Why would you do such a thing President Obama?
WaveCameCrashin
Posts: 2,929
I watched an episode of 60 min a couple of weeks ago about soldiers (men and women) returning home from the Middle East who can't find a job and are homeless right now. FREAKING HOMELESS !!!!! And now this ? This should not be happening in our country FOLKS.
These Men and women risk their lives,leave behind their families and loved ones,and VOLUNTARILY I might add to keep us all safe SO WE CAN GO ON LIVING OUR DAY TO DAY LIVES AND ENJOYING OUR FREEDOMS. This is why every one of those damn bastards should be thrown out of office starting from the TOP!! To me this just proves that Obama doesnt appreciate our Military. He never has bcos the man has no virtue. :evil:
Trashing Tricare
by Bill Gertz
http://freebeacon.com/trashing-tricare/
The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.
The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.
The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.
Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.
“We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”
Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
“When they talked to us, they did mention the option of healthcare exchanges under Obamacare. So it’s in their mind,” said a congressional aide involved in the issue.
Military personnel from several of the armed services voiced their opposition to a means-tested tier system for Tricare, prompting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey to issue a statement Feb. 21.
Dempsey said the military is making tough choices in cutting defense spending. In addition to the $487 billion over 10 years, the Pentagon is facing automatic cuts that could push the total reductions to $1 trillion.
“I want those of you who serve and who have served to know that we’ve heard your concerns, in particular your concern about the tiered enrollment fee structure for Tricare in retirement,” Dempsey said. “You have our commitment that we will continue to review our health care system to make it as responsive, as affordable, and as equitable as possible.”
Under the new plan, the Pentagon would get the bulk of its savings by targeting under-65 and Medicare-eligible military retirees through a tiered increase in annual Tricare premiums that will be based on yearly retirement pay.
Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.
According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.
The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.
The changes are worrying some in the Pentagon who fear it will severely impact efforts to recruit and maintain a high-quality all-volunteer military force. Such benefits have been a key tool for recruiting qualified people and keeping them in uniform.
“Would you stay with a car insurance company that raised your premiums by 345 percent in five years? Probably not,” said the congressional aide. “Would anybody accept their taxes being raised 345 percent in five years? Probably not.”
A second congressional aide said the administration’s approach to the cuts shows a double standard that hurts the military.
“We all recognize that we are in a time of austerity,” this aide said. “But defense has made up to this point 50 percent of deficit reduction cuts that we agreed to, but is only 20 percent of the budget.”
The administration is asking troops to get by without the equipment and force levels needed for global missions. “And now they are going to them again and asking them to pay more for their health care when you’ve held the civilian workforce at DoD and across the federal government virtually harmless in all of these cuts. And it just doesn’t seem fair,” the second aide said.
Spokesmen for the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not respond to requests for comment on the Tricare increases.
The massive increases beginning next year appear timed to avoid upsetting military voters in a presidential election year, critics of the plan say.
Additionally, the critics said leaving civilian workers’ benefits unchanged while hitting the military reflect the administration’s effort to court labor unions, as government unions are the only segment of organized labor that has increased in recent years.
As part of the increased healthcare costs, the Pentagon also will impose an annual fee for a program called Tricare for Life, a new program that all military retirees automatically must join at age 65. Currently, to enroll in Tricare for Life, retirees pay the equivalent of a monthly Medicare premium.
Under the proposed Pentagon plan, retirees will be hit with an additional annual enrollment fee on top of the monthly premium.
Congressional aides said that despite unanimous support among the military chiefs for the current healthcare changes, some senior officials in the Pentagon are opposing the reforms, in particular the tiered system of healthcare.
“It doesn’t matter what the benefit is, whether it’s commissary, PX, or healthcare, or whatever … under the rationale that if you raise your hand and sign up to serve, you earn a base set of benefits, and it should have nothing to do with your rank when you served, and how much you’re making when you retire,” the first aide said.
Military service organizations are opposing the healthcare changes and say the Pentagon is “means-testing” benefits for service personnel as if they were a social program, and not something earned with 20 or more years of military service.
