Holiday Challenges

This time of the year we're all bombarded with sob stories about people who have fallen on hard times, who are struggling to provide a Merry Christmas for their loved ones, or who are otherwise having difficulty during what should be the happiest time of the year.

Well, this one is no different - with one exception. The people profiled in this story are those who have chosen to willingly make sacrifices for the greater good. And they are struggling through no fault of their own.

Under Obama, troops forced to rely on welfare, holiday charity to make ends meet

Jamie Boling and her husband, Joseph, know that providing for a military family can be trying — waiting for orders, often living on a single income, and, in especially tough cases, supporting a spouse wounded in the line of duty.

Around the holidays, the challenges — especially the financial ones — can tax families already struggling to make ends meet.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit D.C.-based think tank, estimates that as many as 340,000 veterans rely on federal or state rental assistance. About 900,000 veterans live on food stamps, and an additional 5,000 active-duty service members are food stamp recipients.

When I entered the Army in 1972 I was an E-1 with a wife and child. My base pay was $288 per month, with an additional quarters allowance of $105 monthly (no, I didn't remember that - I looked it up). Even way back then that amount was so low we qualified for food stamps. That was the only way we could make ends meet - at least until we reached our 'permanent' station and my wife could get a job.

The nonprofit groups Operation Homefront and Fisher House Foundation stepped in Monday to provide the Bolings and about 300 other military families in the D.C. area with grocery bags filled with the fixings for a holiday meal.

FWIW, I did a little research on both groups, and they appear to be worthwhile charities. If you have a little spare change (doubtful, I know, during this time of the year, but maybe...) toss some their way.

“The No. 1 request we hear is for assistance with food and to ensure children have a Christmas to remember,” said Vivian Dietrich, executive director of the D.C. area branch of Operation Homefront. “Families want to ensure their children have pleasant holidays.”

For the first time in 30 years, amid budget pressures from the sequester and an ongoing financial downturn, Congress and the military are considering changes that could cut soldiers’ retirement benefits.

And President Obama has suggested the possibility of paring back annual military pay raises, from 1.8 percent to 1 percent.

Vivian Greentree, director of research and policy for the advocacy group Blue Star Families, said the developments could seriously impact the finances of soldiers and their loved ones.

“We know military families face unique financial concerns that come with the military lifestyle,” she said. “For the thousands of military families living in poverty, the impact of frequent moves and cuts to military family programming or service member compensation will be felt even more keenly.”

Don't give me any crap about the hardships faced by welfare queens or EBT leeches. Save your sympathy for those who deserve it ... and that most definitely does not include congresscritters, contrary to what Chuck Schumer (D - Asshole) said.

Schumer: Veterans — Not Congress — Must Face Budget Cuts

It's time for retired veterans to face cuts as the federal government looks for ways to trim expenditures, Sen. Chuck Schumer said Monday.

"Civilian federal employees have been cut, cut, cut. I think there was a feeling, if you're going to cut them further, which was done, that the military retirees should have about an equal amount. It's small," the New York Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

But Schumer maintained members of Congress should not be forced to take a pay cut. He said they have already sacrificed, since they have not seen a pay raise "in a long time," and explained most of them are paying more for healthcare insurance.

"We have taken pretty big cuts," he said.

Poor babies...

Remind me again about how much Schumer and his fellow assholes have sacrificed to serve their country. And what they get in return for their 'service.'

I repeat: they are assholes of the first degree! Over-paid pampered worthless assholes who cause far more problems than they solve. Pardon my French, but fuck 'em all!!!

Worthless Goddamn bastards...