{"id":10,"date":"2009-03-10T08:45:45","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T08:45:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/2009\/03\/10\/tricare-for-life-letter-from-sen-lieberman\/"},"modified":"2010-02-16T16:50:18","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T00:50:18","slug":"tricare-for-life-letter-from-sen-lieberman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/tricare-for-life-letter-from-sen-lieberman\/","title":{"rendered":"TRICARE for Life letter from Sen. Lieberman"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 19, 2009
\n\u00a0
\nDear Mr. xxxxxx:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for contacting me regarding rumored cuts in benefit\u00a0programs for military retirees, including TRICARE for Life.\u00a0Currently, a wealth of false and misleading information is being\u00a0distributed on this matter; and I welcome the opportunity to\u00a0explain the source of the confusion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am aware of several chain emails, online discussion boards,\u00a0blogs, and even articles in well-intentioned veteran\u00a0publications that imply that President Obama and Congress plan on\u00a0eliminating TRICARE for Life. The insinuations put forth by these\u00a0sources are false.\u00a0The source of these stories is a report issued by the\u00a0Congressional Budget Office (CBO), entitled Budget Options Volume\u00a01: Heath Care, released in December 2008. Before jumping to\u00a0conclusions about the report itself, however, it is important to\u00a0know exactly what the CBO is. CBO is a nonpartisan federal agency,\u00a0tasked with providing Congress with cost estimates for the many\u00a0legislative proposals considered each year. It also periodically\u00a0offers Congress suggestions for adjusting federal spending. CBO is\u00a0an information gathering body for Members of Congress. Its\u00a0recommendations about the budget are completely non binding; and\u00a0its officers do not draft actual policy,legislation, or law.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Budget Options report in question offers a total of 115\u00a0options for reducing (or, in some cases, increasing) federal\u00a0spending on health care, only three of which relate to TRICARE.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These options are merely suggestions, not policy statements or\u00a0actual legislation. Reports such as this one are routine, and very\u00a0few options or recommendations made by CBO are typically acted\u00a0upon. President Obama has not indicated support for the three\u00a0recommendations in this report related to TRICARE, nor has any\u00a0Member of Congress, to the best of my knowledge. Any suggestion\u00a0that the Administration is affiliated with this report ignores the\u00a0fact that it was drafted by the CBO – which, again, is an advisory\u00a0body of the legislative branch, not the executive branch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may also be interested to know that both the Reserve Officers\u00a0Association (ROA) and the Military Officers Association of America\u00a0(MOAA) have issued statements condemning the aforementioned rumors\u00a0that are being perpetuated through these chain emails.I hope that you have found this letter informative, and I\u00a0encourage you to share this information with members of your\u00a0community who are concerned about issues relating to military\u00a0retirees. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee,\u00a0please be assured of my continued commitment to protecting the\u00a0various interests of all those who have fought tirelessly to\u00a0protect our cherished freedoms.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I\u00a0hope you will continue to visit my website at<\/strong><\/p>\n

http:\/\/lieberman.senate.gov<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for\u00a0updated\u00a0news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joseph I. Lieberman
\nUNITED STATES SENATOR<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 19, 2009 \u00a0 Dear Mr. xxxxxx: Thank you for contacting me regarding rumored cuts in benefit\u00a0programs for military retirees, including TRICARE for Life.\u00a0Currently, a wealth of false and misleading information is being\u00a0distributed on this matter; and I welcome the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tricare","tag-tricare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northwestvets.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}