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While it is good to see Chapter 61 retirees getting concurrent receipt, the proposal is largely bogus.
The proposal by the Obama administration, largely ignores the issue of concurrent receipt.
Here the administration is proposing concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees, and saying that when the year 2015 comes all Chapter 61 retirees will get their “retirement pay”, and their “disability pay”.
Hot digity dog! Great headlines in the news for ignoring the true essense of the issue of concurrent receipt.Last year the Obama administration dropped their original proposal to include “all” veterans left out of concurrent receipt. They did this by stating a bogus amount of over 40 billion dollars to cover all categories of veterans who are denied concurrent receipt. The actual cost to cover “all” veterans in every category is closer to the 20 billion dollar amount over a ten year period. The administration used the reasoning that they would cover the Chapter 61 retiree, because the cost to cover all retired disabled veterans was to great. That merits another hot digity dog!
For the real truth to be known, there are currently over 450,000 retired disabled veterans. under 50% disabled, who each month have their disability payment from the VA, deducted dollar for dollar, related to the percentage of disability from their retirement pay.
This is the group that was orginally left out of the concurrent receipt legislation in 2004, when the Chapter 61 folks were not even in consideration.The Veterans Disability commission recommended in their recommendations to the President and Congress, that concurrent receipt be enacted for the remaining veterans who do not receive the benefit. Their top priority was the retired disabled veteran who has served twenty or more years, having their disability deducted from their retirement pay on a monthly basis. The second priority was concurrent receipt for Chapter 61 retirees.
The current administration has twisted the logic of the commission, and placed Chapter 61 retirees before veterans who have served twenty or more years. It is good for the Chapter 61 veteran, but it is simply used as a ruse to ignore the validity of the true issue of concurrent receipt.
A real news flash needs to be sent to the new administration. Obama made a promise to support concurrent receipt, and end the veterans disablity tax, for all retired disabled veterans. He made this promise in the AMVETS magazine. during an interview for the winter issue in 2009.
The president and his administration should be congratulated for their support of the issue of concurrent receipt, but their proposal does not go far enough to end the injustice of this issue.
A last point of interest would be the Presidents statement that he supports the military family, and veterans. He states: “Now they will be receiving both their military retirement, and their disabilty payment”. A very interesting subtitle to this would be: “Over 450,000 retired disabled veterans, who are under 50% disabled, have each served at least twenty years in the mility, HAVE NEVER RECEIVED THEIR FULL RETIREMENT, as their disability is deducted from their retirement pay on a monthly basis.
What about the retired disabled veteran, under 50% disabled, who has served over twenty years, who is paying for his own disability, Mr. President?
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Right on man we the forgotten who did so much and gave up 20+ years of our lives to be crap on and forgotten till next election then more promises with no intention of following through hope they see the light some day but I’ll probley be dead by then and isn’t that what they are counting on? just so tired of getting my hopes up to have them say No once again good night and good luck Oh if anyone wants to do a walk on washington I’m in LOL never quit! never give in ! UH RAH
Comment by SSG RET Rusty — February 3, 2010 @ 10:04 pm
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I have no doubt that someone will stop disabled veterans from getting there retired pay. To become a 100% disabled while serving the country is no reason to actually give us veterans an additional amount of compensation even though the military destroyed our reason for living. Congress does not sacrifice a penny for those protecting the freedoms of people in this country while at the same time promoting expensive state programs for their own people. I think dogs get better treatment than disabled veterans. When will someone count the votes of disabled veterans and credit what we have to say about where the country is going? Oh, yah, we are just disposed of trash and have no voice. Bill, USN-retired
Comment by Bill Starcher — February 10, 2010 @ 12:01 pm
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SUPPORT HR 333 – the Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act
2/3 of Disabled Veterans Remain Excluded From Concurrent ReceiptPlease send the following editable message to your Representative –
As you are aware, while included in the President’s Budget for 2010, the full restoration of concurrent receipt was deleted from the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), recently signed into law.
