He’s not getting $58k worth of disability. He’s retired O-6 with over twenty years.

baldilocks on June 8, 2008 at 11:20 PM

That makes a whole lot more sense then, although it still seems a bit high, but the thread says -

Left wonders, why is McCain getting 58K/year in disability pay?

MB4 on June 8, 2008 at 11:24 PM

:::cough:::

baldilocks on June 8, 2008 at 11:22 PM

Gesundheit.

MB4 on June 8, 2008 at 11:27 PM

Well, McCain - sorry McShamnesty - needs all that money to pay for all those damned Messicans (sic) he lets in here.

There, had to do that before the usual suspects, who apparently just woke up, get to it.

As they say in Mexico City, Oy veh.

SteveMG on June 8, 2008 at 11:34 PM

Heres the 2008 pay charts,from my vast favorites:

http://www.militarytimes.com/projects/money/pay_charts/2008/basic/0_20/

canopfor on June 8, 2008 at 11:38 PM

The man put a lot of time in. Very difficult time. $58,000 a year is a meager sum in my opinion for everything thing he went through.

JonRoss on June 8, 2008 at 11:40 PM

Good luck putting together that parade.

I figure it’ll be easier than putting together an RNC parade under a McCain candidacy.

aengus on June 8, 2008 at 11:42 PM

I have a problem with Barry’s dumbo ears. Freakish. Does he ever clean them out ? Any fur beginning to grown on them. Maybe national health care will allow him to have those things chopped down to human standards and maybe have all of the ear wax scraped out.

JonRoss on June 8, 2008 at 11:45 PM

He spent 5+ years in a North Vietnamese hellhole - much of it voluntarily, after refusing to leave when he could - and the government is ONLY giving him $58k a year?

And meanwhile the average crack mama with 7 kids is getting the same thing from welfare?

Yeah. I’m outraged.

C’mon, Leftards. You can do better than this. The irony alone should be painful for you on this one.

Professor Blather on June 8, 2008 at 11:55 PM

Yeah. I’m outranged.
Professor Blather on June 8,2008 at 11:55PM.

Professor Blather: Professor,your on a roll,let er rip! :)

canopfor on June 9, 2008 at 12:00 AM

MB4 = voice of reason.

Good luck putting together that parade.

SteveMG on June 8, 2008 at 11:38 PM

Them that matters don’t mind and those that mind don’t matter.

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 12:05 AM

Too bad McCain didn’t pick up a pricy house at bargin rates from a convicted felon. The left would let him off easy.

Wouldn’t they?

GarandFan on June 8, 2008 at 9:38 PM

How dare you equate the two? You have to understand that Obama needed fancy digs to befit his elevated, elite status and if getting in bed with a long-term donor and close friend under investigation for fraud was the only way he could afford it at the time, well, that just makes logical sense. Any lefty would’ve done the same.

McCain collecting his earned pension from 23 years in the Navy and, oh, somewhat less than $2k a month on top of it for the serious disabilities that resulted from 5 1/2 years of torture and beatings as a P.O.W. in North Vietnam on top of his war wounds from being shot down, well, that just reeks of hypocrisy.

I hope I’ve cleared that up. :o

Gilda on June 9, 2008 at 12:07 AM

Maybe McCain’s total length of service, raising to the ranks in the military to the level he did and surviving being tortured by the north Vietnamese had something to do with McCain being entitled to more money than you.

wise_man on June 8, 2008 at 11:41 PM

Well I think that his getting more than 3 and a half times as much per year in retirement as I got the whole time I was on active duty is a bit excessive.

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 12:10 AM

Wonder what the complaints will look like after Senator McCain leaves the senate and begins his annuity for his service in the senate along with his Social Security entitlements, during his Presidential years, and then begins to receive the Presidential retirement compensation following his term(s) in office.
.
Should be fun to watch.

News2Use on June 9, 2008 at 12:13 AM

Wonder what the complaints will look like after Senator McCain leaves the senate and begins his annuity for his service in the senate along with his Social Security entitlements, during his Presidential years, and then begins to receive the Presidential retirement compensation following his term(s) in office.

