This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Congress sucks

  • Levin won’t support vet COLA fix, if it means closing welfare loopholes

    Chief Tango sends us a link to the Daily Caller which reports that Democrat Senator Calr Levin, an ultra-liberal from Michigan, initially supported restoring the pension COLA increases for veterans…well, until he found that that bill’s author, Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), planned to pay for it by closing welfare loopholes;

    “Sen. Levin would support legislation to repeal the military pension cuts if such an amendment didn’t endanger underlying legislation and if he supported the offset,” the aide told The Hill. “He doesn’t support the offset in Sen. Ayotte’s legislation, so he couldn’t offer support for her legislation.”

    Ayotte’s bill would repeal the military pension cuts and replace the savings by requiring tax filers to have a Social Security number —- as opposed to just an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number — in order to qualify for the ACTC.

    According to a 2011 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, people who were not authorized to work in the United States claimed billions in refundable tax credits in 2010.

    Well, we all knew how that would turn out, but it’s nice to have the proof in print. Paying veterans what they earned, what they’re owed, is secondary to what the criminal class wants – because the illegal criminals are a larger constituency for Democrats. The Democrats were perfectly happy to screw the constituency of the other side, but “compromise” stops at their own front door.

    Of course, Republicans were idiots if they thought they would ever get to restore cuts to veterans’ pay in this fashion. And I predict that in the Fall, Democrats are going to be waving this particular bloody shirt at voters during the mid-terms. Not a tough prediction, actually. No tougher than the anti-veteran climate in Congress which I predicted six years ago.

  • Closing the barn door

    Congress didn’t expect the backlash from veterans and Veterans’ Service organizations when they cut the cost of living allowance for military retirees’ pensions. The Washington Post reports the backpedaling by Congressmen and Senators who voted for the cut but who are now feeling the heat;

    The cut is small — a one-percentage-point reduction in the annual cost-of-
    living increase — but it has provoked outrage among veterans, some of whom argue that the country is reneging on a solemn pact. And even though lawmakers, especially in the GOP, fulminate about the need to cut the cost of federal health and retirement benefits, many have vowed to roll the cut back when Congress returns to work next week.

    The authors of the budget deal, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.), have agreed to amend the provision to exempt disabled retirees and survivors of those killed in action, eliminating roughly 10 percent of the $6 billion in savings projected over the next decade.

    Yeah, everyone always say that the cut is “small” – but if it’s so small, why did they even bother? Lord knows that there are more egregious things that could be reduced or cut entirely out of federal spending – the child tax credit for illegal aliens, for example.

    From another article in the Washington Post (quoted in Stars & Stripes);

    Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who is up for reelection next year, has introduced a bill to replace the $6 billion saved by the COLA cut by instead “eliminating a tax loophole for offshore corporations,” a news release from her office said.

    Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte, N.H., James Inhofe, Okla., Lindsey Graham, S.C., and others also have come out against the COLA cut.

    On Dec. 23, Reps. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., and Ted Poe, R-Texas, introduced similar measures that would repeal the provision.

    “As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I believe our servicemembers, veterans, and their families must receive the benefits they have earned and deserve,” Brownley said in a statement. “These benefits are owed to them without equivocation. That is why I have introduced legislation to repeal the military retiree COLA reduction.”

    Yeah, well, they thought they could get away with it, because veterans are a much smaller constituency than other groups, they didn’t count on our outdoor voices. Show me how willing Congress is to cut spending by cutting their own pensions and their own pay. This is me not holding my breath.

  • VSOs and Congress try to retract veterans’ COLA cut

    Fox News reports that before the ink is dry on the President’s signature on the budget bill he signed into law yesterday, Congress is stepping back from their legislation in regards to the cuts to the cost of living cuts to veterans’ pensions.

    On Monday, Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Calif., introduced a bill that would repeal the provision that curtails annual cost of living increases in benefits that go to military retirees under age 62.

    “As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I believe our service members, veterans, and their families must receive the benefits they have earned and deserve,” Brownley said in a statement. “These benefits are owed to them without equivocation. That is why I have introduced legislation to repeal the military retiree COLA reduction.”

    Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, introduced a similar bill on Monday, according to The Hill. It was unclear whether either proposal included provisions to offset the costs of eliminating the cuts.

    Several Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., have proposed closing a tax loophole that has allowed illegal immigrants to claim fraudulent cash payments in order to replace the cuts.

    According to Fox’ math, an E-7 who retires at the age of 42 would lose $72,000 in income over his lifetime from the reduction in COLA. I’d say that’s significant. The Veterans’ Services Organizations have lined up against the bill;

    “Keep your promise” was the theme of a lobbying effort by the Military Officers Association of America.

    American Legion National Commander Daniel M. Dellinger said the group was “horrified” that the Senate could pass a bill “so unfair to those Americans who have served honorably in uniform.”

    The Veterans of Foreign Wars predicted the change would prompt an exodus of those at midcareer once the U.S. economy rebounds, and that it will hurt efforts to recruit new people into the all-volunteer force.

    Yeah, well, I’m not sure that this administration is committed to the all-volunteer force given the way that they relish the thought of screwing veterans and the troops who are still serving. I’m convinced that their underlying goal is to resurrect conscription.

  • The Suddenly Competent Incompetents

    All I can say is “Wow!” Just when we’re all are thinking this Obama administration is corrosively corrupt and consummately incompetent, they go and do something that just has to make us all pause and rethink our strongly held beliefs that federal government is too massive and immovable to be either responsive to the needs of the citizenry or efficient. Here we are out here in flyover country, remote from all those coastal centers of incestuous intellectualism, pounding on our keyboards about all the predicted and daily unveiling failings of ObamaCare, and damn all if this Obama administration doesn’t go and show all us religious, gun-clingin’ fools that, by gosh, they can move with amazing alacrity when it is important to America suits their agenda.

    What I’m referring to, if you haven’t heard, is the absolutely amazing rapid response to a request by several Democrat senators, to do something, for Pete’s sake, about this horrendous, looming mandate (federal noncompliance fine) that’s going to really piss off some voters back in their home states if it isn’t delayed. What’s ever so surprising is that some of these solicitous senatorial signatories, Begich, Pryor, Landrieu, and Hagan, all of whom voted for this lame legislation, are up for re-election in November. My own senator, Mark Pryor, has suddenly rediscovered the importance of the bible in this campaign year and another senator to my south, little Mary Half-Moon Landrieu, who’s support for ObamaCare came at a hefty price, has discovered that maybe she shouldn’t have sold out, too cheaply or otherwise. Little Contrary Mary peddled her political posterior and now wants it back when her pastis coming back to bite her.

    But enough about senatorial weasels, let’s look at those improbably industrious administration ants who, unable to build their humongous health-care system and its online enrollment website in three-plus years, have managed to respond to the demands of those senators in less than a day. All I can say, once again, is “Wow!” That’s right, in just one day, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, under tremendous pressures to correct all the many problems with her legislative Frankenstein, amazingly found the time to sit down and compose this extensive missive to the concerned senators. This executive edict grants them their every wish, by exempting failed applicants to Obamacare who have lost their insurance due to the poorly thought through provisions of the original, recklessly passed legislation,so that they now will be considered as hardship cases and therefore exempt from the fines mandated for those who fail to obtain coverage.

    But just put it out of your damned old suspicious, conservative minds that such an executive fiat is clearly illegal and unconstitutional and that those issues were probably not considered by these incompetent clowns in their haste to serve their needy allies:

    Democrat senators… up for re-election.

    I know, I know, you’re thinking it’s just another cynical set-up by an arrogant administration led by the most self-centered and inept president in our nation’s history.All you skeptics reading here who see this event as just another pre-planned, butt-covering move by this Keystone Kops administration, should lighten up just a bit and give some credit where credit’s due; such as for these corruptocrats who are clearly and cleverly competent at covering up their incomparable incompetence. Hey, when this hapless turkey can respond to a senatorial request and effect the requested policy change in less than a day, you have to put aside your suspicions of a political fix and give credit where credit is due.

