Don't let our veterans down, Idaho delegation
We could use a little help from patriotic Americans.
Our Congressional delegation has been noteworthy for their nearly zero record of support for the Armed Forces. When they are queried they reply that they support the Armed Forces and Veterans. They then tell us that they are not on the committees concerned, but when a bill comes to the floor they will give the bill careful consideration. To the average American that sounds like a reasonable position for a legislator. In actuality, it is a convenient way to sidestep an issue without appearing uninterested. A concerned legislator would co-sponsor the bill, lobby his or her fellow legislators and give house and senate leaders clear messages about what they support.
Our legislators were sent to Washington to perform and in the area of support for veterans and active duty, Idaho legislators are nearly comatose and they have no excuse for it. I know for a fact that they have received thousands of letters and emails on these very subjects from ordinary citizens. The American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, the Military Officers Association of America, and literally scores of other groups from the Daughters of the American to the 11-member Inland Northwest Disabled Veterans Sports Association have asked for their help and gotten only pablum trite, nave, or simplistic ideas or writings intellectual pap.
Their careful consideration of these "bills" translated into their not voting for or co-sponsoring legislation to relieve widows of disabled military retirees of a crippling offset on their income, and the denial of both retirement and VA disability compensation to military retirees rated at 40 percent disabled or less. They did not support spouse employment assistance for spouses constantly moving to follow the military member. They did nothing to improve the retirement program for the Guard and Reserve after 10 years of unprecedented call-ups and the conferring veteran status on Guard and Reserve members.
As will become clear in the open letter to our delegation below, their behavior has dire consequences for the security of this nation in the years to come. They must not allow the budget to undermine our military shield that protects us all. As for all of us, there are spending priorities and defense comes before the parks, bridges in Alaska, and studying the sex life of flies.
What can you do? Cut out the following letter, send it to your representative, and ask for an explanation. Go online and express your unhappiness with their position.
An open letter to Senators Crapo and Risch and Representative Labrador:
Will we ever learn?
The most important weapon system ever deployed by this nation is the infantry squad. By extension, the weapon system that is the game changer is the American soldier, sailor and airman. They are unique in all the world and in the history of warfare.
Pentagon planners in the 1970s and again in the '80s and '90s proposed significant end-strength reductions, capping or freezing military pay, and modifying the retirement system to curb costs. Years of budget cuts - ones that depressed pay, reduced retirement value by 25 percent for post-1986 entrants, and moved beneficiaries older than age 65 out of the military health system - resulted in significant retention and readiness problems in the late 1990s. Now the 2015 budget proposes similar actions.
Between 2000 and 2010, Congress worked diligently to restore pay comparability, repeal the retirement change, zero out housing costs, and restore promised health care coverage for older retirees (TRICARE For Life).
Now the administration and Pentagon leaders are significantly cutting end strength, capping pay for what could be six years, killing 66 percent of commissary savings current patrons see, forcing military families to absorb 5 percent of their housing costs, and shifting more health care costs onto beneficiaries (not just retirees but also currently serving family members).
A one-year pay cap is a data point, two is a line, but three is a trend. This proposal caps pay for up to six straight years, unraveling the compensation improvements Congress provided since the turn of the century.
The most important element of national security is sustainment of dedicated, top-quality mid-level NCOs and officers. A nation cannot compensate a professional, all-volunteer force as if they were draftees. Sustaining the all-volunteer force cannot be done on the cheap.
Robert Hunt is a Post Falls resident and legislative chairman of the local Disabled American Veterans.