Backtalk: A suffering system

[unhappycamper]

A suffering system
By Ralf W. Zimmermann

Around the winter holidays, when Congress is at best partially awake, is the time the Pentagon Grinches deliver new surprises from the dark corridors of their five-sided wind tunnel. Sadly, some Pentagon special deliveries aren’t destined for terrorists or other enemies — but American military retirees and veterans.

In a report to Congress on Dec. 20, a health care task force co-chaired by Air Force Gen. John D.W. Corley, the commander of Air Combat Command, and economist Dr. Gail R. Wilensky unleashed demands for drastic fee increases for military retiree health care. The most dramatic hikes would take the standard annual enrollment fee for families from the current $460 to as much as $1,750 by 2001, depending on income.

Among the noble and patriotic justifications to approve the task force’s recommendations: “fairness to American taxpayer.”

With the backdrop of countless acts of waste, fraud and abuse by Congress, government agencies and contractors, as well as costly bailouts for the mortgage industry, where is the so-called fairness to military retirees and taxpayers?

Even if you accept the patriotic garnish about necessary financial sacrifices for the war on terrorism, you have to wonder if there really is a money shortage for an adequate military retiree and veterans’ medical system. Have the politicians and panel members forgotten about Halliburton’s overcharges for Hurricane Katrina and Iraq, the waste in the countless Iraq reconstruction programs and the recall of military equipment that doesn’t work as advertised?


Read the rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_backtalk_healthcare_080211/

[midnight]

1. You got to love the fact that the increase being asked for healthcare

are for the retirees and veterans. When we know this: Have the politicians and panel members forgotten about Halliburton’s overcharges for Hurricane Katrina and Iraq, the waste in the countless Iraq reconstruction programs and the recall of military equipment that doesn’t work as advertised?