    Yeah, right…

    Who do these bungling fools think they’re fooling?
    Crossposted from American Thinker

  • Murray disowns pension cut

    Yesterday we read Paul Ryan while he justified his bill to cut the growth of military pensions. Today, Politico reports that his partner in stupidity, Patty Murray, is backing away from the pension cut;

    Murray’s response: The pension cut isn’t final.

    “We wrote this bill in a way that will allow two years before this change is implemented so that Democrats and Republicans can keep working to either improve this provision or find smarter savings elsewhere,” she said on the Senate floor this week.

    “In other words,” she added, “we can and we will look at other, hopefully better ways to change this policy going forward.”

    Her stance provides a major opening for opponents of the cut to work to get it tossed out or replaced with alternate savings — an effort that could weaken the budget deal and force vulnerable senators to continue defending their support for an agreement that would provide sequester relief for federal agencies at the expense of veterans.

    So I guess she’s leaving Ryan hanging by himself. Murray has always been good when it comes to veterans’ issues, considering her party affiliation, so, it’s no surprise that she’d be one of the first to cave from the pressure of VSOs in recent days.

    Thanks to Chock Block for the link.

  • Paul Ryan justifies cutting military pension growth

    Chock Block sends us a link to the USAToday piece today written by Congresman Paul Ryan who tries to explain away his legislation to cut the growth of military pensions. Somehow, he thinks that retirement pay is going to suck up the whole Defense budget;

    The federal government has no greater obligation than to keep the American people safe and we must take care of the men and women in uniform who put their lives on the line. For that reason, Congress is understandably hesitant to make changes to military compensation.

    But even hesitance has a cost. The need for reform is undeniable. Since 2001, excluding the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the cost per service member in the active-duty force has risen by 41% in inflation-adjusted dollars.

    Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, a combat vet himself, has said “that we can no longer put off military compensation reform. DOD’s leadership, Chairman Dempsey, the service chiefs, the service secretaries, and myself, we all know that we need to slow cost growth in military compensation. Otherwise, we’ll have to make disproportionate cuts to military readiness and modernization.”

    Ya know, I used to go along with the reductions and alterations to our pay and compensation, thinking that it was my patriotic duty. But then I noticed that the military were the only ones making a sacrifice. Ryan would be more believable if there weren’t so many other cuts that could be made to the budget which have more of an impact on the debt, other than veteran compensation – you know, like cutting $4.2 billion dollars in child-credits to illegal aliens as opposed to the less than $2 billion/year in savings on the backs of veterans.

    Ryan has decided that veterans can afford $100,000 loss of compensation during their retirement for their service. I don’t remember anyone asking me if I could fit that into my budget, but then federal government knows more about my financial situation than I know.

    But it’s more about politics than fairness, anyway. Voting to eliminate cutting the checks to illegal alien families is more likely to impact the votes a candidate might get than cutting veterans’ compensation for their unquestioning service to the country.

  • Fixing what they f***ed up

    I got an email last night from my Congressman, David McKinley, his pesky weekly updates. This one was to inform me that he’s working his balls off to fix veterans’ pensions after they voted last week to cut the cost of living allowances we’d be getting over the next several years.

    Today, Rep. David B. McKinley, P.E. (R-W.Va.) became an original co-sponsor of three bills (H.R. 3788, 3789, 3790) that would reverse a provision in the budget agreement that would cut the cost of living adjustments for military retirees.

    “Congress should not be trying to cut spending on the backs of those who served,” said Rep. McKinley. “Many military retirees and disabled veterans are being unfairly penalized by having their cost of living increases cut which is one of the reasons I voted against the budget agreement. These three needed pieces of legislation will restore what is owed to military retirees and disabled veterans.”

    H.R. 3788: Replaces the decrease in cost-of-living increases for military retirees with a provision that would require anyone who claims a child tax credit must have a valid social security number. The Joint Economic Committee projects this will save almost $8 billion over ten years.
    H.R. 3789: Exempts the retired pay of certain disabled veterans from the reduced adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.
    H.R. 3790: Repeals the annual adjustment of retired pay and retainer pay amounts for retired members of the Armed Forces under age 62.