Again, I strongly urge you to cosponsor HR 333, the Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act, and strive to have this legislation included in the 2011 NDAA or other appropriate legislation.
HR 333 would correct several wrongs enacted with the original concurrent receipt legislation in 2004.
First, HR 333 would enable those 450,000 retired members of the Armed Forces with disability ratings less than 50% to draw both their VA disability and their military retirement pay under CRDP (Concurrent Retirement Disability Pay, 10 US Code Section 1414). If the disability was combat-related, these retirees were enfranchised for CRSC (Combat Related Special Compensation, 10 USC Section 1413a) with the 2008 NDAA.
Second, HR 333 would enable those 200,000 members of the Armed Forces retired for medical disability with less than 20 years service under 10 US Code, Chapter 61, to draw both their VA disability and their military retirement pay under CRDP. If the disability were combat-related, these retirees were enfranchised for CRSC with the 2008 NDAA.
Third, HR 333 would eliminate the 10-year phase-in of CRDP which is currently in the 6th year and is 88% restored. In 2010, restoration will be 95% complete. Distributing the remaining 5% over the next 4 years is not cost effective, because the cost of processing the payments exceeds the cost of the CRDP payments. In the last year of the phase-in, the average increment will be less than $1 per month.
Fourth, HR 333 would cause the Department of Defense (DoD) to compute CRSC pay for Chapter 61 retirees as originally intended Congress. Basically, HR 333 would eliminate the “donut hole” into which some combat related retirees fall which awards them ZERO compensation.
Please actively support HR 333 and urge your colleagues to do the same.
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Tom Philpott is a real professional when it comes to reporting.
He is even willing to take the fall for his sources on Capitol Hill.
Tom’s correction to his article:
CORRECTION: Two weeks ago, writing about the 2011 defense budget request, I said President Obama again proposes a limited expansion of “concurrent receipt” for disabled retirees. He would not be asking to restore retired pay offsets for remaining career retirees, those with VA disability ratings of 40 percent or less, which would cost $45 billion over 10 years. A reader, Kenneth Hanft, directed my attention to a memo from the Congressional Budget Office to the House Budget Committee last June.
CBO said the 10-year cost to lift the ban on concurrent receipt for all career retirees would be $23.8 billion. I defer to that far lower figure and apologize for the error. – Tom Philpott
Example of one of his previous quotes on the subject:
“Regular retirees with VA ratings of 40 percent or lower still see retired pay offset by VA disability compensation.
Why has Obama targeted Chapter 61 retirees for concurrent receipt? Sources on Capitol Hill said the White House’s Office of Management and Budget developed the idea as an affordable compromise. It would cost $5.4 billion over 10 years versus $45 billion if Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge to extend concurrent receipt to all disabled military retirees.”
This administration has purposefully manipulated the figures to 45 billion, in an attempt to sustain public opinion, to the extent that the cost burden would be too high to grant concurrent receipt to all disabled veterans.
For Tom Philpott to not hold this administration to account for its purposeful manipulation of the figures of cost for concurrent receipt, to lower the cost and cover chapter 61 retirees only, stating that their justification for this measure is because of a high cost of 45 billion to under 50% disabled, while attempting to give the appearance of keeping a campaign promise is a shame.
For Tom Philpott to apologize for an error made intentionally by the current administration, shows that he is a true professional.
It is too bad that the administration in Washington is not that professional. -
To Rusty and KH (since you are two different people who happen to read and post comments within minutes of each other on this site, just like last year) – please stop with the attempts at division within the veterans’ ranks. Citing “priorities” and pointing out things like “in 2004, Ch. 61 veterans “weren’t even considered…” because the effort should be on including all veterans and not picking and choosing which is what you accuse the administration of, and then go on to do the same thing by separating the 20+ year retired vets with less than 50% disabilities from the Ch 61s, some of whom have 100% disabilities and receive zero. It hurts the cause, in my view.
