Politico reports the February 10th Senate vote to restore military pensions was “designed by Democrats, in part, to showcase several of their vulnerable members fighting for veterans.”
Democrats are pushing Senator Mark Pryor’s (D-AR) plan to restore military pensions to accomplish this, but Republicans counter that the plan has no cuts attached to offset restoring pensions. The GOP sees Pryor’s plan as a shallow measure that provides Democrats with cover but does nothing to protect the deficit from further expansion.
Republicans want to restore military pensions via the passage of Senator Kelly Ayotte’s (R-NH) plan to offset the restoration by “stopping illegal immigrants from claiming a child tax credit.” The money saved by not providing this service to illegal immigrants can be used to restore military pensions without exploding the deficit.
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said Ayotte’s plan is one Republicans can support because it provides a “legitimate pay-for” method of restoring the pensions.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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