News2Use on June 9, 2008 at 12:13 AM

Wow! In that case I sure hope that they go ahead with that stuff where a man can marry another man cause I will want to marry him myself!

Tuco on June 9, 2008 at 12:20 AM

Personally I think that a good case could be made that the less time senators spend in the senate the more money they should get.

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 12:12 AM

While I know what you mean, it’s getting very annoying that most of them don’t work/lead/legislate any more, but rather campaign almost 100% of the time. No, they should not be there all the time, and shouldn’t get paid for it either. Look how little Obama has been there, or Hillary.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Friday “I will be whenever, and wherever, Obama wants me to campaign for him”. The citizens of LA, wich has oodles of problems deserve better than his using them as a stepping stone to the governorship, or the presidency. Just one example.

I’d much rather they all go in for one term, serve, no matter who they are, and have to go back to their old jobs.

William Buckley once said that he’d rather have the first 1000 names from the phone book to represent us, than university professors/intelligentsia. He had a good point. The elite gets too cushioney in those jobs and then only want to shove their idealism down our throats.

Entelechy on June 9, 2008 at 12:34 AM

Well I think that his getting more than 3 and a half times as much per year in retirement as I got the whole time I was on active duty is a bit excessive.
MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 12:10 AM

My pay at E4 was pretty low. I don’t know what yours was, or how many years ago. Military pay in the 80’s for enlisted was like I said, pretty low. I once saw a chart for pag grades from enlisted to officer. It’s commensurate to duty and rank. McCain retired as an 06. He spent 22 years in the military. 5 1/2 years as a POW being tortured.

This level of pay / retirement & disability doesn’t surprise me.

wise_man on June 9, 2008 at 12:37 AM

wise_man: I’ve posted the 2008 Pay Chart link on this
thread about 26,27 comments back!

canopfor on June 9, 2008 at 12:43 AM

INKY, is an ungrateful jackass for even bringing it up. McCain is entitled to the $58K, IMO.

tx2654 on June 9, 2008 at 1:34 AM

I honestly cannot believe some of the comments I have read here. And MB4 regarding your personal pay comment you are either (a) full of it, (b) in the military in 1906, or (c) in the military for 1/2 a year. It is impossible to expect us to believe you did something like a full tour of duty for $16k total.

HawaiiLwyr on June 9, 2008 at 2:13 AM

I honestly cannot believe some of the comments I have read here. And MB4 regarding your personal pay comment you are either (a) full of it, (b) in the military in 1906, or (c) in the military for 1/2 a year. It is impossible to expect us to believe you did something like a full tour of duty for $16k total.

HawaiiLwyr on June 9, 2008 at 2:13 AM

Don’t implicate others in your uncoordinated thinking.

Figures are from memory and approximate, but should be close enough for government work.

Starting in Aug, 1968:
2 months @ $100/mo = $200.
2 months @ $110/mo = $220.
6 months @ $250/mo = $1,500.
12 months @ $300+/mo = $3,600+
12 months @ $400+/-/mo = $4,800+/-
7 months @ $700+/mo = $4,900+
Total = $15,220+/-

And if I had not been promoted 5 times I would have got a lot less.

Now don’t pester me with your silliness any more.

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 2:35 AM

I’ll throw in a few bucks. I’m not sure that $58k is enough!!!!

Bfunky292 on June 9, 2008 at 2:51 AM

MB4

Starting in Aug, 1968:
2 months @ $100/mo = $200.
2 months @ $110/mo = $220.
6 months @ $250/mo = $1,500.
12 months @ $300+/mo = $3,600+
12 months @ $400+/-/mo = $4,800+/-
7 months @ $700+/mo = $4,900+
Total = $15,220+/-

In 1965 my base pay started at $78.00/month, so your $16k sounds reasonable. Still the linked pay chart shows that the same E-1 boot camp pay will be $1,245.90 next year.