Retired Navy Capt. Kathryn M. Beasley, of the Military Officers Association of America, said the Military Coalition, 32 military service and veterans groups with an estimated 5 million members, is fighting the proposed healthcare increases, specifically the use of mean-testing for cost increases.
“We think it’s absolutely wrong,” Beasley told the Free Beacon. “This is a breach of faith” for both the active duty and retiree communities.
Congressional hearings are set for next month.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars on Feb. 23 called on all military personnel and the veterans’ community to block the healthcare increases.
“There is no military personnel issue more sacrosanct than pay and benefits,” said Richard L. DeNoyer, head of the 2 million-member VFW. “Any proposal that negatively impacts any quality of life program must be defeated, and that’s why the VFW is asking everyone to join the fight and send a united voice to Congress.”
Senior Air Force leaders are expected to be asked about the health care cost increases during a House Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Congress must pass all the proposed changes into law, as last year’s defense authorization bill preemptively limited how much the Pentagon could increase some Tricare fees, while other fees already were limited in law.
Tricare for Life, Tricare Prime, and Tricare Standard increases must be approved, as well as some of the pharmacy fee increases, congressional aides said.
Current law limits Tricare fee increases to cost of living increases in retirement pay.
These Men and women risk their lives,leave behind their families and loved ones,and VOLUNTARILY I might add to keep us all safe SO WE CAN GO ON LIVING OUR DAY TO DAY LIVES AND ENJOYING OUR FREEDOMS. This is why every one of those damn bastards should be thrown out of office starting from the TOP!! To me this just proves that Obama doesnt appreciate our Military. He never has bcos the man has no virtue. :evil:
Trashing Tricare
by Bill Gertz
http://freebeacon.com/trashing-tricare/
The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.
The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.
The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.
Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.
“We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”
Administration officials told Congress that one goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees to reduce their involvement in Tricare and eventually opt out of the program in favor of alternatives established by the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
“When they talked to us, they did mention the option of healthcare exchanges under Obamacare. So it’s in their mind,” said a congressional aide involved in the issue.
Military personnel from several of the armed services voiced their opposition to a means-tested tier system for Tricare, prompting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey to issue a statement Feb. 21.
Dempsey said the military is making tough choices in cutting defense spending. In addition to the $487 billion over 10 years, the Pentagon is facing automatic cuts that could push the total reductions to $1 trillion.
“I want those of you who serve and who have served to know that we’ve heard your concerns, in particular your concern about the tiered enrollment fee structure for Tricare in retirement,” Dempsey said. “You have our commitment that we will continue to review our health care system to make it as responsive, as affordable, and as equitable as possible.”
Under the new plan, the Pentagon would get the bulk of its savings by targeting under-65 and Medicare-eligible military retirees through a tiered increase in annual Tricare premiums that will be based on yearly retirement pay.
Significantly, the plan calls for increases between 30 percent to 78 percent in Tricare annual premiums for the first year. After that, the plan will impose five-year increases ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.
According to congressional assessments, a retired Army colonel with a family currently paying $460 a year for health care will pay $2,048.
The new plan hits active duty personnel by increasing co-payments for pharmaceuticals and eliminating incentives for using generic drugs.
The changes are worrying some in the Pentagon who fear it will severely impact efforts to recruit and maintain a high-quality all-volunteer military force. Such benefits have been a key tool for recruiting qualified people and keeping them in uniform.
“Would you stay with a car insurance company that raised your premiums by 345 percent in five years? Probably not,” said the congressional aide. “Would anybody accept their taxes being raised 345 percent in five years? Probably not.”
A second congressional aide said the administration’s approach to the cuts shows a double standard that hurts the military.
“We all recognize that we are in a time of austerity,” this aide said. “But defense has made up to this point 50 percent of deficit reduction cuts that we agreed to, but is only 20 percent of the budget.”
The administration is asking troops to get by without the equipment and force levels needed for global missions. “And now they are going to them again and asking them to pay more for their health care when you’ve held the civilian workforce at DoD and across the federal government virtually harmless in all of these cuts. And it just doesn’t seem fair,” the second aide said.
Spokesmen for the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not respond to requests for comment on the Tricare increases.
The massive increases beginning next year appear timed to avoid upsetting military voters in a presidential election year, critics of the plan say.