    Under the two-year budget agreement, military retirees under the age of 62 would see their pensions increase at a slower pace, with their cost-of-living adjustments linked to the rate of inflation minus one percent. At the age of 62, retirees would receive adjustments linked to the full rate of inflation.

    Yeah, well, that’s all well and good, but Mr. McKinley doesn’t mention the fact that he voted for the bill to cut pensions to begin with. If “Congress should not be trying to cut spending on the backs of those who served”, then why did he vote for it in the first place? Actually, the damage to Congress’ reputation has been done – we all see we’re just pawns in the greater game of politics, like we were when we were serving. I’ll be looking for someone else to vote for next year.

    Fox News reports;

    According to a 2011 Treasury Inspector General report, the Internal Revenue Service mailed $4.2 billion in child-credit checks to undocumented immigrants in 2010.

    “Millions of people are seeking this tax credit who, we believe, are not entitled to it. We have made recommendations to the IRS as to how they could address this, and they have not taken sufficient action in our view to solve the problem,” the report said.

    Um, let’s see if Congress has the guts to replace the cut on veterans’ pensions with this boondoggle vote-buying scheme.

  • ‘On Behalf of a Grateful Nation, Please Accept This Flag…’

    That’s an abridged version of the words uttered by the officer or NCO in charge of the burial detail to the surviving spouse or next of kin of an American warrior killed in action as they are handed the carefully folded flag that had covered the coffin. Many of us have witnessed the ceremony and sometimes heard those quiet words, our hearts heavy with shared grief, but grief not remotely equal to the loss being felt by the person accepting that national symbol of supreme sacrifice. It is a solemn ceremony, steeped in tradition, meant to demonstrate not just to the family of the fallen but to all observing citizens that we as a nation value our warriors.

    Now, our Democrat Senate, with the aid of nine Republican senators has just passed legislation which denies the promise of the above referenced ceremony, that is, that we are in fact a grateful nation. Looking for ways to cut the national budget, an ungrateful congressional conference has targeted our military community for reductions in their retirements while maintaining billions of dollars of support for far less worthy federal programs such as one providing federal assistance to illegal aliens. Yes, that’s right, this Democrat senate is willing to put constraints on pension benefits for those Americans who have served honorably, all while maintaining welfare for those who have entered our country illegally. The Democrats choose to reward those who have no regard for the system of laws growing out of our constitution, the same document our military personnel all must swear an oath to uphold, even at the cost of their lives.

    I suspect that even some liberals will acknowledge the inherent unfairness of this particular legislation. After all, even leftists need a viable military to defend their cockamamie concepts of governance. The largest leftist regimes like the Soviet Union and Red China, in point of fact, have always showered awards and honors on their military forces for the protections they provide. Few soldiers anywhere have more medals to wear than those who fought to preserve and expand communism. But not this country, the United States of America, that supposedly is the beacon of liberty. The hypocrisy, the irony, the tragedy of reducing the pensions of those who have served this country honorably to the benefit of those who are living in this country illegally, defies all logic and reality, which is exactly where the liberal left in this country has taken us since their Messiah took control five years ago. We are in Alice’s Wonderland and descending into a dystopian society where wrong is right and down is up is government policy.

    Once again, those who have served in the nation’s conflicts, many of whom are inclined to vote conservative and Republican, are being sacrificed by the ungrateful, leftist Democrat party in order to incubate and cultivate a few million additional Democrat voters. The corruption of the Democrat party is complete. They look at those hordes crossing our borders and say:

    “Please accept this flag and all the benefits life under it confers on behalf of a grateful Democrat party,” while at the same time saying, “Veterans, soldiers and those who’ve served, you will accept this pay cut because you are not important to us as a sympathetic voting bloc.”

    Grateful nation? Certainly not when liberal Democrats control our government.

    Crossposted at American Thinker