Obama to Soldiers: Pay Up

[BMT (RIP)]

Threatens to veto bill unless it hikes health care fees for service members

http://freebeacon.com/obama-to-soldiers-pay-up/

BMT

[rubberneck]

He's the President of the United States and as a child I was taught that while I may not like the man that holds the title that I should always show respect to the office. I find myself struggling to honor that ideal with each passing day. It seems to me that if you are not a supporter of the President or someone who is valuable to his re-election campaign that he has no use for you. I can stomach that attitude towards people like me that loathe the man but the indifference he shows our service members during a time of war is a disgrace to his office.

[Mills]

This guy is truly something else.

I would happily pay a higher fee for Tricare...........if the system was better, and I was excluded from any additional taxes that are associated with the new healthcare bill.

[SouthernDZ]

Originally Posted by rubberneck

......It seems to me that if you are not a supporter of the President or someone who is valuable to his re-election campaign that he has no use for you.

I would've agreed with you but I've been reading "The Amateur" - interesting reading, especially the number of people/donors he turned his back on after he got in office...even Oprah!

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Mills

This guy is truly something else.

I would happily pay a higher fee for Tricare...........if the system was better, and I was excluded from any additional taxes that are associated with the new healthcare bill.

I on the other hand joind the Army when the standard was free health care for life. I kept my oath and did my part, I expect the government to do the same. I'm already paying for something I shouldn't have to and I'm not willing to roll over and surrender even more. (Perhaps I should apply for additional disability - expecting honor or honorable conduct from a politician is clearly delusional and should therefore be compensable.)

[Dusty]

What else did anybody really expect? I mean, this guy's got everything but his swinging Richard in the tent, already.

[PSM]

Originally Posted by Dusty

I mean, this guy's got everything but his swinging Richard in the tent, already.

"Ruht roh!"

Pat

[afchic]

I say veto away. Then let him explain in an election year, and while our service members (not the country) are still at war how he justifies raising healthcare premiums on us.

One more thing that Romney can shove down his throat, if he is paying attention.

The Obama campaign is slowly but surely slitting their own throats. Does he honestly believe 51% of this country is going to be ok with his healthcare law providing freee benifits to slackers, while asking the military and military retireees to pony up more? The man is ignorant, clueless, and acts like a child when he doesn't get his own way.

We only need 51% folKs, SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Donate your time, energy and money to any an all republicans running for office this year. The only way for these incredible imbecilic individuals to get the message is to throw them all out on their asses.

[afchic]

Originally Posted by Dusty

What else did anybody really expect? I mean, this guy's got everything but his swinging Richard in the tent, already.

I am pretty sure Richard doesn't swing

[Mills]

Originally Posted by afchic

I say veto away. Then let him explain in an election year, and while our service members (not the country) are still at war how he justifies raising healthcare premiums on us.

One more thing that Romney can shove down his throat, if he is paying attention.

The Obama campaign is slowly but surely slitting their own throats. Does he honestly believe 51% of this country is going to be ok with his healthcare law providing freee benifits to slackers, while asking the military and military retireees to pony up more? The man is ignorant, clueless, and acts like a child when he doesn't get his own way.

We only need 51% folKs, SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Donate your time, energy and money to any an all republicans running for office this year. The only way for these incredible imbecilic individuals to get the message is to throw them all out on their asses.

While I agree with you partially...........

I think siding with one party versus another is what got us in the mess in the first place. There is entirely too much you versus me, us versus them.

I quit. That is until the 2 party system is no longer the norm, and term limits for all forms of political office are enacted. Oh yeah, and spending caps on campaign funds.

Till then, I will sit on the sidelines and laugh at the whole system that is sending our country into an out of control spin, downward.

Pay up? Mr. President, how much more do you want in addition to those willing to give their lives for this country, and as is the case, for conflict in other countries? What value system do you subscribe to? Ours is one long paid for in blood rich in honor and tradition. Navy ships and military personell are constantly checking their bearing. Does a president do this at all?

[echoes]

Originally Posted by rubberneck

He's the President of the United States and as a child I was taught that while I may not like the man that holds the title that I should always show respect to the office. I find myself struggling to honor that ideal with each passing day. It seems to me that if you are not a supporter of the President or someone who is valuable to his re-election campaign that he has no use for you. I can stomach that attitude towards people like me that loathe the man but the indifference he shows our service members during a time of war is a disgrace to his office.

Very well said!