Additionally, the critics said leaving civilian workers’ benefits unchanged while hitting the military reflect the administration’s effort to court labor unions, as government unions are the only segment of organized labor that has increased in recent years.
As part of the increased healthcare costs, the Pentagon also will impose an annual fee for a program called Tricare for Life, a new program that all military retirees automatically must join at age 65. Currently, to enroll in Tricare for Life, retirees pay the equivalent of a monthly Medicare premium.
Under the proposed Pentagon plan, retirees will be hit with an additional annual enrollment fee on top of the monthly premium.
Congressional aides said that despite unanimous support among the military chiefs for the current healthcare changes, some senior officials in the Pentagon are opposing the reforms, in particular the tiered system of healthcare.
“It doesn’t matter what the benefit is, whether it’s commissary, PX, or healthcare, or whatever … under the rationale that if you raise your hand and sign up to serve, you earn a base set of benefits, and it should have nothing to do with your rank when you served, and how much you’re making when you retire,” the first aide said.
Military service organizations are opposing the healthcare changes and say the Pentagon is “means-testing” benefits for service personnel as if they were a social program, and not something earned with 20 or more years of military service.
Retired Navy Capt. Kathryn M. Beasley, of the Military Officers Association of America, said the Military Coalition, 32 military service and veterans groups with an estimated 5 million members, is fighting the proposed healthcare increases, specifically the use of mean-testing for cost increases.
“We think it’s absolutely wrong,” Beasley told the Free Beacon. “This is a breach of faith” for both the active duty and retiree communities.
Congressional hearings are set for next month.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars on Feb. 23 called on all military personnel and the veterans’ community to block the healthcare increases.
“There is no military personnel issue more sacrosanct than pay and benefits,” said Richard L. DeNoyer, head of the 2 million-member VFW. “Any proposal that negatively impacts any quality of life program must be defeated, and that’s why the VFW is asking everyone to join the fight and send a united voice to Congress.”
Senior Air Force leaders are expected to be asked about the health care cost increases during a House Armed Services Committee hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Congress must pass all the proposed changes into law, as last year’s defense authorization bill preemptively limited how much the Pentagon could increase some Tricare fees, while other fees already were limited in law.
Tricare for Life, Tricare Prime, and Tricare Standard increases must be approved, as well as some of the pharmacy fee increases, congressional aides said.
Current law limits Tricare fee increases to cost of living increases in retirement pay.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
$750,000 soccer field for terrorists at Guantanamo.
Our President is the enemy.
but the partisanship game is sooooo much fun to play!!
Guantanamo shouldn't even be open. Sad to see some of our troops in such a sad state. Oddly enough I go to school with a lot of former Military.
Congress can't work with the president and the president isn't working with Congress. It's hopeless.... We need some compromise.
Now, insurance premiums for military families are finally increasing, like the rest of ours who's have gone up seemingly exponentially the last several years and it's an outrage?
The right has railed on government spending for the last few years, and now the military budget is cut (with painful results to families), and there is more outrage?
I will never say that people in the military don't deserve to be treated better, but this is the reality of cutting government spending. Budgets and programs get cut, it comes out of the pockets of the people who probably can afford it the least.
That is why "we" can never agree on budget cuts... There are far reaching consequences of cutting money for just about anything.
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
That's BS Brianlux- and I respect you man....
Im military myself, and the troops knew that Bush had our backs. He was a rock star to the troops- I met him.
Obama is hated in the military- and the higher up you go, the more that is true. He is absolutely hated.
Didn't mean to come off harsh there- sorry bout that- but this "balancing the budget on the backs of out veterans" has to stop.
Besides, the real disgusting treatment of our troops began before my time, after Vietnam.
I've never been subjected to anything like what those brave men went through.
Ron Paul is the only hope and the one the military really wants in charge....
we wouldt be in this situation if we adhered to the constitution and quit letting the govt spend money on things they have no authority to and quit letting them send our young men and women overseas to die in the name of corporate interest.
he's sucking the wrong ass for sure.