My current 100% disability compensation for service in Viet Nam is roughly $30k/ year. My E-6 retirement, 8 years active 12 reserve is about $10k. so with disability and a reserve E-6 retirement I get roughly $40k. For a retired O-6 to get $58k sounds absolutely reasonable to me.

What does allow one to say that McCain’s $58k is disability pay is the fact that his pay, like mine, comes under a Democratic sponsored provision that eliminates the old “offset” Your disability pay until recently had the VA disability payment deducted from it.

Linh_My on June 9, 2008 at 3:53 AM

What does allow one to say that McCain’s $58k is disability pay is the fact that his pay, like mine, comes under a Democratic sponsored provision that eliminates the old “offset” Your disability pay until recently had the VA disability payment deducted from it.

Linh_My on June 9, 2008 at 3:53 AM

Congress lives in an alternate “reality”.

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 4:45 AM

This from little nancy boys who crying home to their mommas every time they get a splinter..

gridlock2 on June 9, 2008 at 5:29 AM

Allah, you really blew it this time. The emphasis in the Kos piece is over McCain’s supposed hypocrisy over voting down measure after measure of funding for veterans while receiving generous compensation himself. I actually think that’s a worthy complaint. Why did you not mention this in your writeup?

Did you not think people would read the Kos piece?

fossten on June 9, 2008 at 6:44 AM

MB4 on June 9, 2008 at 4:45 AM

OK, I can’t let this one pass. The military, until very recently, were the only group in the nation that had to fund their own disability out of their retirement. What this meant was, if I retired with, for example, a 50% disability (somewhere in the vicinity of $1300 a month) I would draw that amount from the VA, tax free, as it has always been. But my retired pay would be reduced from its normal amount (in my case, around $2600) by the same amount. Oh, and I get to pay taxes on all of that.

After decades of lobbying, a bipartisan bill passed saying that America’s warriors should be able to receive their pensions (retired pay) as well as any disability pay they are entitled to. Is that so extreme???

Longhorn Six on June 9, 2008 at 8:20 AM

Gang,

I am a partially disabled Desert Storm vet from the Navy. I am fully capable of performing my *civilian* job, but can no longer fully perform my military job. As a result, I get a small check from the government.

It is a form a retirement, but it is not retirement as is thought of in the traditional sense. I can no longer serve the country in the military, and so the government compensates me for the loss. My military job was considerably more rigorous (and fun!) than my current civilian job.

The fact that I’m outwardly fine, still run competitively, lift weights, and wrestle my son, mean nothing. The government says I can’t do my job, so I’m out.

John McCain can’t lift his arms over his head, for Christ’s sake! I’m sure we can agree that for that service he is due some compensation, but it doesn’t mean that he is prohibited from working for the rest of his life. Good freakin’ Lord, can’t these people take a breath and think?

Bigurn on June 9, 2008 at 8:37 AM

Hmmmmm, do they ever mention the amount of $$ (and perks) Bill Clinton receives courtesy of the taxpayers? He doesn’t seem to need it with all those speaking engagements and book sales.

ctmom on June 9, 2008 at 9:00 AM

Do I dare dream that the Left will try to make this a relevant issue? What a disaster that would be.

C’mon Kos, Aravosis and Amato. Let’s talk about how much he doesn’t deserve it. What could go wrong for you?

SouthernDem on June 9, 2008 at 9:52 AM

Um, the military doesn’t have a 401k matching plan.

If you left your company and decided to receive your 401k payment in monthly installments nobody would claim that you are receiving a “handout” even if there was a matching component to it.

blink on June 9, 2008 at 10:27 AM

PLEASE READ!!!!

