Don't Mess With The Military

I am steamed and I have to vent or will explode. I just read that the powers that be are looking at Military Retiree Benefits as a way to cut a few bucks from the budget. That’s right, let’s not look at cutting the salaries or benefits of the do nothings in Congress, let’s cut the benefits of people who have served our country in times of peace and war.

Let me give you a few statistics so that you know where I am coming from. Less than one percent of our population willingly serves in our Armed Services. I will say that again in case you missed it, less than one percent. Service people do not receive a pension unless they serve 20 years or more in the military. Of the less than one percent of people that serve in the military, only 17 percent stay in long enough to actually receive retirement benefits. Fifteen years doesn’t cut it, you must serve a full 20 years in order to receive benefits from our grateful nation. Once the 20 year mark has been reached you can retire at 50 percent of your salary for the rest of your life. That’s the deal we made with our service people when they voluntarily agreed to be on the front line.

In contrast, let’s talk about a typical member of Congress. Five years, that’s right, they only have to serve five years in order to receive pension benefits. So they can sit around and keep their head low, try to stay scandal free for five years and they can receive their full pension at age 62. Sound fair to you?

This absolutely makes my blood boil. I am a firm believer in term limits. It seems the only people who don’t believe in term limits are the politicians themselves. If we take the monetary incentive out of serving and institute term limits, we might actually get a Congress that does something instead of wasting time forming committees and campaigning for re-election. This cannot be the system our forefathers dreamed of when they started this great nation of ours. It is so corrupt and ugly and disgusting that the average American has no faith in the system at all. Like most people, I have voiced my disgust from time to time, but I am usually mum because I don’t like conflict. Let me state this loud and clear… if this do nothing group of corrupt individuals decides they can cut the pensions of the people who voluntarily put their lives in harms way, then I will become a very loud voice. This isn’t right, I won’t stand for it and I encourage those who care to make their voices heard.