Well, I have not touched this since August as I did not see anything to add. But now I am mad as my plans are being effected by a lot of things political.
1. I turn 65 in March and know I am to sign up for Medicare and it is first pay with Tricare as second and I am blessed to have a good work plan so it is second with Tricare for Life third until then. I also receive VA Disability which I received for the beating my body took through 28 years of Special Forces and with up to two years away from home. Once I went eight months with two broken feet thinking I had bunions. Turns out I did have bunions but they had to break both feet at the old break to make things right. I say this not for glory, but for what I say next.
2. Now I am told DoD and the White House are pushing that any VA Benefit received is to reduce military retirement by a like amount.
3. And DoD says Tricare is costing too much so it needs to be reduced as to what is provided and increased cost or forced to leave for some.
I remembered how bad things got for the military when Pres Clinton inflicted the Hilary Heathcare Plan on the military, which is another story. The old system became her plan under one name and then evolved into Tricare. But I researched how costly Tricare could be and found the same lies as found when I checked if Social Security is broken.
1. Social Security.
Social Security funds excess of yearly need go into the General Fund as a loan to the government. $2.2 Trillion is owed the SS Trust Fund (love that name) for excess taken each year. Congress says they can not pay it back as it would force the debt over the ceiling. Yet, the Constitution requires debt to be paid and the SS debt is listed in the amounts owed.
2. Tricare and VA Benefits. (This is why I write this message as it effects my retirement as I can not retire now and my wife)
The White House wants to raise Tricare fees, raise deductibles, decrease or end some VA benefits, cut benefits for injury if you are receiving military retired. They say it is because healthcare costs increases are huge. They lied.
August 2012 Washington Post reports "The Washington Post reported this week that the Department of Defense has requested nearly $3 billion over the last three years be moved from funds dedicated to TRICARE into weapons programs and other accounts unrelated to healthcare, despite assurances from Pentagon officials that healthcare costs were "eating the U.S. military alive."
"According to a report on the FY2013 Defense Appropriations Act provided by the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, the Pentagon reprogrammed $1.36 billion dollars from TRICARE in fiscal year 2011, $772 million in fiscal year 2010, and requested an additional $708 million to reprogram from this year's budget."
So this was almost $3,000,000,000 that was for Tricare over the past three years that was used for other things and counted against Tricare as that is what it was appropriated for!
It is one big surprise after another and I just can not keep up. We have truly not had a working government for a while. Last week the nomination approval process was taken over when the vote was reduced from a need for 60 Senate votes to 51. The very night of the reduction the White House made 30 nominations knowing no one can stop them.
I would fight (in the correct way NSA), but I see no unity anywhere.