The military pay chart in the above post is PER MONTH… not YEAR…

Romeo13 on June 9, 2008 at 11:04 AM

Any KOS pukes out there ? Please read this !!
And thank your privileged butts we have people like
John McCain in this country.
——————————————–

Getting to Know John McCain
By KARL ROVE
April 30, 2008; Page A17

It came to me while I was having dinner with Doris Day. No, not that Doris Day. The Doris Day who is married to Col. Bud Day, Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, fighter pilot, Vietnam POW and roommate of John McCain at the Hanoi Hilton.
As we ate near the Days’ home in Florida recently, I heard things about Sen. McCain that were deeply moving and politically troubling. Moving because they told me things about him the American people need to know. And troubling because it is clear that Mr. McCain is one of the most private individuals to run for president in history.
When it comes to choosing a president, the American people want to know more about a candidate than policy positions. They want to know about character, the values ingrained in his heart. For Mr. McCain, that means they will want to know more about him personally than he has been willing to reveal.
Mr. Day relayed to me one of the stories Americans should hear. It involves what happened to him after escaping from a North Vietnamese prison during the war. When he was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, “I told you I would make you a cripple.”
The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day’s will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at “a goofy angle,” as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.
But it didn’t heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day’s splint in place.
Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complemented the treatment he’d gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.
Another story I heard over dinner with the Days involved Mr. McCain serving as one of the three chaplains for his fellow prisoners. At one point, after being shuttled among different prisons, Mr. Day had found himself as the most senior officer at the Hanoi Hilton. So he tapped Mr. McCain to help administer religious services to the other prisoners.
Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain’s sermons. “He remembered the Episcopal liturgy,” Mr. Day says, “and sounded like a bona fide preacher.” One of Mr. McCain’s first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn’t ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.
Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can’t raise his arms over his head.
One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice. Shortly after, on Christmas Day, the same guard stood beside Mr. McCain in the prison yard and drew a cross in the sand before erasing it. Mr. McCain later said that when he returned to Vietnam for the first time after the war, the only person he really wanted to meet was that guard.
Mr. Day recalls with pride Mr. McCain stubbornly refusing to accept special treatment or curry favor to be released early, even when gravely ill. Mr. McCain knew the Vietnamese wanted the propaganda victory of the son and grandson of Navy admirals accepting special treatment. “He wasn’t corruptible then,” Mr. Day says, “and he’s not corruptible today.”
The stories told to me by the Days involve more than wartime valor.
For example, in 1991 Cindy McCain was visiting Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh when a dying infant was thrust into her hands. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life, so Mrs. McCain brought the child home to America with her. She was met at the airport by her husband, who asked what all this was about.
Mrs. McCain replied that the child desperately needed surgery and years of rehabilitation. “I hope she can stay with us,” she told her husband. Mr. McCain agreed. Today that child is their teenage daughter Bridget.
I was aware of this story. What I did not know, and what I learned from Doris, is that there was a second infant Mrs. McCain brought back. She ended up being adopted by a young McCain aide and his wife.
“We were called at midnight by Cindy,” Wes Gullett remembers, and “five days later we met our new daughter Nicki at the L. A. airport wearing the only clothing Cindy could find on the trip back, a 7-Up T-shirt she bought in the Bangkok airport.” Today, Nicki is a high school sophomore. Mr. Gullett told me, “I never saw a hospital bill” for her care.
A few, but not many, of the stories told to me by the Days have been written about, such as in Robert Timberg’s 1996 book “A Nightingale’s Song.” But Mr. McCain rarely refers to them on the campaign trail. There is something admirable in his reticence, but he needs to overcome it.
Private people like Mr. McCain are rare in politics for a reason. Candidates who are uncomfortable sharing their interior lives limit their appeal. But if Mr. McCain is to win the election this fall, he has to open up.
Americans need to know about his vision for the nation’s future, especially his policy positions and domestic reforms. They also need to learn about the moments in his life that shaped him. Mr. McCain cannot make this a biography-only campaign
– but he can’t afford to make it a biography-free campaign either. Unless he opens up more, many voters will never know the experiences of his life that show his character, integrity and essential decency.
These qualities mattered in America’s first president and will matter as Americans decide on their 44 th president.

Texyank on June 9, 2008 at 6:25 PM