Senate votes to cut military retirement pensions

Reba

Retired Terp
Premium Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
54,903
Reaction score
1,518
Senate GOP fails in final bid to block military pension cuts in budget bill
Published December 18

A final effort by Senate Republicans to halt cuts to pensions of military retirees failed late Tuesday, after Democrats blocked an amendment to the controversial budget bill.

The two-year budget agreement, which cleared a key test vote earlier in the day, was expected to get a final vote no later than Wednesday.

Ahead of the final vote, Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., tried unsuccessfully to use a parliamentary tactic to force a vote on the amendment, which he wrote to undo the cuts for military retirees.

A provision in the already House-passed bill would cut retirement benefits for military retirees by $6 billion over 10 years.

Sessions wanted to instead eliminate an estimated $4.2 billion in annual spending by reining in an IRS credit that illegal immigrants have claimed.

He and fellow senators argued the bill unfairly sticks veterans and other military retirees with the cost of new spending.

“It’s not correct, and it should not happen,” Sessions said on the floor.

"By blocking my amendment, they voted to cut pensions for wounded warriors," he said afterwards. "Senators in this chamber have many valid ideas for replacing these pension cuts, including my proposal to close the tax welfare loophole for illegal filers, and all deserved a fair and open hearing. But they were denied.”

Sessions’ office claimed the vote Tuesday to block the amendment was a vote to "cut military pensions instead of cutting welfare for illegal immigrants."

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash.,who brokered the budget deal with House counterpart Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., argued the GOP effort was really an attempt to kill the entire bill.

The Republican-led House passed the bill last week in an effort to avoid another stalemate leading to a potential government shutdown, like the one in October that polls showed was largely unpopular with voters.

The two-year budget deal would ease for two years some of the harshest cuts to agency budgets required under automatic spending curbs commonly known as sequestration. It would replace $45 billion in scheduled cuts for the 2014 budget year already underway, easing about half of the scheduled cuts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Senate GOP fails in final bid to block military pension cuts in budget bill | Fox News
 
That's unfortunate and federal employee's pension got hammered down under budget bill too. My father's military pension was more generous than newer service members because the congress changed the military pension about decade ago.

I want to end the corporate welfare, that most I care about.
 
To end corporate welfare effectively means no more Republican Party. They live and breath corporate welfare. They personify it. They live it. They are it. It is a Party of corruption so complete that it staggers the mind to try and wrap all the way around it.
 
To end corporate welfare effectively means no more Republican Party. They live and breath corporate welfare. They personify it. They live it. They are it. It is a Party of corruption so complete that it staggers the mind to try and wrap all the way around it.

I don't think so and I believe democrats support corporate welfare as well.

Libertarians oppose corporate welfare and they want defense to be strictly to our country and doesn't want intervene with other countries, oppose any government-run pensions, oppose welfare for low income families, abolish most or all of taxes, doesn't support anti-discrimination for Americans with disabilities.
 
How can you not see what the Republican Party does. Do you not understand the relationship between what they do and who benefits the most?
I am against at least half of what each Party does but I easily see what Republican politics is really about. The superrich who own them are ripping this country off like a monstrous sucking cluster of parasites and you cannot see it?
 
How can you not see what the Republican Party does. Do you not understand the relationship between what they do and who benefits the most?
What do you think you saw in this vote? What do you think they do? I know that this vote does not benefit military retirees and disabled members.

I am against at least half of what each Party does but I easily see what Republican politics is really about. The superrich who own them are ripping this country off like a monstrous sucking cluster of parasites and you cannot see it?
Members of all parties are rich, so what does that prove?

Why should the military retirees suffer?
 
House Introduces Bill to Prevent Military Pension Cuts | Washington Free Beacon

A bill introduced on Thursday in the House of Representatives would remove pension cuts to military retirees in the budget agreement passed this week and offset the fiscal difference by closing of a loophole that allows illegal immigrants to receive tax credits.

Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.) and Martha Roby (R., Ala.) introduced H.R. 3788 to replace a controversial provision in the bipartisan budget deal that hits military retirees with a 1 percent decrease in their annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) but left civilian federal retirees untouched.

It looks like Fitzpatrick's bill probably won't be easy path in senate because it take a hard on illegal immigrants and democrats got support from latino voters.

The simple bill to restore the pension for disabled veterans without compromise may have a better chance to pass.
 
I'm wondering what else was in it. That's usually what happens. Somebody proposes a bill or amendment for one thing, but they tack on all kinds of nastiness onto it, and they when it doesn't pass because of all the crap that's in it they cry "they don't want the one thing"!!!
 
We absolutely must protect the rich from paying higher taxes by giving up a portion of our pensions.
 
If the bill is passed, I think more people won't join the military once they hear about its cuts on retirees/disabled benefits. It will look bad on Congress. Right?
 
If the bill is passed, I think more people won't join the military once they hear about its cuts on retirees/disabled benefits. It will look bad on Congress. Right?

Not really, military pension has been cut or reformed over time, to make less generous, but more people want to join the military.

The change in pension only affect newer veterans, not retired veterans like Reba and her husband, and my father.
 
Not really, military pension has been cut or reformed over time, to make less generous, but more people want to join the military.

The change in pension only affect newer veterans, not retired veterans like Reba and her husband, and my father.
Question; how long does one have to be active before retiring?
 
Question; how long does one have to be active before retiring?

20 years to qualify for military pension benefit.

but disabled veterans get severance pay if they are less than 20 years.
 
20 years to qualify for military pension benefit.

but disabled veterans get severance pay if they are less than 20 years.
:ty:

So we have three benefits for the military service members?

Veterans' benefits for those who were active for less than 20 years
Retirement benefits for those who retired after 20 years of service
Disabled benefits for those who became disabled while on active

One co-worker told me that if he died while on active, his life insurance (that is available for military service members only) would cover it, not the government. He had to buy the insurance. I said WTF?
 
Last edited:
If the bill is passed, I think more people won't join the military once they hear about its cuts on retirees/disabled benefits. It will look bad on Congress. Right?
Possibly. It will certainly make careers in the military look less desirable.
 
Back
Top