Obama plans to bill wounded vets for medical care

Ohhmama wrote:

Scorpion wrote:

Mirage wrote:

What's so hard to understand about $500 ain't enough?

No amount of money is ever going to be enough to compensate our soldiers for the unnecessary hardships that they have had to endure, and will continue to endure, as a result of the Bush Administration's "stop loss" policy which was really nothing more than a "backdoor draft" policy. I'm sure that our soldiers would rather be home with their families than be forced to serve beyond their obligation. BTW - the $500 was authorized by Congress last October.

What you call "Obama's policy," is actually the phase-out of the stop loss program. The stop loss policy was a Bush program, and Obama is ending it. I'm sure our troops are very happy that the phasing out of this misguided and demoralizing policy has finally begun.

You mean it was authorized under Bush's administration?? SAY IT AIN'T SO! It was the very least that could be done for these families. But I may be with Mirage, I'd like to see them get more than just $500 a month for xtra for what they endure.

Yeah, well it wasn't one of Bush's proposals. It originated in Congress, who authorized it as part of the appropiations bill for the defense department. Here's a link from 2008, and some excerpts from the article:

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2008/09/airforce_stoploss_092608p/

Quote :

The stop-loss allowance is included in an omnibus appropriations bill that provides one year of funding for defense, veterans and homeland security programs but temporary funding through March 6 for other federal agencies.

What's kind of noteworthy is that originally the amount proposed was $1500 and it was supposed to be retroactive to 2001, when stop-loss was implemented. From what I gather from reading the article, Congress had to lower the amount, not only to get it passed, but also due to a technicality in the way the provision was passed using "temporary emergency" rules.

Quote :

When originally introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, the monthly payments to troops on stop-loss orders were to have been $1,500 a month and would have been retroactive to 2001, when the first stop-loss orders were issued.

Quote :

Limiting the stop-loss allowance to troops whose duty is extended after the appropriations bill becomes law holds the cost to $72 million for fiscal 2009 — a small dent in the $487.7 billion set aside in the defense portion of the bill. Making the benefits retroactive would have cost about $280 million.

But cost was not the only reason for limiting the benefits, aides said. Including the stop-loss allowance in the defense funding bill is a technical violation of congressional budget rules.