mrgrg-ms-talk - FAX sent 1 Feb 2006 to Senator Collins

Since 02-02-06

From: Floyd Sears <fsears@bellsouth.net>
To: !CAG/MRGRG e-mail network <fsears@bellsouth.net>
Cc: cfcgunnrb29@comcast.net, cepling3@comcast.net, Harry Riley <hmriley@cox.net>, "Tim (G.T.) Forehand" <tim@alaweb.com>
Subject: [MRGRG-MS] [Fwd: [mrgrg-ms-talk] FAX sent 1 Feb 2006 to Senator Collins]
Date: Feb 2, 2006 3:44 PM

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [mrgrg-ms-talk] FAX sent 1 Feb 2006 to Senator Collins
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 08:43:45 -0700
From: Norman Campbell <cfcgunnrb29@comcast.net>
To: Carolyn J Epling <cepling3@comcast.net>

Thank you for setting the record straight in your response to the US Postal Service press release concerning S-662 –The Postal Reform Bill.

Military retirees, their families and survivors, are ever so grateful to you for stopping this part of the propaganda campaign that is ongoing - a campaign aimed at blaming the military retiree earned benefits and healthcare costs as the reason for the inability to properly fund active duty forces.

We know there is a determined effort within the Administration to strip as much as possible from military retiree benefits, with emphasis on raising the costs to the users of the military TRICARE health program.

Every unethical, radical and “dirty trick” in the books is being used to gain support for this effort – but none of us expected it to stoop to the lowness of a high level US Postal Service employee making a false statement to the public, quite clearly meant not only to defeat your bill but to turn the American public against the rightful claims of the military retiree.

I do hope that you can use your position to set an example by insisting that punitive actions be taken against this Postal employee.

Senator we in the military retiree family also know that in 2001, Congress enacted the TRICARE for Life (TFL) Program, as a large partial fulfillment of the promises the government had made to those of us who were career military and fought WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War battles.

We also know that Congress directed two funding sources into the TFL fund – one an unfunded liability from the Treasury to cover those of us already 65, enrolled in Medicare and paying Part B Medicare fees. The other deposit into this fund also came from the Treasury to cover the amount DOD would be responsible to put into the Fund to cover careerist now in the service who will become eligible for TFL when attaining Medicare age 20 to 45 years in the future.

As Congress intended when this law was enacted, the TFL Program would have no effect on DOD’s budgeting. We also know that this Administration purposefully ignored the intent of Congress, convinced the enforcing elements in Congress to effectively break the law, and forced DOD to include the costs of TFL in their budget.

Of course we all know that the Administration refuses to allow DOD to increase its budget to include the costs of TFL funding that would be covered by inputs from the Treasury. We can think of no other reason for the Administrations nefarious actions in this matter than to give DOD the excuse to wage the propaganda campaign they now are against military retirees for the sole purpose of reducing/eliminating the benefits we were promised and we earned.

Thank you for listening. I will provide a copy of this letter to Senator Pete Domenici. Senator Jeff Bingaman and Representative Heather Wilson, who are members of the Congressional Delegation from New Mexico.

Respectfully; Norman Campbell, MSgt., USAF (Retired)

Norm Campbell
ne obliviscaris - (never forget)