Politics

Rushed Budget Bill Cuts Veteran’s Benefits, Gives $1.5 Billion In Aid To Egypt

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veteran's benefits

A few conservatives are speaking out against the cuts to veteran’s benefits in the budget bill that is being rushed through Congress, yet contains $1.5 billion in foreign aid to Egypt.

From the Free Beacon:

The $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill introduced Monday evening leaves the vast majority of pension cuts to military retirees intact, only exempting disabled veterans from the controversial provision included in last month’s budget deal.

…the bill keeps in place the one percent decrease in the cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) for all other military retirees. The change, effective December 2015, affects retirees under the age of 62 and will result in thousands of dollars in lost retirement pay.

Way to treat those who have done so much to protect our freedoms, right?

Enlisted servicemembers could lose a minimum of $72,000 over a 20 year period of their retirement, while commissioned officers could face up to $124,000 in lost compensation.

While total foreign aid comprises less than one percent of the total budget, the aid that goes just to Egypt totals $1.525 billion, which would help cover the estimated $6 billion saved through the pension cuts. Unfortunately, our millionaire representatives can’t figure out who’s more worthy of our tax money – a government installed via a coup’d’etat, or our military.

Just to add insult to injury, this announcement was made this morning as well:

An amendment to the bill was proposed to close a loophole allowing welfare benefits to fraudulently go to illegal aliens by simply asking that a social security number be required for the Additional Child Tax Credit – this would have saved enough money to pay for the cuts. It was blocked by Democrats:

 “There are better ways for us to save these funds, such as closing the tax credit loophole for illegal immigrants,” Sen. Sessions said in a statement.  ”Unfortunately, Leader Reid and his conference blocked my effort to implement this fix during the budget debate in December.”

The budget is set for a House vote on Wednesday.