Corey Stewart is apparently wants to save all defense spending while taking a chainsaw to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. His latest email blast in his bid for Lt. Governor is shocking! His own words:
There is no question our Federal Budget has ballooned to epic proportions, but arbitrarily slashing defense spending is the wrong way to try and reduce the federal deficit.
90,000 civilian Department of Defense employees will be furloughed; this alone will be a $648.8 million hit to the economy of Virginia.
If Washington wants to get serious about reigning in spending, they must go after entitlements. Entitlement programs currently occupy 62% of our federal budget, with 44% of that being comprised of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Those programs are increasing beyond the rate of inflation and, when combined with Obamacare, will eat up 18.5% of our national economic output.
Did he really use the words “go after?” Does he realize that many senior citizens have only Social Security to rely on? Is he declaring a war on senior citizens and the poor? It sure sounds like it.
Any senior citizen in Virginia who casts a vote for Corey Stewart is voting themselves right in the poor house.
Those were Corey’s own words. He has shown his disregard for the vintage population.
Yes, the sequestration is is dangerous to the economy and scary, but turning on senior citizens is not the answer to spending cuts. Turning on the poor is not the answer either. Additionally, a large chunk of medicaid goes to seniors in rehab facilities once their own income has run out.
Corey is randomly stabbing at anything he thinks will get him elected. His email showed knee-jerk reaction, not a well-thought out plan for Virginia to help us through difficult financial times. This time he has gone after senior citizens. Corey seems to have no problem being “The Man” against immigrants, the poor, and the elderly. Shame on you, Corey! Shame on you.
Dearest Corey,
Why are you such an idealogue with no conscience? Here is a newsflash, the baby boomers are going to retire en masse in the next decade. This population is not a bunch of takers, money grubbing after their healthcare and social security and medicare from “us” taxpayer. Guess what Corey, THEY PAID into the system, you paid into the system, they, like you and I, are ENTITLED to get our services we paid for.
The problem is not social security as much as it is the services that revolve around healthcare. Healthcare and Medicaid, like private insurance, is growing exponentially. Control the cost of healthcare and this crisis will become manageable. The working population cannot keep up with the retiring baby boomers. Within the next decade, worker ratio to retiree will be 2 to 1. We need to triple that at least.
Yes Corey, pick on the social contract of our democracy instead of finding balance, typical easy thoughtless path you continually choose. Try actually crafting policy and do the hard work of problem solving instead of always taking the easy thoughtless sound bite path.
This move is nothing but preemptive CYA on Corey’s part to blame others for the dismal failure in Prince William County to attract good jobs here. Once the defense-related employees (Defense Department and contractors) and other Federal employees who live in the County get furloughed or laid off, and find there are no jobs close-by except for fast-food and retail service, the bogus nature of the claims we’ve been hearing from him and the PWC Office of Propaganda about job creation will really start to become real for many people.
This County has done virtually nothing but pander to developers and be content with attracting low-wage jobs serving a residentially-based economy. People are going to suffer; not only retirees but families losing their bread-winners who become unemployed because of sequestration and have nothing to fall back on where they live. Corey, this Board of Supervisors and the County Administration should be ashamed of themselves.
Why is it that with one of the best-educated and experienced populations of any County in the nation we can’t attract high-wage professional jobs?
Why is it that with two major interstates (I-66 and I-95) going through our jurisdiction and our proximity to the nation’s capital we can’t persuade corporate headquarters to locate here?
Why did our own Director of Economic Development say at the Committee of 100 recently that if we have a townhouse developer ready to build on land planned for job creation we should just go ahead and take the deal?
Why does a self-proclaimed free-market conservative like Corey bemoan the reduction of Federal Government jobs instead of directing all of his efforts to attracting high-wage private-sector employers?
Why does this County lay out the red carpet for residential developers and give them whatever they want at the expense of the well-being of the people who already live here now?
I am really PO-ed today about all of this and Corey’s piece of “crapoganda” added fuel to the fire.
Interesting analysis of that statement. PWCS, Defense, PWC and WalMart are the top employers in PWC. So the only jobs available for those that lose one and want benefits, will be local government. What a circle.
Corey needs to stop talking about “entitlements” as though he is talking about welfare recipents.
Most senior citizens have paid Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid their entire working lives. To imply that they are now just moochers is despicable. All the baby boomers just hitting the system have been feeding the system through their payroll taxes throughout their careers.
When is Corey going to wake up and learn that he can’t insult senior citizens without there being serious payback.
Rather than pissing, bitching, moaning and complaining about immigration all the time he should be supporting conprehensive immigration reform. We educate many foreigners at US colleges and universities, then we refuse to grant them legal status so they can use their skills as US workers here.
