I think the vast differences in compensation between victims of the September 11 casualty and those who die serving the country in uniform are profound. I normally wouldn’t say anything bad about September 11 or the victims, but the numbers involved say something really disturbing about the entitlement mentality of this country. If you lost a family member in the September 11 attack you’re going to get an average of $1,185,000. The range is a minimum guarantee of $250,000, all the way up to $4.7 million.
If you are a surviving family member of an American soldier killed in action, the first check you get is a $6,000 direct death benefit - half of which is taxable - followed by $1,750 for burial costs. The surviving spouse gets $833 a month until they remarry. And there’s a payment of $211 per month for each child under 18. When the child hits 18, those payments stop.
Keep in mind that some of the people who are getting an average of $1.185 million up to $4.7 million are complaining that it’s not enough. Their deaths were tragic, but at some level I wonder if they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The WTC already had one terrorist attack, so it’s not like it was a target that surprised anyone. Soldiers put themselves in harms way for everyone, and they and their families know the dangers.
Recently families of the victims from the Oklahoma City bombing have started an organization asking for the same deal that the September 11 families are getting.
This is the result of over 50 years of entitlement politics in this country. Every time a pay raise comes up for the military they usually receive next to nothing of a raise. Now the green machine is in combat in the Middle East while their families have to survive on money none of us would agree to live on.
However, our own U.S. Congress voted themselves another raise, and many of you don’t know that they only have to be in Congress one time to receive a pension that is more than $15,000 per month. That’s why politicians are rich, because they vote themselves millionaires.
If some of the military people stay in for 20 years and get out as an E-7, they may receive a pension of $1,000 per month while the very people who put them in harm’s way receive $15,000 per month. I think politicians should do one of two things. One, be ready to serve in a war zone, or be wiling to live on the wages of the typical military family. That’s also my argument for fixing Medicare - the worst medical insurance system in the industrialized world. Put congress on it. When Medicare becomes the insurance policy of all elected officials, it will quickly become the best heath care system in the world.
Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during election years. Our Senators and Congressmen do not pay into Social Security. Many years ago they voted in their own benefit plan. In more recent years, no congressperson has felt the need to change it. For all practical purposes their plan works like this:
When they retire, they continue to draw the same pay until they die, except it may increase from time to time for cost of living adjustments. For example, former Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000 with their wives drawing $275,000.00 during the last years of their lives. This is calculated on an average life span for each.
Their cost for this excellent plan is $00.00. These little perks they voted for themselves is free to them. Taxpayers and the 64% of the population that decides not to vote pay for this plan.
Social Security is headed for a crisis by the year 2024. In and of itself, Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. And that change would be to jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us and then watch how fast they would fix it.