Debt Commission recommendations

[DONT TREAD ON ME]

I will start off with saying that I am a bit biased being in the Army but I do NOT think that this is right.

Here are some of the ways they plan to reduce our debt:

~Freeze Military Pay, Housing allowance and Sustenance allowance for 3 years
~Raise TriCare cost (Military Health Insurance)
~Combine the BX/PX(military Wal-Mart) and the Commissary and raise the prices by 5% but to offset this they will give us $600 dollars a month for groceries (Most of the stuff there is already overpriced. You can find some deals but we save more going to Wal-Mart).
~Raise the out of pocket costs for Vets with non-service related disabilities.
~Shut down the stateside school program (It is HARD to get your kids into the school in your district when you have to move after registration and these schools help out with that a TON.)
~Delay retirement pay

Here is the link for more info...
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/11/m ... 0w/?ref=nf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IMO I think that this could have ALL been avoided had our government been responsible with the so called "Bail out" money. Instead lets cut military pay, raise their health care and mess with their benefits. This is just ridiculous.

[suthdj]

I am ok with his as long as congress takes a pay cut, retirement cuts and benefit cuts etc.... Like that will ever happen.

[puma guy]

I am ok with his as long as congress takes a pay cut, retirement cuts and benefit cuts etc.... Like that will ever happen.

It will be a colder day in a hotter spot when that happens!

[HankB]

How about -

Repeal Obamacare. Save $3,000,000,000,000 over the next 10 years.

Repeal the Bush Medicare drug plan. Save 800,000,000,000.

I'd also take a look - a hard look - at abolishing entirely the departments of Energy, Education, Health & Human Services, and Housing & Urban Development, as well as reforming (in a way that would severerly curtail expenditures) the departments of Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Commerce.

Of course, if I ever were in a position to propose this where the media would run with it, people like SEIU members would be coming for me with pitchforks and torches.

[VMI77]

I will start off with saying that I am a bit biased being in the Army but I do NOT think that this is right.

Here are some of the ways they plan to reduce our debt:

~Freeze Military Pay, Housing allowance and Sustenance allowance for 3 years
~Raise TriCare cost (Military Health Insurance)
~Combine the BX/PX(military Wal-Mart) and the Commissary and raise the prices by 5% but to offset this they will give us $600 dollars a month for groceries (Most of the stuff there is already overpriced. You can find some deals but we save more going to Wal-Mart).
~Raise the out of pocket costs for Vets with non-service related disabilities.
~Shut down the stateside school program (It is HARD to get your kids into the school in your district when you have to move after registration and these schools help out with that a TON.)
~Delay retirement pay

Here is the link for more info...
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/11/m ... 0w/?ref=nf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IMO I think that this could have ALL been avoided had our government been responsible with the so called "Bail out" money. Instead lets cut military pay, raise their health care and mess with their benefits. This is just ridiculous.

I think if this country really believed its own free market mythology, military pay and benefits might well have to be increased. The situation is so distorted, it's hard to tell.....but it appears that people performing military duties out of uniform, at least in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, are paid significantly more than people in the military, so where there is somewhat of an actual market, it appears to be telling us that military pay is too low. With more of a market approach, pay would probably be lower generally, and much higher in combat areas.

Responsible and TARP are oxymoron's. TARP was a straight up theft --the greatest theft in world history, and will make indentured servants of us, our children, and our grandchildren. Responsible action would not include a bail-out, but with a bail-out it is nothing short of treasonous without putting many people involved in prison, along with massive asset forfeiture.

[baldeagle]

How about -

Repeal Obamacare. Save $3,000,000,000,000 over the next 10 years.

Repeal the Bush Medicare drug plan. Save 800,000,000,000.

I'd also take a look - a hard look - at abolishing entirely the departments of Energy, Education, Health & Human Services, and Housing & Urban Development, as well as reforming (in a way that would severerly curtail expenditures) the departments of Labor, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and Commerce.

Of course, if I ever were in a position to propose this where the media would run with it, people like SEIU members would be coming for me with pitchforks and torches.

[blue]

HANKB FOR PREZ!!!

[tacticool]

Here are some of the ways they plan to reduce our debt:

~Freeze Military Pay, Housing allowance and Sustenance allowance for 3 years
~Raise TriCare cost (Military Health Insurance)

I would support these cost control measures for all government employees and entitlements.

[tacticool]

How about -

Repeal Obamacare. Save $3,000,000,000,000 over the next 10 years.

Repeal the Bush Medicare drug plan. Save 800,000,000,000.

After the election results of this year, if the Republicans don't pass those through the House next year, they deserve to lose big in 2012.

