Far East Cynic

The Zombie Eyed Granny Starver, hard at work

Yesterday afternoon, the Devil's apprentice himself, Paul Ryan ( Worthless Cocksucker-WI) and his Democratic counterpart Mrs Landingham (H/t to Charles Pierce for the term) announced they had reached a budget deal.

Some deal. Rather than go for the straightforward approach of repealing the rest of the Bush tax cuts and lifting the cap on Social Security ( and let me make this abundantly clear for the all the deficit scolds out there, worthless people that you too are, Social Security does not contribute to the deficit and its time you stupid people stopped saying that.)

Instead we get this bit of trickery designed to fuck a whole lot of us at the drive through:

In a move expected to save $6 billion, the Bipartisan Budget Act announced Tuesday by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., calls for reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments for military retirees under the age of 62. Working-age military retirees would receive an annual pay adjustment that is 1 percentage point less than the rise in consumer prices. For example, the 1.7 percent COLA that took effect on Dec. 1 and will first appear in January checks would be just 0.7 percent for military retirees under age 62 but still be 1.7 percent for older retirees if the proposal were now in effect. The COLA reduction would be phased in three years. The December 2014 COLA would be reduced by 0.25 percent, the December 2015 COLA would be reduced by 0.5 percent and the full reduction would take effect with the December 2016 COLA. Disability retirees would not have their COLAs reduced. The plan could come to a vote in the House this week and, if it passes, be taken up by the Senate next week. The budget plan also saves $6 billion from changes in federal civilian retirement.

As Charles Pierce pointed out, once again the GOP gets to fuck over hard working people and steal,  while the Democrats simply can pat themselves on the back for politely letting them do it.

Apparently, the nation once again avoided a Grand Bargain by the skin of its teeth, but what makes me nervous is the fact that, at the press conference, the ZEGS spent most of his time celebrating what his side had gained out of the deal, while Mrs. Landingham spent most of her time celebrating the fact of the deal, and stressing that The American People would be glad to see both sides working together.

This is how the scale generally gets loaded in Washington — Republicans get enough of what they want so as to rest up for the next big grab while the Democrats throw themselves a parade to honor how mature and grown-up they are. For them, the deal is an end in itself. For the Republicans, it is a means to an end. The fight gets fixed that way. For all the huzzahs, you can hardly hear the cries of the people who are being sold down the river.

I am one of those people being sold down the river-and just reiterates for me why the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver has to go. If you have been reading here for a while you know that I have no sympathy for Paul Ryan, wishing fervently that he would drop dead in the early morning DC weather. There to be run over by a passing bus in his last brief moments of consciousness. And that would not even begin to repay him for the evil he conspires to do.

And take a look at the sleazy way this evil man tries to justify his thievery:

"We think it is only fair that hard-working taxpayers, who pay for the benefits that our federal employees receive, be treated fairly as well. We also think it is important that military families, as well as nonmilitary families are treated equally and fairly," he said.

Got that boys and girls? It's a back handed insult at federal employees and military retirees, as he implies that they don't work hard and have not earned their benefits. ( As opposed to say, greedy corporate CEO's) Not to mention its a double whammy for them since they have not had a pay raise since 2009 AND a lot are already contributing 15% of their salaries (same amount I have contributed since I left the military)  to our retirement accounts just to match the amount I would have been contributing were I still with my civilian corporation job. ( This due to the differences in how salaries are computed).

The Military coalition should be screaming bloody murder about this. So should a lot of other organizations. But they won't. It's for the children!

There are a whole bunch of other goodies tucked into this bill-many of them bad ideas that started not with politicians, but with budget hacks inside DOD. Who keep whining about treating people decently. And lets not even mention the abomination in the Defense bill that strips Convening Authorities of their authority to act in court martials. I'll have more on that tomorrow.

 There is a special place in hell reserved for you, Ryan,  and the rest of the herd. Please be speedily on your way.

