NARFE Tennessee Federation Message Board

This is a call to action on the part of all of us to step up to the plate and help do something about the GPO. I am confident that most of us know that due to the fact that we are retired under the CRS that if we are eligible for it, we will loose a major chunk of our Social Security. For those of you who do not know that....sorry I have to be the one to break the bad news to you.

Yes, there is a House Resolution (HR 86 I think) to eliminate it, but as is right now it has no chance of getting into committee for a couple of reasons. For I do not know how many years there has been the same resolution that is not acted on and dies at the end of the year. This year will be the same. They will probably introduce another resolution next year again, but if we do nothing it will be allowd to die without action.

One of those reasons is that it is just not an issue to most Congressmen. HR 86 has over 200 co-sponsers but a large number of those co-sponsors only do so because it looks good knowing that they will never have to back that up with a vote as they know that it will never make it through the Ways and Means Committee.

So what can we do? I have asked myself that question over and over again and it was not until I send an E mail to Ronnie the other day that I thought of something we can do.

There is the old saying that the squeeky wheel gets the grease. This is very true....especially in the world of politics.
We need to let our Congressman, and our Senators know that we want the Government Pension Offset, and Multiple offsets to be eliminated.

I have sent a letter to my Congressman once or twice and I think I got some form letter back thanking me for my opinion on something that I did not write about.

Now a letter here and there is not going to get any action. On the converce, a lot of letters will let our ELECTED officials know that we are watching and that we expect action.

My thoughts are that if we all would write a letter to our Congressman and Senators we can get their attention. One letter would not do it. We would need to committ to sending one letter to all three of them (our Congresmand and our two Senators) every month, month after month. If some of us would send the letters on the 15th, and some of us would send them on the 30th they would see a constant flow comming into their office. It will take several months to get their attention, and then if we keep sending them they will get the message that we will not go away.

Think about it. If every member of NARFE were to do that, and we could get our friends from State and Local governments, Police, and Fire fighter orginizations to do the same these elected officials would see thousands of letters each and every month pouring into their office.

It starts with Me, I will do what I am asking you to do. If you start doing it and get just one or two others to do it, it will not take long. I will be contacting NARFE and asking them to help kick start this nation wide. A call from some uf you would help convince NARFE that it needs to be done. I think the Logislative brance of NARFE could help kick start this. Yes, they work on this every year and it is time we help them out.

We need to look at the issue and start telling ourselfs that if we paid into Secial Security, we are LOOSING HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS EVERY MONTH. That comes out to THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EVERY YEAR.

Here is the scoop. If you went into work in the private sector and are eligible for Social Security than you deserve this mondy.
FACT: this is not a hand out. You PAID for it and you worked for it. FACT: We are bing discriminated against because we are retired Government employees. FACT: in todays economy we need our money to survive. FACT: If we just wait for Congress to change it nothing will be done.

I loose $877.00 dollars a month because of the offsets. You may be loosing more or less. IF you are eligible for Social Security and retired from CRS you are or will be loosing when you file. If you do not need the money than just forget this message, but if you could use an extra several hundred dollars a month that PLEASE get angry enough to do something about it.

If enough people want to do this I will work with some other folks and get some letters together so that we can just print them out, sign them and sent them off to our Representatives. That is only three letters a month. If you can not afford it I will buy you the stamps.

Dadawg,

Hopefully enough members will read your post and join you in sending letters about the repeal of the GPO and also the WEP. As it stands right now, both of these are in the same legislative bill. Many members are affected by one or both. To make it clear, when writing to your Congressman the correct bill number is H. R. 82 and when writing to your Senators, you need to reference the Senate bill S. 206. These bill numbers will expire at the close of the 110th Congress probably sometime in late December. The bills will be reintroduced in the 111th Congress but will have different numbers and will be valid for the 2 years of the 111th Congress.

Come on members, let's get active in our legislative agenda. To find out more about the legislative issues before us, go the the NARFE Hq. website and Tenn. Federation website and check out the legislative sections. I will join our fellow member Dadawg, will you?

Ronnie,
I agree with your post. THat should indeed be HR82. Thanks for helping me out here.
I wanted to send you a copy of an e mail I sent to NARFE but I could not find your E mail.
Please give me your e mail and I will forward it to you.

Ya know Ronnie, I loose over $800.00 a month. That sounds bad as it is, but I figured it out today that in the past 6 years that I have been eligible for Social Security it has cost me over $70,000 dollars. In another 6 years it will have cost me over $140,000. We as members need to get mad.
We are not asking for anything that we have not earned or paid for and it is time to let these politations know that NARFE is serious about this.

This annual house resolution to eliminate it is nothing short of a very thin vail on the part of may Congressman to get a few votes. I am confidend that the only reason they are co sponsors is because it looks good. I do not feel that many of them have any intention voting for it, but are comfortable knowing that they will not have to.
I sent an E mail today to Congressman Bart Gordon telling him the same thing. I said that if he truly supports it then he needs to step up to the plate and take action, or stop co-sponsoring it. I also told him that while I do not care for Jim Cooper, I appreciated his willingness to stand up and say he does not support it.

Not to worry, I did it in a nice way but I am sure he will get the message.

MEMBERS....it is time to GET MAD and let these elected officials know that we are not going away.
'I have sent two letters off already and will likely send another one before the end of the month. I have also send three e mails to Gordon, Alexander, and Corker.

Thanks my friend. I am confident that if we pass the word and get our fellow members to write a few letters every month that we can have an impact. One thing I know for sure. Sitting here doing nothing has gotten us nowhere.

Are there other members that read this stuff? We need all the folks we can to do the math and see how much this has cost them. They too have almost certianly lost tens of thousands of dollars too. When you think of it in terms of 500 600 dollars a month it does not get my mind working. I am the first one to say i have sat on my butt and accepted it for too long not really understanding what it hs really cost me.

Members. What has it cost you? Will you help us in this fight? Please respond.