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  • 2002-06-06 (xsd:date)
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  • What's a Military Family Worth? (en)
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  • A Rush Limbaugh piece from March 2002 (below) contrasted the compensation paid to families of September 11 victims with benefits paid to families of U.S. military personnel killed on active duty. Although most of the figures cited in the article were accurate at the time it was written, subsequent changes have made much of the original article outdated: Family members of September 11 victims (which include those killed at the World Trade Centers, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site) could apply to receive compensation from the Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) established by the federal government. The (non-taxable) compensation amount included $250,000 (plus an additional $100,000 for the spouse and each dependent of the victim) in non-economic losses, plus additional compensation for economic loss determined by factors such as the victim's age and income level. As of April 2004, more than $2.6 billion in compensation had been paid out, with the families of deceased victims receiving an average of $1.8 million each. In contrast, back in 2002 the figures listed on the military's Death Benefits chart regarding benefits provided to the families of service members who died or were killed on active duty were paltry by comparison: Since then, however, the amount of the death gratuity has been increased to a non-taxable $100,000 (retroactive to 7 October 2001), and the DIC amounts have been raised to an $1,154 monthly annuity plus an additional $286 monthly allowance for each dependent child (effective 1 December 2008 for veterans who died on or after 1 January 1993). Also, the original piece didn't mention that military personnel are automatically insured (unless they decline the coverage) under the Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program, which at the time paid a maximum benefit of $250,000 to the families of servicemen killed while on active service — the same as the base amount paid through the VCF to the families of civilians killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks. The maximum SGLI benefit has since been increased to $400,000. We note that service members have to pay premiums for SGLI (currently $27 per month for the maximum coverage), and that many of the civilians killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks also had life insurance policies which paid benefits to their surviving family members. This piece has also been circulated with a coda that looks like it was tacked on by someone else, possibly as a commentary on the article which has now mistakenly been assumed to be a part of the original article itself: The claim that Congressmen can receive lavish pensions after serving only a single term in Congress (eventually totaling into the millions of dollars) and that they neither pay into nor receive benefits from the Social Security fund is misinformation already covered in a separate article on this site. (As of 2007, the average annuity for retired members of Congress was between about $36,000 and $63,000.) (en)
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