Making it in the MilLife®

Grassroots Efforts to Repeal Bipartisan Budget Act

Jan 15 2014

Published by Karen

A provision in the Bipartisan Budget Act (BBA) that reduces working age retirees’ annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) by one percentage point until the age of 62 has evoked outrage in the military community. To date, over 250,000 MOAA suggested messages have been sent to Congress on this issue alone.

Leading the grassroots efforts is the #KeepYourPromise Alliance. The alliance started on December 14, when various military organizations pulled together a grassroots campaign stating “enough is enough” to the continual military benefit cuts targeted by legislators seeking to balance the national budget. MOAA participated in a Twitter Town Hall that took place on December 16, quickly generating over 44,327 tweets. A second Twitter Town Hall and Facebook Spreecast took place on January 7^th generating almost 10,000 tweets and nearly 6,000 Facebook views.

“MOAA strongly supports the groundswell of grass roots activities currently serving and retired military families are taking part in to voice their outrage about the COLA cut in the 2013 Bipartisan Budget Act,” MOAA President Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, USN (Ret) said. “They also correctly surmise that this step is only the beginning, and that if they don’t speak up now, more attacks on the All-Volunteer Force will surely be easier to accomplish.”

To join the social media action, visit and “like” the MOAA Spouse on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @MOAA_MilLife.

– See more at: http://militaryoneclick.com/grassroots-efforts-to-repeal-   bipartisan-budget-act/#sthash.8nlRIYv8.dpuf

The omnibus budget bill passed by the House and the Senate is a breach of contract with the American military. Our military has been fighting wars overseas for the past twelve years–this is how we reward them. It is a shame that the only budget cuts in this budget are to military retirement–there are no other budget cuts until later years, when Congress will probably repeal them.

It’s time for Americans to speak out on behalf of our military. There should be some serious outrage about this bill.