Congress Looking To Take BAH Money From Servicemembers to Give To Realtors
For servicemembers who rely on their BAH for some extra cash by living in a smaller home than what you could afford with your stipend, get ready because Congress is coming to take that money from you:
Senate lawmakers want to radically overhaul how military housing stipends are awarded and end the practice of troops pocketing extra cash from the payouts.
The plan is tucked into the Senate’s pending draft of the annual defense authorization measure, and hasn’t received the same attention as major military health care and acquisition reforms also included in the legislation.
But it has the potential to change housing stipend totals for nearly every service member in coming years, with some potentially losing hundreds of dollars a month. And it comes after a series of pay and benefits trims in recent years that have left advocates frustrated about increased financial strain on military families.
Instead of the current Basic Allowance for Housing system, which assigns flat-rate stipends for zip codes across the country based on troops’ rank and family status, the new proposal would move closer to the military’s Overseas Housing Allowance. That system sets maximum payable stipends but awards troops only for their actual expenses, making recipients provide proof of what they pay in rent and utilities costs.
Dual military couples and service members who room with friends would not be able to game the system either. They’d see their individual stipend cut in half, adjusted to cover just their actual costs and nothing more. [Military Times]
You can read more at the link, but this will do little to save any money and instead take money from troops to give to realtors. I would not be surprised if the real estate lobby is behind this change. That is because what will happen is that the realtors will make sure the rent for a home matches what the servicemembers maximum BAH rate is. This will in turn drive up rental rates across the city as well which will bring in more money for realtors from civilians trying to find a place to rent.
This already happens in Korea with the Overseas Housing Allowance (OHA) which has led to realtors being put off limits for colluding with property owners. I also wonder how this affects servicemembers who own homes? Will they be allowed to use the BAH to pay their mortgage? What if they have the house paid off? Will they have their BAH cancelled?
It seems to me that if Congress wants to save money than tax whatever the remaining BAH is as income. For example if someone’s BAH is $2,000 and rents a house for $1,500 than tax the extra $500 as earned income. This would keep money in troops pockets and not artificially increase rental rates across an entire community plus put money back in the treasury. This makes too much sense so it probably will not happen.
America no longer creates… so the economy must run on spending.
Frugality is punished.
Needless and instantanious spending is encouraged… and every system is slowly redesigned to promote this.
You have lost your way, America.
Whaaa, whaaa,whaaa, stop crying ❗ It’s not “your” money, it’s the taxpayers money paying for socialist suckers ❗
Probably Democrats whinging about money spent on GIs that could be shifted to drug pushers and paint huffers back home
This proposal will create increase administrative costs and create more paperwork; soldiers would have to provide documentation of their rent and utilities expenses, and someone in payroll would have to review the expenses and adjust the BAH payments. All in all, it sounds like it might cost more money that it saves.
I never had to show what I paid for utilities. Instead, I received a flat rate allowance. It was much more than I ever spent monthly on utilities.
I think that I probably pocketed more money from the utilities allowance than most CONUS troops do from picking smaller living spaces.
Well.. before you go complaining about Democrats on this one, the bill is the handiwork of McCain and is a part of a more general action:
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2943/
But as Tbonehead proves time and time again, there are so many stupid people in the nation. It *is* their money, it’s part of the compensation for their employment. It is also better to have individuals be in control of their own spending rather than be money couriers between the government and industries who would most certainly seek to abuse the system. No one cares when they don’t have a sense of ownership and the process as it exists in South Korea is proof of that.
It’s sad that either people like Tbone don’t care or understand that it’s a bigger misuse of their tax dollars when it’s filtered through government programs such as LQA.
Later.
I’m pretty sure the amount of oversight this “money saving” micro-management project is going to require will cost more than they are going to save. They already average out the costs every few years to determine the right amount of BAH for the area, now they are going to go home by home?
Another pennywise, pound foolish “solution”.
Yeah, Tbone…only Socialist countries have need for a military.
Smokes, I always expected McCain to switch parties… He was always appearing to be a closer friend to Ted Kennedy, Hillary, and John Kerry than anyone in the GOP. Granted I’ve been wrong, too. I just thought the whole Navy was leaning left for awhile…
“It *is* their money, it’s part of the compensation for their employment”
Whether this/that money, it comes from taxpayers and you/DOD are lower than people who receive food stamps ❗
Tbone this will be too long and serious for you to actually read but heck, you bent over and presented so I’ll stick it in. That was obviously one of your usual extreme utterances but for the sake of whatever how about you actually make a real attempt to qualify it?
I’m assuming you think I’m Active Duty hence the “you/DOD” but I’m actually DoD so let’s just say “you/Active Duty”. So what it is you pose? To rid the USA of the DoD? Because you somehow believe the DoD community is a bigger drain on the country than food stamp recipients?
Food stamp recipients? Seriously you wanna pick on people who can’t buy food? Well OK then.
Current estimate is that there are 3,236,542 who work for the DoD of which are 718,000 civilians, and 1.1M reservists which we really shouldn’t count but we will because you’re going to need help on this.
3.23M people who are payed by US tax dollars to provide a necessary service at a high level of professionalism and ranked at the top in the execution of their duties. People that who even entered at the most basic level of service are outfitted with skills, information, and opportunities to be responsible productive adults who add to the country’s value for decades. That would seem to be money well spent.
