It seems that all of the President’s talk on taking care of our veterans is just like anything else he has said since being elected. A bunch of crap from the teleprompter to sound good in front of the cameras but means nothing.
As always with this guy, ignore anything that he says and look at what he actually does. He feigns concern about how veterans are treated and then screws them over himself. Look at how he is treating them right now:
This holiday season, the Air Force has “separated” (that is, fired) 157 officers on the eve of their retirement, including pilots flying dangerous missions, to avoid paying their pensions. (there is a link to the entire piece below) :
I am ashamed and disgusted. Hopefully this will get some play. Then he will fix what he did, claim that he knew nothing about it and take credit for caring about the service members. I don’t even care if he does get credit. Twenty years of service and the rug pulled out. A disgrace like this need to be rectified.
Joshua Flynn-Brown and Kyndra Miller Rotunda: The Air Force Grounds Its Officers – WSJ.com.
This particular group falls into the “twice passed over for promotion” category. Pretty much the end of the line for an Air Force officer. They still get around $125,000 severance. The pensions would be worth millions, but 125 grand will help ease the pain.
These decisions are made not by the Commander in Chief and his teleprompter, but mostly by Maj. Gen. Al Stewart commander of the Air Force Personnel Center along with the Secretary Of Defense and Secretary of the Air Force. The last time wholesale firings like this happened was President Bush n the early 1990′s. At the end of the Cold War. No doubt hardship cases and complaints of unfair treatment will be considered.
Last year 3000 air force enlisted got pink slips. This year 2000 Air Force Officers were let go. It’s all part of dealing with record retention levels, the drawdown in Iraq, plus extreme money pressure. Sometimes government does operate like the private sector. Pink slips without sentimental attachments.
The Air Force argues the majors being fired knew they were vulnerable. They received a warning letter the first time they were passed over and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz earlier this year mentioned the possibility of separation in an email to every airman. The Air Force is downsizing. Everybody knows that.
You can’t be for a smaller Government then want to keep everything the same. The good news is they will not being going back to Iraq. The promise to withdraw from Iraq was on Obama’s teleprompter way back in 2008.
So it took nineteen and a half years to decide that they did not cut the mustard. Now I understand. Makes perfect sense. Perfectly reasonable. Thanks.
I just hope that the White House did not have to let any of the Obama’s servants go. That would be a real tragedy.
When corporations get rid of people to save the pension money, they’re deemed ‘evil’ by Omaba and his Socialist-Democrat sycophants. But for the government, it’s a-ok. Typical Little Red Star double-standard.
We have now seen that the current occupant of the oval office can’t “cut the mustard” and our first opportunity to get rid of him is next fall, just 4 years. One would not think that just 4 years would warrant a lifetime pension since 19½ years in the air force does not, but one would be wrong.
January 20, 2013 Obama will begin receiving a lifetime pension starting at over $190,000 plus other expenses. This is due to legislation passed in 1958. Is it any surprise that the politicians are very careful to feather their own nests?
I was glad to read in Bill’s comment that the servicemen will get a severance payment.
Rick, you have the word evil in quotes. Can you give us some examples where President Obama deemed corporate layoffs “evil”? You might imagine those things being said, but they never really were actually said.
Steve, on pensions for the POTUS, maybe government should get up to speed with the private sector. The average Fortune 500 CEO is making around $12 million a year. I imagine the pensions are more than $190k.
As you know, Congress set up a super committee deal whereby crazy huge cuts to the military might have to happen. Military spending (current, veterans, add homeland security) is more than half the national budget. Cutting 157 Air Force majors is nothing compared to what we have to do if we don’t want tax rates changed. Part of never raising taxes and making things “smaller” means smaller Air Force, Navy, Army, Marines. Raising taxes is off the table for ideo-illogical reasons. We want these current low rates more than we want anything else. So don’t get all bent out of shape when you see good Air Force guys out on the street. It’s what the smaller government movement is all about. Smaller.
The part I don’t understand is that all the candidates for Obama’s job are promising to lower taxes even more – AND at the same time promising to build up the military. They all say President Obama is not spending enough on the military. The candidates are promising to add to the Navy and Air Force, maybe even go to war with Iran, and build that impenetrable fence to “seal” the Mexican border completely with more of everything – more troops, more drones, more prisons, more Customs agents, more super technology – all, as I mentioned, while lowering taxes and making things “smaller”. Maybe you understand those promises, I don’t. I think it’s a crock, more of a crock than anything the current President is promising. Obama says cuts and taxes. The others say no new taxes, but more spending for the military and homeland and border. Am I wrong about that?
The population just hit 312 million. So the population is getting way bigger, but they promise us government can get smaller even as we grow in size. How does that work? Maybe, by the time we hit 600 million citizens we can have government cut in half. That’s not conservative. It’s bull. Sort of like giving away the surplus in 2002 and saying it would all work out great. Bull. From my own Party.
Maybe you still buy that line about a bigger military, a smaller government, a balanced budget, all on lower tax rates, I don’t anymore. The only way out is for good folks like you, people with an interest in what’s best for America, to get away from this blood sport – where if, the President is from the other Party, he’s automatically the “enemy”. This President is a decent man doing a decent job. I detect less bull coming from POTUS than from his challengers.
Bill,
I have not checked, but I suspect that the average Fortune 500 CEO actually made money for their Fortune 500 Company.
They did not lose $1.3 TRILLION per year as this guy has. I am just guessing, of course.
There is also the part where after the first year he lost a trillion he would have been fired. Just continuing with the Fortune 500 premise.
I hear you Steve. If POTIS pay was based on deficits, Clinton would be the only one getting a paycheck. If you look at CEO pay they make it big win or lose. Did you read about the golden parachutes the Wilmington Trust guys got for looting the bank? The 2008 POTUS passed that $1.3 trill off to the new POTUS in 2009. Let me know if anybody figures out how to solve that – like I said most of Obama’s challengers are promising us lower taxes, more military spending.