Funding “entitlements” is the priority.
Via IBD
The administration plans to cut the military pensions of those who served their country while giving public employees a break by exempting their ObamaCare subsidies from sequestration.
On the heels of announcing that Army troop levels will be cut below pre-World War II levels, the Military Times has reported that the Obama administration is planning to reduce military pension costs by 10% by converting part of their retirement to 401(k)-like defined-contribution plans from defined-benefit plans.
What makes this interesting is that it affects military retirees and members of the military who are non-union and therefore can’t strike or engage in collective bargaining. Public-sector union employees will retain their defined-benefit plans.
So, those who defend this country will be cut while those who feed at the public trough and whose union dues provide a ready supply of campaign cash will not.
To cut the retirement benefits of the military after these genuine heroes have fought with honor and distinction for 13 years in Iraq and Afghanistan is unconscionable. It’s particularly despicable to treat American military retirees worse than other public employees.
President Obama has long defended defined-benefit plans, which, yes, do cost the government more and have pushed some cities and states toward bankruptcy. In a defense of public-sector unions and their benefits, Obama spoke forcefully to the National Governors Association at the White House on Feb. 28, 2011:
“I don’t think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon.”
That cost-saving measures are to be applied only to the military and not to politically favored groups and programs is seen in the administration’s quiet removal of the cost-sharing subsidies designed to help lower-income people cover some out-of-pocket costs imposed by ObamaCare from its list of programs subject to the sequester, eliminating the 7% cut for 2015.
HT Doug Ross