Just two months ago, the US Congress voted to decrease cost-of-living-adjustments for 750,000 military pensioners in an effort to save $6.3 billion over 10 years and curb ballooning military benefit expenses.
But today, lawmakers reversed course: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly to repeal the cuts, and that vote came on the heels of a similarly one-sided vote that took place in the House yesterday.
The reversal came about as a result of various political realities; many military veterans and the groups that represent them expressed outrage at the initial pension cuts, and lawmakers facing mid-term elections were sensitive to the protests. Pension cuts, especially pertaining to military personnel, are a tumultuous political undertaking regardless of upcoming elections.
But some lawmakers expressed their discontent with reversing one of the few spending cuts that have made it past Congress in recent years. Reuters reports:
Conservative Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona said it was untrue that lawmakers were “turning our backs on veterans” with the cuts. He warned that the U.S. fiscal situation would only get worse if lawmakers “roll back one of the few deficit reduction measures our president and Congress have agreed to.”
“For goodness sake, when deficit reduction measures get signed into law, surely at some point we need to stand by them,” Flake said on the Senate floor. He was one of the three senators to vote against the repeal, along with Indiana Republican Dan Coats and Delaware Democrat Tom Carper.
Had the pension cuts not been repealed, military personnel under the age of 62 would have seen the COLAs on their pensions decrease by 1% below the rate of inflation.