The Fight After the Fight, Congress dips into Service Members promised pensions of retired servicemembers starting in 2016, pulling out an average of between $84,000 and $120,000 per retiree.

The Fight After the Fight

Posted on December 13, 2013 | 

***Update: please click below to read and sign a petition asking the White House to reject the Ryan/Murray budget provision***

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/veto-ryanmurray-budget-proposal-cuts-retired-military-pension-cola-1-below-inflation-rate/l4RctYlH

I don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll keep this simple.  Every time America goes to war, it makes promises to people, and they go do its fighting.  Invariably, when the fight is over, there is a “fight after the fight” to force the government to uphold the promises it made. Breaking them generally involves saving money, which is every bit as electorally tempting as spending money to wage war was in the first place.  As the fight in Afghanistan slowly winds down, the fight after the fight is well underway here at home.
This past week, Congress passed a budget deal and set about patting itself on the back, proud to have (finally) done its job. But buried deep in the text of the deal is the fact that it reaches into the promised pensions of retired servicemembers starting in 2016, pulling out an average of between $84,000 and $120,000 per retiree.  The provision is really that simple, notwithstanding the massive jumble of words Congress used to try and obscure it.  The military is trying to put itself back together after being ground into a powder over the last dozen years.  Congress stands ready to say “thanks” . . . but wants to add “yeah, about that pension we promised.  We need some of it back.”  Wait, what?
If it passes the Senate, retirees will have their compensation reduced through a cute accounting tactic reflecting the shameful dishonesty of this proposal.  By adjusting retiree Cost-of-Living Adjustments at a rate 1% below the Consumer Price Index, Congress hopes to steal money out of the wallets of those who have fought the reckless wars it authorized, but seeks to do it in a manner surreptitious enough that each individual hardly notices s/he’s being pickpocketed.  This is an attempt to sidestep the legitimate outrage many would express if they understood what was being done to the pay they were promised, and what it might mean to the vitality of the All-Volunteer Force in the future.  As the son of a Vietnam draftee and the father of two teenagers, I am gravely concerned that we haven’t internalized, as a society, that the luxury of securing our interests without conscription is expensive, but critically necessary.  If we don’t pay now, we will pay later, and the cost will be an order of magnitude greater . . . if indeed it can be measured at all.

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http://www.jqpublic-blog.com/?p=569