Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

[alapataws]

The U.S. Forest Service plans to cut the America the Beutiful annual pass, senior pass, disability(access pass) benefit from 50% off down to only 10% off camping. They also would impose fees for day use. You can about this at the link...

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/12/forest_service_could_eliminate.html

We only have until February 1st to try to stop this pending legislation. Please, I urge you to send your comment too...

http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a60f36

Thanks,
J.K.

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Why should we oppose this? Just askin'.

 

[alapataws]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Well, for many many reasons...

For one it is National Forest, National Park, BLM, and all Corp of Engineer lands. That's public lands paid for by our taxes. It's bad enough to have to pay an extra fee to access these areas, but to reduce a benefit for seniors and those who are disabled is morally wrong. It is a good faith breach of obligation... No fee, keep it free...

Secondly, again, this is public land, mine and yours. Public land should not be managed for the profit of the private sector; it's public land. Companies like Xanterra, Recreation Resource Management, and others are lobbying Washington for these changes.

Third, Most seniors or those with disabilities (like myself) are on fixed incomes. We depend on this 50% off campground use at these places. You see, if I am camping at Deep Creek Campground in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, it cost $17.00 a night. With my life-time Disabled Access Card I only have to pay $8.50 a night. If they change this, I would only get 10% off or $1.70, making my nightly cost $15.30 a night. That is an increase that would keep me, and many other Senior citizens and those with disabilities from enjoying these places. On my small disability income, I just could not afford it, and it would drive me to other places like some State Parks that still a 50% off camping to disabled people and Seniors.

Fourth, this reduction of benefits does not affect government spending. Look, I am a conservative and all for less spending and government, but this only effects the bottom line of public land concessionaires.

My father is 63, he camps with his wife in a National Park a few weeks out the year, the same fee increase would effect him and any one else 62 or older, or disabled. It is no different than if they keep it up NOT increasing COLA for Social Security. If this passes, we will have to pay the extra 40% out-of-pocket, which will reduce the amount of our retirement income or disability.

This is a really bad idea and must be stopped. Again I urge everyone to following the links above and comment. Comments are only open until February 1st, so time is of the essence here. Cut spending on the "turtle highway" in florida, or tarp, or well, I could go on and on; but don't cut this program. There are too many Seniors and those with disabilities that have it hard enough... In addition to sending a comment at http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a60f36 I urge everyone to send a comment to your Senators and Congressman, and Coarlynn Holbrook at the U.S. Forest service. You can also google this topic if you want to read more articles on the subject.

I hope this helps,
J.K.

 

[C Nash]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Just another of our federal gov taking care of elder and disable people :angry: Get us off the road :angry: Stay out of the parks :angry: Dont give us a raise because the cost of living hasen't gone up Work them all their life tax them to death and then forget them :disapprove: Well it will be the final straw for our traveling so that will help Obamas plan for helping the economy. Anybody in the market for a MH Yes, I know here I sit with a MH in the yard and complaining but we did without to live our final dreams. Maybe our dreams were just nightmares

 

[alapataws]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

You got it Chelse.

This legislation is nothing but a bunch of BS!

J.K.
"A geologist is just a frustrated artist."

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

THERE IS NO MONEY TO SUPPORT YOU OR ANYTHING ELSE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR CONDITION IS.

I know that sentence sets me up for ridicule, but it is the TRUTH and you might just as well start planning with that in mind. The sooner the better.

THERE IS NO MONEY.

The "government" HAS NO MONEY.

The "money" provided now is BORROWED from somewhere else. It will take all that we can produce just to pay back some of the INTEREST.

Whether you talk about federal land upkeep, welfare, medicare or social security, the money for those is BORROWED money.

The TAXES we pay don't even pay the INTEREST now let alone in the future!

Go ahead and vote for some more PROGRESSIVES and keep complaining. If you loved FDR and Woodrow Wilson, then you love the damn PROGRESSIVES that have put us in the position we're in now. And I don't leave the Bushs out of this either.

Your fees aren't supporting the public lands. Your fees are supporting the fixtures on the public lands like employees, roads, buildings and campsites. Why would you not expect the costs to go up? If the ones that use those services don't pay for them, then who the hell do you expect is going to pay for them? People in New York City? Houston? Des Moines?

 

[SnowbirdInFlight]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Oh Boy!

 

[alapataws]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Wow TexasClodhopper, am shocked by your post. I do agree with the whole progressive movement, yes I watch Glen Beck everyday! I also have a private long term disabilty policy, so all my income is not through social security disability insurance. Thanks for the fiancial advice though...

Is the country broke and going in the wrong direction? Sure is, I agree with you there too, but...