Now in the state of California alone the number of people registered for food stamps OUTNUMBERS the entire DoD! 4.34M people in the Democratic bastion that is California filled out a form and handed it to an office stating “I’m an adult that can’t afford to feed myself or my family.” The total for the US is a staggering 46.5M… how the F in the Uck in the 21st century living in a 1st world nation as an adult can you not afford to feed yourself or your family? There’s no way that this program is doing anything but acting as a government funded drug house that keeps the poor and unskilled that way.
So with the number of people on food stamps being more than 10x’s the amount of DoD Personnel how are you making that case as to which is a waste? If you go through the DoD program you have a high likelihood of making in the world on your own. If you go through the food stamp program you have a high likelihood of never being anything other than a drag.
You could argue that the personnel portion of the DoD budget is 23.7 times that of the national food stamp budget but whatever the ROI from DoD personnel is has to be better than the ROI from people on food stamps.
We don’t need adults who can’t feed themselves; we do however need people to stand guard over the nation.
This is amazing and all. Why not cut military pay instead of congress budget! I am sure if something happens those senators will be there front and center defending this country! BAH is too high and its tax free – really? How about you and you family moves every 4 years at best. Kids lose their friends and baby sitters. You have no family near by to help you watch your kids so your spouse who is not active duty can work full time. So you want to take the piece of mind away from the active duty member? You want to take their widow’s benefits away? You want to take their free medical away? You better hope if u succeed in doing so there isnt a war any time soon, because i can guarantee you all these people who will get out so they can move back home closer to grandma so their wife can help with bills will most definitely not rush to volunteer! As an active duty spouse myself i can tell you first hand – the extra money are not that much given that 90% of military households have only one provider simply because someone has to watch the kids( i dont think i need to stress the price of child care). I guess according to congress our service man and women dont have the right of family and piece of mind – all they need is PTSD, to be like robots and grab the gun when they are told!
“We don’t need adults who can’t feed themselves”
O.K., smartypants. Let me hear YOUR proposal to insure the price of a blowjob remains under 20 bucks?
I think y’all been misreading tbone.
When he says “you/DOD are lower than people who receive food stamps,” he means “even though I’m on food stamps and have a felony record, I’m better than you!”
But he says it in such a way that his perverse sexual fantasies and deep relationship issues with his mom and apparently several older sisters are put on display.
I still feel sorry for the guy. He doesn’t have and cannot get a DD-214 — and he knows it marks his manhood with a stain that leaves him forever in the camp of folks who never even tried. His rotten experiences in Korea were shared by a few on Dave’s ESL; but bitter dregs won’t help in a job interview.
And, with Obama’s staff revealing more and more of how they harf-ed foreign policy, gruber-ed the electorate, and lately rhode-ing the media like brand new $2.00 whore in a border town, his former facade of self-respect built on Democrat victories is starting to remind him of being abused in an orphanage…
It’s far too late for self-help; but there’s probably something government provided that can help him stop from hurting himself further.
So you want to take the piece of mind away from the active duty member? You want to take their widow’s benefits away? You want to take their free medical away? You better hope if u succeed in doing so there isnt a war any time soon,
To your 3 question followed by your comment…
1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. If an “airforcewife” doen’t even know that we are “at war” then NO, you shouldn’t get squatdiddlydoda. It’s just that the GOP led congress is too chicken to do their job and declare war vs. ISIL(while blaming Oama). And FYI, the USA has been for decades in perpetual war, currently we still have the “Afghanistan War,” “War on Terror,” “War on Drugs,” etc… 🙄
For a guy who has spent much of his life living on handouts while being completely nonproductive, Tbone is quick to condemn anything that looks like a handout even if it is going to a valuable and productive citizen in exchange for services or sacrifices.
smokes asks…”How the F in the Uck in the 21st century living in a 1st world nation as an adult can you not afford to feed yourself or your family?”
Simple answer…You should simply ask your kind, the 50 thousand homeless veterans 🙄 BTW, where is your ivory tower in which you live ❓
Smokes says…”There’s no way that this program is doing anything but acting as a government funded drug house…”
“Nothing but” aye? Let’s take a look @ drugs & food stamp recipients? I know what news channel you watch ❗ Let’s see a link to that one please? But now that you mention it I’m sure these so-called “active duty” members do 10 times as much drugs(including prescription drug abuse) than food stamp recipients ❗
I rented a house to an E7 with 5 kids below the BAH rate of the area just to make it more beneficial for them.
They managed to get PCS orders after 1 year as opposed to the 3 expected for them to be there.
They trashed the yard damaged the house, and acted like I was the money grubbing landlord.
I was only making enough to pay the mortgage on the house and it’s still underwater with the last housing value crash.
Thank you for your service!
OT, there are blue falcons everywhere… but that kinda bad action ricochets around the family and will bite that top sergeant where the sun don’t shine.
Smokes, I see where trololo has equated himself with homeless vets now. Is he mentally ill or have a substance abuse issue? Or both, since, like Hillary and Brian Williams, he thinks he’s seen combat…
That sucks, OT. 🙁
We have rented our home almost exclusively to military for the past 10 years or so. The reason is, we don’t want problem tenants, because we’ve heard and seen some very bad cases where the people either wouldn’t pay or would wreck the place.
So far, so good. (we’re trying to sell it this summer, just a small loss now after the crash)
@Ole Tanker, I had the same issue when an E6 family I had in my house moved out. They left the place trashed, but I kept their entire $1,500 security deposit for what end up being about $3,000 in repairs. I ended up selling the house because dealing with renters was more trouble than it was worth.