Godfather.
the only reason obama is hated by the military is because he is a democrat. the military is red red republican and it has been for decades. obama is trying to get us out of iraq and afghanistan, thus giving the military less to do, and the military brass will not stand for that. should we continue to throw the same amount of money into an oversized military that we do not need or do we refine the military and the budget? the first rule of budgeting is you use the money that is given to you. if you do not use it all, you lose that percentage of it in the next budget. if we are no longer going to be occupying 2 countries in the middle east we do not need that same amount of money being spent on the military.
that said, the vets must be taken care of. use the money in the budget that went to the war effort and apply that to the vets. those that were sent to fight should come back home knowing that all of their health care needs will be taken care of. they should be able to come home and find work. that is the least we can do for the men and women that have served.
this is hilarious to me. everyone says that we spend too much money and that the government is irresponsible with money. everyone says that taxes can't be raised and that spending must be cut. yet the cuts always have to focus on programs that help the poor and those that help educate our kids. for some reason the military is the sacred cow that can not be touched. it is time that the military be scaled back as well.
so which is it? tax increases, or across the board, including military, spending cuts. it is your choice. people can not have it both ways.
tricare needs to be overhauled. as someone who deals with tricare every day and tries to get things approved by tricare and referrals from tricare, i can attest that there is something wrong with tricare. besides workman's compensation, tricare is the biggest pain in the ass to deal with.
tricare is just an option. if you are a vet you can opt out of tricare and get other insurance. you are not locked into it. tricare is just like medicare. every day people in our practice complain about being on medicare or being on tricare, and when i ask them would they rather pay a higher price for something else they always say "no thinks, i'll keep my tricare" or "i'll keep my medicare"..
all of that said, i would rather see cuts coming from programs like the f 35 and other things that are not necessary and have yet to see the light of day after billions are spent in research and development, and give that money to take care of the vets..
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I support the troops, not war.
this
Yeah, that's Pearl Jam's theme as well and I get that. Though many troops believe they are doing a good thing through the wars. And I understand that as well. I just wonder if this is double talk logic at some point?
Paul is not my personal choice, but he is very popular with us enlisted guys- I have many friends who are planning on voting for him. They think they might not have to get deployed as often if Paul were President, and they're probably right.
I hear you, man, and I can agree with that!
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Louis Brandeis
Absolutely
MGM Grand - Jul 6, 2006
Cox Arena - Jul 7, 2006
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival - May 1, 2010
Alpine Valley Music Theater - Sep 3-4 2011
Made In America, Philly - Sep 2, 2012
EV, Houston - Nov 12-13, 2012
Dallas-November 2013
OKC-November 2013
ACL 2-October 2014
Fenway Night 1, August 2016
Wrigley, Night 1 August 2018
Fort Worth, Night 1 September 2023
Fort Worth, Night 2 September 2023
Austin, Night 1 September 2023
Austin, Night 2 September 2023
You are right sir and with that said I bet the politicians would feel a little different about dragging our asses into these wars if their sons and daughters were serving along side you. Also let me say that I have never served due to personal reasons,but I have so much respect for you guys and so do millions of Americans. It takes guts and personal sacrifice to be able to leave your family and loved ones not knowing if you will ever see them again.
So I say thank you and tip my hat to you and all the other brave men and women who are serving.
Godspeed and Godbless..
I have no issue with medically taking care of those that come back maimed or injured (mentally or physically), but some intimate that veterans should be taken care of financially until their grave even no matter their history of duty.
at some point everyone needs to take responsibility for their own choices. if they choose to remain in the military but retire from active tours/duty, then so be it. if they choose to leave, there should be civilain transition programs to help them get employment and reintigrated into civilian life.
Fargo 2003
Winnipeg 2005
Winnipeg 2011
St. Paul 2014
But.....I get tired of the rhetoric that they are there "protecting our freedoms". This is an American thing drilled into our psyche. There are a lot of free countries in the world who aren't out there killing other civiians to protect their freedoms.
you realize you're saying the same thing as JaP, right...?
and if you don't, therein lies the problem...
Brain fart.
Thank you inmytree
no......that dumbass onama is still president.
Godfather.
You understand Bush's war was capitalist opportunity at work right? This has been documented over and over again. Have you missed this?
The irony of this post is delicious