[OldSchool]

Here are some of the ways they plan to reduce our debt:

~Freeze Military Pay, Housing allowance and Sustenance allowance for 3 years
~Raise TriCare cost (Military Health Insurance)

I would support these cost control measures for all government employees and entitlements.

Sorry if you're making a joke:
Only the military have these items, plus non-taxable combat pay. Civil service personnel typically only receive COL raises along with step increases, and health insurance is a selection of contribution plans (think Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which is certainly adequate but very expensive now), selectable by the employee (with fees commensurate with the service), long considered (I'm told) to be inferior to corporate plans.

There are no defined-benefit plans as there are for employees in local governments. The large increases in Federal employee pay in the past two years have come through the hiring of massive numbers of new Senior Executive Service (read: "appointee") positions. Most agencies have had hiring freezes required by OMB for several years now.

And, the military have already implemented decreased benefits. The stories abound by the thousands (including in my own family) of veterans who cannot get their benefits, including GI Bill.

The Debt Commission are doing the same thing politicians have done since the 1930's: Threaten to cut small budgets that are sensitive to only a few people, so they can take attention away from their maintenance of the large budgets that are politically sensitive (to maintain their voting base) when people get upset with how they're "trying to decrease spending."

I fully expect NASA, with their "gigantic" budget of $13B, to be on the chopping block, as well.

[tacticool]

I would support these cost control measures for all government employees and entitlements.

Sorry if you're making a joke:
Only the military have these items, plus non-taxable combat pay.

I'm sorry I didn't spell it out for you.

Civil servants and politicians get paid. Let's freeze their pay.
Civil servants and politicians get health care. Let's make them pay more of the true cost, with no family subsidies.
Civil servants and politicians get other fringe benefits. Let's freeze (or cut) benefits, or increase out of pocket costs for the employees, like the private sector does.



Also

Government retirees get paid. Let's freeze their pay.

Entitlement recipients get paid. Let's freeze the amounts of those checks.
Medicare and Medicaid get tax money. Let's cut those benefits to the levels of European socialist medicine (e.g. basic care only, with no extraordinary measures at taxpayer expense)

[OldSchool]

I would support these cost control measures for all government employees and entitlements.

Sorry if you're making a joke:
Only the military have these items, plus non-taxable combat pay.

I'm sorry I didn't spell it out for you.

Civil servants and politicians get paid. Let's freeze their pay.
Civil servants and politicians get health care. Let's make them pay more of the true cost, with no family subsidies.
Civil servants and politicians get other fringe benefits. Let's freeze (or cut) benefits, or increase out of pocket costs for the employees, like the private sector does.



Also

Government retirees get paid. Let's freeze their pay.

Entitlement recipients get paid. Let's freeze the amounts of those checks.
Medicare and Medicaid get tax money. Let's cut those benefits to the levels of European socialist medicine (e.g. basic care only, with no extraordinary measures at taxpayer expense)

Please don't believe all you read, especially from the rag you quoted above. As I said before, the huge civil service salaries and benefits only apply to a privileged few.

The Administration is ensuring that all of us will soon have to get by with less; all wages will be diminished. It will make it harder if we shoot the wrong scapegoats.

[baldeagle]

Civil service personnel typically only receive COL raises along with step increases, and health insurance is a selection of contribution plans (think Blue Cross-Blue Shield, which is certainly adequate but very expensive now), selectable by the employee (with fees commensurate with the service), long considered (I'm told) to be inferior to corporate plans.

Whoever is telling you that is mistaken. My father worked for the federal government for 30 years. HIs BCBS plan was dramatically better than anything you could get in the private sector, and when he died Mom kept the plan until her death. The federal BCBS plan has long been the envy of those in the private sector who would love to have similar benefits.

[Beiruty]

A natural disastrous of epic proportions:
A naturally born biological agent (think SARS or Influenza Type-A virus) is in the wild that overcome the defenses of people with weak immunity (think of elderly and very sick people AIDS and caner patients).
The government is finally able to contain the epidemic by shear isolation. Net loss, 20-30 millions death in the states. US recover in less than 3 years.
I call this scenario, the year were earth had enough with its inhabitants and farted some toxic stuff, or what ever you want to call it.

[Pawpaw]

Remember too that military pay is beyond dismal. When I retired in 1994, an E-4, married with 2 kids, qualified for food stamps. Obviously, it was even worse for E-1 thru E-3. These are the people who are most at risk in any armed conflict.

Combined with already declining benefits, the way this country treats it's military personnel is a disgrace. I was active duty from 1972 to 1994. During that period, the only time we saw real gains in pay & benefits was during the Reagan administration. The rest of the time, we were repeatedly used as the "budget cut" scapegoats.