Public outrage suspends the repayment of soldiers’ bonuses.
As we enter the week of Veteran’s Day, we should be thinking about the thousands of men, women, and families who sacrifice their lives to protect our county. Yet, what is the pentagon focusing on? Hunting down soldiers to make them payback bonuses they improperly received in 2006 to 2008 due to no fault of their own. It wasn’t until the public outrage after the Los Angeles Times reported about the 9,700 California Guard members who were being forced to repay these bonuses that the Pentagon halted their efforts for further examination.
These bonuses were given at the height of the Iraq war and were often distributed in the form of recruitment bonuses or student loan payments, many of which exceeded $15,000. Many of the recipients of these bonuses served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, some who whom returned home badly wounded. Two thousand of these soldiers have been forced to repay their bonuses, and prior to the suspension, the Pentagon was going after the bonuses of another 7,700 soldiers due to paperwork errors, inadequate documentation, or other logistical problems. Consequently, many of these soldiers were having their paychecks garnished, were having to refinance their mortgages, or having to take other drastic steps to retain this money. These soldiers are also facing tax liens and harm to their credit scores because of debt collection actions. Yet, the problems don’t end there.
While soldiers do have an appeals process available, the process is slow and the garnishment and financial demands are hitting these military families before the appeal process can be completed. The most troubling part is that the California National Guard informed Congress about this problem in 2014, yet no action was taken. Instead, it took a newspaper article raising these issues for Obama to step in and mandate the suspension of the repayment effort until more information can be gathered.
The Pentagon rests on the notion that they owe a duty to the taxpayer, which I do not argue against. BUT, there should be a difference between people who accept a bonus KNOWING they should not have received it, and a soldier who accepts a bonus in good faith, carries out their duty, and then because of paper work is now being put in financial stress because of something entirely out of their control.
The Pentagon is now reviewing each case “on its own merits” to determine criteria as to who should have to pay back their bonuses, or how much should be paid/forgiven. Really? Now they implement this procedure? This seems a little too late. Examining each case individually should be something done prior to going after someone’s financial livelihood – especially the soldiers of our county. For as Veteran’s Day approaches, perhaps we need to remember exactly what it means to be a veteran, and instead of turning the lives of these veterans upside down, the Pentagon should work to make these men and women – who acted in good faith – whole again and not force them into financial ruin.