RBM
CAGiversary!
January 2005 - Congress expects $100 billion war request
October 2005 - 331 American soldiers have been hit with military debt after being wounded at war.
"His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
Part of the problem is that the government's computerized pay system is designed to "maximize debt collection" and has operated without a way to keep bills from going to the wounded, Reid said.
Rep. Todd R. Platts (R-Pa.) said that for some troops, "we've so mismanaged their pay that . . . we've sent debt notices while they're still in combat, in harm's way."
*******
An out-dated computer system managing federal pay & billing is (sadly) no shocker...but this sort of thing is all the uglier, given some of the outrageous shenanigans filling the headlines nowadays. Rampant pork projects, FEMA funneling federal disaster money into contracts to companies that aren't even based in hurricane-hit areas, and in my own state, federal lawmakers voting themselves 34% pay raises in a closed-to-the-public, pre-dawn session immediately prior to their vacations...sidestepping a constitutional provision specifically barring such a manuever by calling them "unvouchered expenses."
Having our government split down the middle between conservatives and liberals (or Republicans and Democrats) may result in a lot of bickering without a lot getting done...but when any one group dominates, the resulting orgy of unquestioned, reckless abandon which ensues is far worse. I hope most of the current incumbents in Congress are ousted after their current term. They've shown all the restraint of children in a candy store.
October 2005 - 331 American soldiers have been hit with military debt after being wounded at war.
"His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help. This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
Part of the problem is that the government's computerized pay system is designed to "maximize debt collection" and has operated without a way to keep bills from going to the wounded, Reid said.
Rep. Todd R. Platts (R-Pa.) said that for some troops, "we've so mismanaged their pay that . . . we've sent debt notices while they're still in combat, in harm's way."
*******
An out-dated computer system managing federal pay & billing is (sadly) no shocker...but this sort of thing is all the uglier, given some of the outrageous shenanigans filling the headlines nowadays. Rampant pork projects, FEMA funneling federal disaster money into contracts to companies that aren't even based in hurricane-hit areas, and in my own state, federal lawmakers voting themselves 34% pay raises in a closed-to-the-public, pre-dawn session immediately prior to their vacations...sidestepping a constitutional provision specifically barring such a manuever by calling them "unvouchered expenses."
Having our government split down the middle between conservatives and liberals (or Republicans and Democrats) may result in a lot of bickering without a lot getting done...but when any one group dominates, the resulting orgy of unquestioned, reckless abandon which ensues is far worse. I hope most of the current incumbents in Congress are ousted after their current term. They've shown all the restraint of children in a candy store.
