WASHINGTON, March 13 (UPI) -- The Congressional Budget Office has recommended cuts in health and other benefits to U.S. active service troops and veterans.
However, most, if not all, of the controversial proposals look unlikely to be adopted by the current, Democratic-controlled 110th Congress, the Army Times reported Tuesday.
The newspaper said that the cuts proposals were contained in the latest semi-annual report from the Congressional Budget Office entitled "Budget Options" released this week.
The report suggested "cutting veterans' disability payments for all but the most seriously injured, making active-duty service members pay more than three times as much as they now do for the right to post-service education benefits, limiting annual military pay increases to 0.5 percent while paying bigger bonuses to people in critically needed skills, and charging more for older retirees who use the Tricare for Life insurance plan," the Army Times said.
The newspaper cited congressional sources as saying they thought it extremely unlikely that any of these proposals would be legislated into law. However, it also noted that "some ideas in previous versions of the report have been adopted, particularly about reducing military retired pay and making military families and retirees pay a share of their health care costs."
The issue of active service medical care has become a hot button issue following the revelations of sub-standard maintenance and care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other U.S. military facilities. Veterans Administration chief Jim Nicholson is also under pressure because of numerous complaints about poor medical service and vastly insufficient medical resources being provided to many veterans of the Iraq war.
