Topic: Chain COLA's?

[Castaway]

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/11/05/1893461/debt-panel-likes-chain-cola-tricare.html

WTF, if you make money and spend it when you get out of the military you are penalized??? 

I'd love to know what McCain is trading for on his way out.  STUNNED he would throw military retiree's under the bus like this.  It's bad enough most docs won't take Prime but the supplemental insurance is based on age and has a six month pre-existing clause.  To my knowledge only two companies offer it.  Wanna bet there is a big price increase if this goes through? 

[IronDioPriest]

I see bloat in the defense department. It is a bureaucracy like any other, and it should be treated as such. Cut and slash the Pentagon - you've got my blessing.

But I just don't know how anyone would justify reneging on promises to veterans. While I do reject the "automatic sainthood" some bestow on veterans, it goes without saying that they step up and serve their country in a unique self-sacrificial way that asks more of them and returns less to them, and that benefits all Americans more than any other service government provides. The promises made to them should be off the table for cuts. Period.

[charlesoakwood]

When Cain is involved there's always a price increase.

[Castaway]

Vets are a cross section of America and in no way deserve the "Sainthood" some seem to think they deserve.  I work with vets weekly and remind them of this.  If it pisses them off I know to move on, if they know respect is earned we are good. 

The standard 10% auto budget raise alone would cut an enourmouse amount from the military budget.  The old use it or lose it needs to go in all facets of government.  I work as a contractor for the DOL and have specific metrics to hit.  I'd love it if the folks down at the Emplyment Office (Massers Degree Required) had to meet the same standard.  I could go on &  on about ways to cut fat put of the military budget.  Let S.Korea fend for theirself if they want free trade here as an example.  Anyhow gotta run and work quarterly taxes due soon enough.   

[Libertas]

We know the Dem's were going to come down hard on Defense, just like the Clinton years...the old guns for butter BS...trouble is we get a double-dipping of socialist butter and few guns...readiness and capability suffered under Clinton...by the time of the Gulf War we basically committed every asset we had just for that endeavor...had we been hit by somebody else, there would have been no reserves, just overrun Americans.  And here we ago again.

I know there will be cuts, but it sucks to see J-Mac running interference in the GOP for the Dem's, but that is who he is, eh?

I think there is a way they could have a change in the law for vet's and preexisting conditions, something to ease the transition...otherwise they'll be many clogging up emergency rooms with who knows what needing treatment, and we'll eat those costs!

[Castaway]

If you walk into the VA Clinic where I live with so much as a runny nose because it's going to take at least three weeks to get an appointment they WILL send you to the local ER.   That's the overflow outlet. 

[Libertas]

I hear ya.  Was only to the local VA once, after I got out, for some postponed dental work.  Passing through the lobby...I was appaled at how many people were waiting in the waiting room, how frail and sickly they looked...and I thought "this is how we treat our veterans?"!  I felt ashamed to be in and out so quickly, but I guess the dentist doesn't get the traffic flow the medical doc's get.