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Congress Calls for Waiver of Enlistment Bonus Repayments as White House Resists

posted by martyb on Thursday October 27 2016, @11:31AM   
from the Between-Scylla-and-Charybdis dept.

takyon writes:

The Pentagon recently asked nearly 10,000 soldiers to repay excessive bonuses they were given for re-enlisting in the California National Guard between 2007 and 2009 amid the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress was notified of the problem in 2014, but representatives failed to pass a provision that would allow the Defense Secretary to waive the repayments.

Some representatives claim that the California National Guard failed to convey the scale of the repayments issue or make it a congressional priority. An outraged and bipartisan group of legislators have called for quick action and full forgiveness of the overpayments (estimated to be around $70 million). On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and President Obama have promised to resolve the issue, even as officials acknowledge that the issue may extend to other states:

President Obama has told the Defense Department to expedite its review of nearly 10,000 California National Guard soldiers who have been ordered to repay enlistment bonuses improperly given a decade ago, but he is not backing growing calls for Congress to waive the debts, the White House said Tuesday. The comments by White House spokesman Josh Earnest suggest the administration is running into legal and policy roadblocks as it struggles to handle a public relations headache for the Pentagon, the National Guard and members of Congress who were caught off guard by the scope of the problem.

[...] California Guard officials say they informed California lawmakers about the scale of the debts in 2014, telling them in a list of legislative priorities sent to each House office and the House Armed Services Committee that "thousands of soldiers have inadvertently incurred debt, through no fault of their own because of faulty Army recruiting or accounting practices."

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Original Submission

• ''boots on the ground'' ''boots on the ground'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:31PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:31PM (#419551)

  That term was invented by The Establishment to distract from the fact that there are PEOPLE getting physical and mentally wounds--with thousands dying--in the process of expanding USAian hegemony.

  I do wish folks would quit parroting the term.
  If you mean "combat personnel", say that.

  .
  The claw-back is even more insidious than TFS indicates as revealed in an article I read. [wsws.org]

  Following the Congressional non-action, the Pentagon began aggressively clawing back the bonuses. They sent retired soldiers letters demanding the immediate repayment of sums ranging from $10,000 to $50,000, along with a one percent "processing fee".

  Rubbing salt into wounds, any resistance by the ex-soldiers triggered usurious interest charges and other penalties, followed by wage garnishments and real estate liens.

  -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

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• Re:''boots on the ground'' (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday October 27 2016, @11:32PM

  by HiThere (866) on Thursday October 27 2016, @11:32PM (#419620) Journal

  I don't know who invented the term "boots on the ground", but Kipling seems to have been familiar either with it, or with some term substantially equivalent. Read his poem "Boots".

  --
  Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.

  Parent

• Re:''boots on the ground'' (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @05:15AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @05:15AM (#419737)

  And hackers are not criminals?

  Words change meaning every once and awhile. The one that drives me bonkers is 'fail'. But that is just me getting old and conservative.

  Parent