Even with illegal immigrants who generally have a lower skill set, in a decade, those wage earners would be contributing more to the pay roll taxes than if they were living in the shadows. Its time to just start getting smarter about all of this.
I think that absent the “47 percent” comment Mitt Romney might have won the election. Corey is making the same mistake. The 47 percent includes not only those receiving Social Security and Medicare benefits, but retired veterans receiving their pensions for having served their country. Social Security and Medicare are not “entitlements” but earned benefits. Everyone I know has been paying taxes to accrue their benefits all of their working lives and should receive that for which they have paid.
As I have written on MH before, reforms are needed. However, the thinking that we “go after entitlements” is a disservice to those who have been accruing their benefits through payroll deductions all of their working lives. I support changes such as raising the retirement age. That makes sense because people are living much longer than they did when Social Security and Medicare were created, and better reflects the actual values of the contributions they have made during their working lives. What about retirees living in Prince William County at places like Heritage Hunt? Does Corey want to “go after” them?
Instead of harping on job losses in Roanoke, how about some concern over the job losses in Prince William County? We have fewer IT jobs in Prince William County now than when Corey became Chair. PWC employers have moved to Stafford County and elsewhere because of the poor business climate in PWC created by residential overdevelopment and bad planning. For example, Tridex Associates Inc., which was founded in Woodbridge in 1993, moved not long ago along with its approximately 160 well-paying, high-tech jobs to Stafford County citing its “less developed character.”
i was going to make a really mean joke about all the IT people under Corey now being in prison, but that would be tacky.
My problem with raising the retirement age is that it is a middle class luxury. those out working with their backs their entire lives shouldn’t be made to work in the mines, or do heavy contruction until they are 68 or 70. There needs to be a way for those people to get in earlier if they so choose. Many people in America do hard physical labor. We probably just don’t see them living here in PWC or in Washington, D.C. where all the laws are hatched by people who sit at desks and wear white shirts to work.
I don’t think Mitt Romney was going to win. I never thought he would win. I think that was just something Republicans told each other because they didn’t want to face reality. Look at how much energy had been expended by them to make Obama a one-term president. If you worked that hard, you would like to think it paid off. Just to be honest, the more the R’s went after Obama, the more he was guaranteed to win. Think about it.
@NYK
I forgot to tell you I totally agree that Medicare and Social Security should not be considered entitlements in the pejorative sense of the word. You are right, they have been paid into for a long, long time, over the course of careers.
@Moon-howler
You make good point and common sense exceptions should be made. A police officer or firefighter who faced stress and physically demanding situations their entire career should be allowed to retire sooner than me with my butt sitting in a comfortable leather chair all day. However, I think that in general the higher retirement age for most people makes sense given the changing demographics (longer life expectancy).
Perhaps full retirement age could go up but keep the earlier increments for those who need to check out of work a little sooner. It should also not kick in for a long time. Anyone 45 should be able to go under the old rules. They have already spent nearly a quarter century going by one set of rules.
I think you might be surprised to learn how many people do really physically exhausting labor for a living. Of course they might be in better shape than those who had desk jobs.
Does any one have any idea what the stats are on how Americans earn a living?
I would be in favor of doing away with allowing people to pick up the social security of the spouse who made the most money, regardless of length of time of marriage.
Remember too that disability checks come out of social security. Perhaps disability checks out to come out of the general fund. I have heard there is abuse there but I certainly don’t know of any cases.
talk about class warfare – how would anyone judge the stress and physical toll any profession takes on anyone. Sure people are living longer, but that does not mean that they are able to work the same job at the same productivity rate – so when the 65 year old gets booted for a younger person, the 65 year old will not be able to collect SS, and looks for another job – talk about age discrimination coming around. We pay into the system equal, we collect equal.
That is a huge problem. Older people are bumped for younger ones all the time. So what is that person to do? Its very difficult to get a new job when you are in your 60’s. The reality is, I don’t think this situation has been well thought out.
and the Retirement age is already picking up – moved to 67 for SS.
Some folks definitely are looking at 67.
Maybe Corey is angling for an invite to CPAC.
We all know one way to solve the worker problem, its called Comprehensive Immigration Reform!
Where ar cargo and blue to tell us all how the sequester will cause no harm to the Virginia economy?
@Need to Know
Firefighters do not retire sooner. They retire younger. They work longer shifts than regular workers and will put in a 48+ hour week on a regular basis. Therefore, they retire after that have worked about the same number of hours that a 40 hour-per-week person does.
How about military retirement. How does that work? It seems to me that some retire after 20 years with full benefits. Is that still true?
We are all part of the 47 percent takers in PWC.
