The Pentagon has proposed a $5 a month increase in the health insurance premium payment for working age military retirees. A modest increase, indeed, and when you consider what they pay now–$515 A YEAR—it seems in these tough times, Republicans would think this not even worthy of discussion.
No, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was before a congressional committee yesterday defending it.
Rep. E. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) told Gates that based on his conversations with retirees, who had enlisted with the expectation that they would get free health care for life, the proposed increase was "a breach of trust to change the deal."
Not only does this Republican think that working age retirees, who are already getting a handsome pension in addition to whatever salary they’ve been able to get as a Beltway Bandit, should not pay about $43 a month for health insurance for their entire family, he calls it a “breach of trust.”
Wonder what he would say about the breach of trust going on all around the country, including Virginia, where Republican governors are asking state workers to pay into their retirement plan and, as in Wisconsin, are taking away their bargaining rights.
Isn’t that a breach of trust?