  1. Who’s a selfish bastard now?

    SS took in less in than it paid out which means from this day forward the SS is a deficit and continuing fiscal drain. Thank you the SS trust fund and lock box. Heck of a job.

    I hate selfish people.

  2. With all due respect Curtis, pack sand.

    Its not selfish to recognize this for what it is, the first shot across the bow-and the first step towards other retirement "reforms". It is completely unfair-and in fact is pretty much a breach of contract. By making different classes of retirees , its an attempt to divide and conquer. The next step will be to pit active against retirees, disability retirees against non disability retirees and so on and so forth. The long term goal will be to fuck military retirees out of what they are owed-and to convert the active system to TSP, then to be privatized putting literally billions of dollars in the hands of investment bankers.

    Bottom line is a retiree is a retiree-and it does not matter how old he or she is. The money was earned and it better be fucking paid. It is a debt just as surely as a Treasury Bill.  Else it is time to start hanging some Congressmen from lamp posts. Furthermore-these assholes did NOTHING to close one tax loop hole that benefits rich bastards, and / or to make them make up the difference. Repealing the Bush tax cuts would restore and obviate the entire sequester. In a time of shaking recovery that's the best thing we can do. And as for SS, lifting the cap keeps the program solvent till 2065 or longer. And the rich can afford it.

    I place the blame where it belongs, on worthless pieces of shit like Ryan who would rather fuck American military retirees than make the rich pay what they owe.

  3. I read elsewhere that some were proposing that military members in the future would be required to contribute to their retierment. Not in the manner of TSP, but actually will be required to contribute part of their salary (I think it was 2% that the article mentioned). The article mentioned that it would start off with Officers and not affect the Enlisted (but it probably will later).

    The problem with that I see is that when an Officer decides to get out before retirment age, shouldn’t they be able to take the money that they contributed to their retierment with them? I would hope that they would actually think this through, and not just put up something that sounds good but they didn’t work out the kinks. If future Officers are allowed to take any earning contibuted to their retirement plans, the biggest out cry will come from the Enlisted ranks. They will say that it is not “fair” that Officers can leave early, and get money (never mind it is their money that they were forced to pay). We will get flooded with sob stories on how it is unfair, and just another “class warfare” scheme, etc, etc.

    All I want to know is if they do institute this plan, if an Officer gets kicke out, would they be able to still get their money back, or does the forefeiture of all pay and allowances means that they will get nothing? That will be a test case waiting to happen.

  4. Maurice, wait until they treat that retirement account like joint property in a divorce and the wife gets half or more right out front and then gets 50% of the residue until she dies. (That should cause Skippy to stroke out right there.)

    And Skippy, you know I like you or I wouldn’t twit you so much. It’s just hilarious to watch you, of all people, moaning in outrage about direct monetary hits (maybe) to you, while you scream at anybody who doesn’t believe it is our duty to the State to fork over whatever money the State demands because it knows better than us how to spend it on buying $1 million dollar sculptures for the State Department or sending $2 Billion/year to Afghanistan forever or $2 Billion/year to Pakistan for just about forever or $4 Billion/year to Egypt forever.

    You see, from some points of view those bastards in DC have WAY TO MUCH MONEY already so we don’t want them to have any more of ours. You’re convinced that rich people are there for the soaking but most of the Democrats in the Senate and Congress are mulit-millionaires and they’re just like that shit John Kerry who is so God damned cheap he won’t register his yacht in his home-state and keeps it in Rhode Island so he doesn’t have to pay taxes on it to Massachusetts. The Kennedy’s have always been even more dishonest skint tax cheats. Those are the plutocrats who write this tax code you love so much to rob the rich….and yet it’s being written by the richest Democrats in history. Try electing some poor but honest democrats before you start lusting after everyone else’s money so you can keep spending billions in Pakistan.

  5. We are truly screwed! I’m visiting my congress person from my district in Texas to raise hell with her for the treatment of retirees.