Nothing like being a greedy 47 percent taker. Corey, of course, doesn’t take. I still haven’t figured out if he really works. Who does he work for? What does he do? How does he do anything if he is running all over the state. I have asked. No one seems to know.
Yes, Moon, it is still true if you serve 20 years, you can retire with full benefits. The difference is really in how the pay gets calculated. Since 1980, it has shifted to your retirement pay being calculated against “the highest three years of pay” – same as Civil Service and many other retirement programs where then a person receives 50% of the average of those three years.
People prior to 1980 was the old rule of half the amount you got your last year of service based on rank, with 2.5% added for every year past 20 years of service. Since 1986, they added another way to calculate retirement pay that provided for either the “High 36” pay average, plus the option of a career bonus. If you take the option, instead of 50% of the average, you get 40%.
As to benefits, that is another story in itself. Once you are a “former member of the Armed Forces” as defined under US Code 10, what you have access to depends on the Commander of the local military base. Keep in mind, some places there are no local military bases like we have here with Quantico and Fort Belvoir.
The biggest issue in the benefit is access to healthcare. The US Code says ALL former members of the Military (Retirees and Veterans) are cared for by the Veterans Administration. Access to the Base Hospital & Clinics is really left up to the local Military Treatment Facility Commander to determine if he has the resources to support BOTH the Active Duty Military & their Families, and the Retired Military & their Family members (children up to 18 unless in college….and there are exceptions to that rule). That is why through the years, many of the Military Hospitals for the widows ended services for them, and referring them to local doctors.
Bottom line on the Healthcare is that for the retiree and family members, it is in the discretionary category of funding….which is a long, long explanation.
Thanks for the info, Ray. After reading that, I am wondering why, all the criticism goes to social security and to those on pensions like VRS.
Is there a housing allowance after retirement for military personnel? Also, if the person who serves dies, does the surviving spouse continue the “pension” benefit?
@Elena
Elena, thanks for raising the point about the Boomers – between now and 2040, we (me being one of the Boomers) will have a large impact on the local area, and of course, nation-wide with 77million of us. Locally though….
In 7 years come 2020, we see the first big jump: the oldest Boomer will be 74, and for the Prince William Area, we will see at 65 and older – 54,592 “Vintage Virginians”
In 17 years come 2030, when the “Age Wave” and the youngest Boomer is 65 and the oldest is 84, our Area will see at 65 and older – 80,914 “Vintage Virginians”
That all boils down to 17% of the Area….with PWC being 73,598 of the Boomers in 2030…a very, very large demographic and a very, very large voting block.
I plan to be a gray panther.
that may or may not be true if contributions were by the hours worked – but they are not by hours worked, they are by gross wages – which are no where near comparable (ie, a 20 year employee will contribute much less than a 35 or 40 year employee.)
@Moon-howler
Housing allowance, like all the other various other allowances and special pays, ends with retirement. Only the Base Pay is used in the calculations. When a retiree dies, that retired pay stops.
As for the spouse, if the retiree elected to participate in the Survivor Benefit Plan (SBO – which is an insurance program with the money for the premium deducted each month out of retired pay), then when the retiree dies, the spouse receives a check. The amount depends on what the retiree selected, but can be up to 55% of the retiree’s pay, and does have a 2.5% COLA built into the program. Now, if the retiree had a service-connected disability, and the death was related to it, there is disability insurance plan which is like the SBP….and has the nickname “War Widow Money” since most disabilities in the past were related to war injury. It has a lower monthly check to the widow than the SBP.
By the way, when looking at Social Security or others like VRS, those other programs do not have something that occurs to the military: If the spouse was married for 10 years and 1 day to a military member, and all those years where when the person was in the military, and they get divorced, the retired military pay is considered to be “joint property” and the spouse is entitled to 50% of the retired pay. That decision in the courts came out about 30 years ago. Even if the spouse remarries, she is entitled to keep receiving the check under Federal Law.
Also, if there is child support payments, and the retiree is so ordered, on top of half of the retirement, they have to pay that to. Disability payments for the retiree though are not considered to be the “joint property” same as the retired pay. I always shake my head at this as I knew many military spouses who were professionals in their own rights with a check, and yet come the divorce, the service member had to give up half the retired pay.
That stinks. What if the military person marries and divorces twice, each for the right time? Does spouse 2 get the same thing?
I guess that would encourage someone to put up with some real jerk just to not lose half your pay. Or, if you were a generals wife, you could introduce the old goat into some woman, let him leave you, and you would be set….
VRS has benefits for spouses or whoever you select, if you chose to get it. however, your pay is reduced. You can even go up to 100% but it really takes a big hit out of your monthly pay.