Political Quotes

“109 years ago, for reasons no one can quite understand, a law was passed that prevented someone who had a service-connected disability from drawing disability at the time they were drawing retirement pay from the U.S. military. If someone is injured, for example, in combat, they are eligible for a disability pension. If they have military service for 20 or 30 years, they are eligible for retirement. But under a quirk in the law that has been around for 109 years--let's assume the disability is $200 a month, and the retirement is $500 a month--the person who has been injured in combat must either waive his entire disability or take $200 from retirement to receive the $200 of disability. To say the least, this is certainly not an incentive for someone to stay in the military, in addition to its basic unfairness. For example, someone can retire from the Forest Service or the Department of Energy or the Department of Treasury --any executive office--and have a disability from the military. They could draw both retirements. But if you retire from the military, you can't. Certainly this is a nonincentive to stay in the military. If an individual leaves the military and begins a career in the executive branch, that person may receive both entitlements, but not if they choose to serve our country in the U.S. military. It seems unusual to me at a time when the military is having difficulty retaining personnel. This is, to say the least, ridiculous.”