your duties. The cost of that kind of devotion to duty is almost priceless. How much would you really have to pay in an all volunteer force to get folks to join, if people were routinely thrust into situations that required lots of folks to pay the ultimate sacrifice to achieve the objective? Is it likely to happen in today's conflicts? Probably not, but it is always a possibility. Police and fire fighters are the only ones who could come close in the civilian sector.

Second, we call it a pension, but it is a misnomer. It is really retention pay, because retirees are subject to recall to active duty. What is the value of that? After five years, your retirement category changes and the possibility of that happening dwindles, but it does exists. Can any of the 401k retirement civilian companies force you to come back in some dire fiscal crisis?

Lastly, at the risk of sounding like a "not in my backyard dude," did the Senate and the House vote themselves a pay cut or a reduction in their plans? Don't ask us to make further sacrifices, when we have already sacrificed a lot for the last 23.5 years ( Aug 1990 when this mess started), if you are not willing to take some yourself.

Pancake

Being only about 1% of the population, mil folks and their retirement benefits are easy targets.

Grumble

Shack. Cut mil retirement or welfare, which will **** off more constituents?

JamesNoBrakes

I've said this many times. Private business and industry has long figured out that cutting benefits, pensions and shrinking wages inflates the people on top and keeps things the same/good for those people. When given the situation "no job or take these concessions" people are put between a rock and a hardplace and have no real choice.

The government is just now figuring this out. The people in the private sector that have been taken for everything want "equality" for the government workers. Given what we've allowed corporations to get away with, I don't know if we'll have much of a leg to stand on. I am NOT for reducing any pension or retirement and I think that every effort should be made to avoid it, even if it means cutting back in other areas, reducing compensation to congress and other government workers, and so on, but given how this has rolled over in the private sector, I'm not expecting it. Usually people want an ever-increasing QOL without any sacrifice. Whilst paying out crazy amounts of subsidies and funding wars, they can say "we don't have enough money to run the country AND pay out these benefits". Just like your airlines or anyone else.

WARich

Just wait until they come for the 401K's under the theory that they can handle our money better and they're just trying to protect us.

HuggyU2

See how your Congressman voted: House passes 2-year budget deal - The Washington Post

MOAA's Legislative Action Center link. Allow YOU to quickly send your thoughts on this to Mr Obama and others on The Hill: Legislative Action Center