Also, numbers are fun. If you argue that the $40 million is a “made up” figure, then please don’t use the $23 million figure either. It excludes the cost of the Ch. 61 payments, which are estimated to be $5 billion over “FIVE” years. That seems to mean that we can double it (plus inflation) for the next five years, which means it is probably close to $15 Billion for “TEN” years. Add that to $23 Billion, and yes, you get a total of near $40 Billion.
But I digress. By all means, support HR 333, but don’t do so by continually denigrating the Ch 61 fix. You know better, and conquer and divide usually means no one wins.
Comment by DK — February 22, 2010 @ 8:49 am
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I should have added that we don’t know what was “considered” in 2004 — only those attending each and ever deliberation know what was “considered”…
Also, I wrote “millions” when I should have written “billions” in various places in the previous post.
Finally, thanks to the .navycs.com blog for tackling this issue again and providing what turned out last year to be an indispensable site for information and updates on what turned out to be a very disappointing outcome (and let’s not forget why the provision ultimately failed… had it passed, this year the focus would be on disabled retirees with less than 50% disabilities… that’s how it works. See 2004 if this doesn’t make sense to you)…
Comment by DK — February 22, 2010 @ 8:54 am
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DK good points.
Here is an article from the AUSA web site.
Perhaps this is the stance that should be supported by all, in the effort for concurrent receipt for everyone.
CONCURRENT RECEIPT FOR CHAPTER 61 RETIREES
AUSA has worked tirelessly to eliminate the deduction of VA disability compensation from earned military retired pay for all disabled retirees. Therefore, we were elated when the Obama Administration included a provision that would expand concurrent receipt to Chapter 61 retirees (those medically retired for service-related conditions before they could complete 20 or more years of service) in his budget request for fiscal 2010. While we want full concurrent receipt, we figured any progress made towards our goal was a win and great news for disabled retirees.
We were even more encouraged when the House Armed Services Committee managed to find funding for the first year of the expansion and included it in the House version of the 2010 defense authorization bill.
Reality set in when the Senate unveiled its version of the defense authorization bill and the provision was left out. Ultimately, the House provision was dropped in conference because some in the Senate objected to the specific funding sources identified by the House, and leaders could not find other offsets to comply with Senate budget-scoring rules
Now, the Obama Administration has once again included a provision in its fiscal 2011 budget request that would provide full concurrent receipt of disability and military retired pay to eligible veterans by Jan. 1, 2015.
Not so fast according to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo. While he has shown that he is a supporter of concurrent receipt, Skelton said the Obama initiative does not satisfy the House’s strict budgeting rules. He said the problem is that the administration has not identified specific offsets — either cuts in existing programs or revenue increases — to pay for the new benefits for disabled retirees.
“This committee has a deep commitment to this issue and our veterans, but we simply cannot enact it unless the administration identifies and advocates for specific offsets,” Skelton said at a recent hearing on the 2011 defense request.
The Administration’s budget request adds $408 million to the military retirement trust fund in 2011 specifically to cover the first phase of a five-year plan to expand concurrent receipt to service members medically retired with fewer than 20 years of service who have disability ratings of 90 percent or greater.
But Rep. Skelton said the $408 million increase in the trust fund doesn’t meet congressional “pay-as-you-go” rules, which require a specific offset to pay for a specific increase. Without an offset, he said the committee is unable to pass concurrent receipt legislation.
Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., who is also a longtime sponsor of concurrent receipt legislation, said he is not ready to give up. Rep. Marshall wants the committee to “work closely” with the House Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for tax policy, to find money for concurrent receipt.
“It seems to me we ought to be able to find $5.1 billion over a 10-year period of time, as large as our mandatory spending is. We ought to be able to do that and get this done once and for all,” Rep. Marshall said.
We agree and will continue to fight STRONGLY for full concurrent receipt not only for Chapter 61 retirees, but for all disabled retirees.
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Does either of these bills include backpay for the surviving widows (w/kids<18) of deceased Ret. DAVs that had their retirement pay and VA svc-connected disability pay offset from time of discharge from military-1987, to his death-1998? Or only for retirees still living?
Comment by Widow-RW — March 16, 2010 @ 12:23 am
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