From the article:

"The administration urged the House to “reconsider” to fee increase, arguing they are “essential for DOD to successfully address rising personnel costs.”

Have never understood, and maybe never will, why Our Bravest must pay anything at all?

It makes no sense to me. Let me, as a protected citizen of the United States of America pay for them.

FWIW, IMHO, the big O can go kiss a big fat can.

Holly

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Mills

While I agree with you partially...........

I think siding with one party versus another is what got us in the mess in the first place. There is entirely too much you versus me, us versus them.

I quit. That is until the 2 party system is no longer the norm, and term limits for all forms of political office are enacted. Oh yeah, and spending caps on campaign funds.

Till then, I will sit on the sidelines and laugh at the whole system that is sending our country into an out of control spin, downward.

While I agree that ideological polarization and the entrenchment of political parties are two of the great toxins that poison political life in America, I do not agree that term limits will provide a cure.

First, the issues of the day are too complex to accommodate an automatic turn over of elected officials. It takes time to learn the parameters of an issue and to develop and to debate viable solutions. It also takes time to become competent at one's job.

Second, while term limits might counter some of the advantages of incumbency, they would create others. If a popular--but ultimately ineffective--politician had to leave office, he or she could "pass the torch" to a successor. This dynamic would shift political power away from the voting booth to the smoke filled rooms. (If you want my endorsement, you must agree to do X, Y, and Z when you get the job.)

Third, the advocacy of term limits undermines the conservative argument that the best practices of governance can be found in our past. The founders did not advocate automatic term limits--else term limits would have made it into the constitution. If we ignore this fact, we expose ourselves to charges of historical cherry picking. (This habit of cherry picking is going to be the right's downfall. YMMV.)

Fourth, term limits would not address the most virulent poison of all: the mindset of the American voter. Collectively, we remain unwilling to take our feet off the table, to put down the smart phone, and to go to the library to educate ourselves on the issues. We are unwilling to engage in heated, honest, and civil debate with those who have different views. We refuse to accept the notion of "win some, lose some." Instead we collectively prefer to snark and to snipe anonymously on the internet, to seek out those who agree with our views, to preach to the choir, and, most of all, to encourage a political environment in which every issue becomes a "battle" in an ideological "war" of all against all.

When it comes time to vote, we completely ignore the teachings of our fore bearers and the received wisdom of their students by voting based upon single issues and/or by split-ticket voting. That is, if we bother to vote at all. Until we collectively get our act together, term limits will just add players to a program that a majority of Americans are already not reading.

My $0.02.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Mills

...and term limits for all forms of political office are enacted.

Ever read the Articles of Confederation? Term limits sounded good to the 'Founding Fathers', too, until they were put into practice and the flaws inherent in such limits as written into the AofC were quickly recognized and corrected with the adoption of the Constitution.

And so it goes...

Richard

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by afchic

I say veto away. Then let him explain in an election year, and while our service members (not the country) are still at war how he justifies raising healthcare premiums on us.

One more thing that Romney can shove down his throat, if he is paying attention.

The Obama campaign is slowly but surely slitting their own throats. Does he honestly believe 51% of this country is going to be ok with his healthcare law providing freee benifits to slackers, while asking the military and military retireees to pony up more? The man is ignorant, clueless, and acts like a child when he doesn't get his own way.

We only need 51% folKs, SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Donate your time, energy and money to any an all republicans running for office this year. The only way for these incredible imbecilic individuals to get the message is to throw them all out on their asses.

Concur.

"One in six Americans now receives some form of government assistance, reported last week’s U.S.A Today.

Fifty million are on Medicaid, a record high and a whopping 17 percent increase since December 2007. Food stamp enrollment has climbed nearly 50 percent since 2008 and now stands at 40 million, or one in seven people. Ten million Americans receive unemployment benefits, and 4.4 million get direct cash assistance, an 18 percent increase from two years ago.

And these are the numbers from only four of the more than 70 welfare programs funded by the federal government.

While some of the growth in welfare can be attributed to the current recession, government-assistance programs were growing far before the economy began to decline in December 2007. In fact, welfare spending has been climbing since the 1960s, when Lyndon B. Johnson declared his “War on Poverty.”

However, President Obama’s increases have been the most dramatic of any President in the nation’s history. As he completes two years in office, he will have added roughly $260 billion to government welfare spending, a jump two-and-a-half times greater than any previous welfare increase in the nation’s history."

(From the Heritage Foundation, and these numbers are about 2 years old, so it's even worse.)