This pending legislation may not affect you, but it will affect many, many seniors and disabled people all over this great country. It is wrong to reduce this benefit and I would argue that it is a breach of contract with all those who have these Access Cards. Senior citizens paid $10 for a lifetime pass. Those who are disabled it is given free with proper documentation. If anything, those allready receiving it should be grandfathered in...

Try living in my shoes Texasclodhopper...I think you would look at this differently. Try spending 75% of your life confined to a bed or chair and look at life then my friend...

God Bless,
J.K.

 

[buddhacnote]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

I am disabled as well and think this is crap. You hit it right on the head J.K.

THIS IS WRONG!!!!

Buddha

 

[alapataws]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Thanks for the support Buddha, yes; THIS IS WRONG..

J.K.

 

[C Nash]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Well I for one thik it is mismanagement of funds that creats most of our problems. Yes, I understand that it's the American way to better oneself and prosper but not by stepping on others to get there. The camping fees have gone up for all us that have the Golden Age. Half price is now what full price used to be. I can accept that even though our leaders say the cost of living has not gone up in the past year. I paid more home/land tax than before even though they have depricated. My MH tag was 3 bucks cheaper even though it depricated 10k. Wasen't one of the reasons we broke from England on account of high tax? None of our leaders have ever worked an honest day in their life and an honest man/woman with common sense and with very little money would stand about as much chance of getting elected in any office as a snoball in well you know where. IMO world trade killed us. Yes, we would be paying more for our products because some worker would be making more than 1.25 hr to produce it but it would balance out. Woops someone just kicked my stool out from under me :laugh:

 

[Triple E]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

TexasClodhopper - 1/30/2010 6:42 AM

THERE IS NO MONEY TO SUPPORT YOU OR ANYTHING ELSE NO MATTER WHAT YOUR CONDITION IS.

I know that sentence sets me up for ridicule, but it is the TRUTH and you might just as well start planning with that in mind. The sooner the better.

THERE IS NO MONEY.

The "government" HAS NO MONEY.

The "money" provided now is BORROWED from somewhere else. It will take all that we can produce just to pay back some of the INTEREST.

Whether you talk about federal land upkeep, welfare, medicare or social security, the money for those is BORROWED money.

The TAXES we pay don't even pay the INTEREST now let alone in the future!

Go ahead and vote for some more PROGRESSIVES and keep complaining. If you loved FDR and Woodrow Wilson, then you love the damn PROGRESSIVES that have put us in the position we're in now. And I don't leave the Bushs out of this either.

Your fees aren't supporting the public lands. Your fees are supporting the fixtures on the public lands like employees, roads, buildings and campsites. Why would you not expect the costs to go up? If the ones that use those services don't pay for them, then who the hell do you expect is going to pay for them? People in New York City? Houston? Des Moines?

Hey Tex, In about an hour, my wife and I are going to the Bold and Fresh show. Wish I could meet you there.


:8ball:

 

[Triple E]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

What ever happen to the days when we took care of our forest? I can remember taking logging roads to go camping. If something need fixed, a group of people would go and fix it. Now the government has taken all of that away from us because we are not smart enough to do it our selves. Some of my best memories are moving fallen trees, repairing broken down bridges, clearing out a campsite or what ever needed done. Not anymore. Remember when you would hardly ever see a Forest Ranger? Not these days. DNR has them everywhere. Thick as fly's. :angry: :disapprove: :evil:


:8ball:

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Well, I told you that post would open me up to ridicule, but I did it anyway. :clown:

Perhaps you didn't understand what I said.

There is no more money to subsidize those "discounts" that you are upset about.

I can't change that, but your original post assumes that everyone will be supportive of your claim of benefit reduction. The majority of us are not. We are sympathetic to your argument, but there's nothing we can do about it. We have no more money.

It's all gone for many years to come.

If we increase the subsidy for the item you are interested in, then someone else's subsidy will have to be cut back. I happen to know at least one guy that is much more disabled than you. At least you can walk. I'd like to help him, too, but there's no more money for that either.

There is no other way to put it without being blunt. Everyone is affected. Everyone's life will change. You might just as well get used to your life changing, too.

THERE IS NO MORE MONEY.

 

[C Nash]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Tex, I agree in general with you but guess I'm not understanding something. Why take away what we already have? Properly run the funds taken it should support it. I can see where they have to go up on prices but they have done that. Kind of like the lifetime antique tags we bought for old autos that they then took away. I thought the half price for seniors and disable people was great before I reached the golden age. As a nation we should be able to care for the elder. Yes this country is broke and the Chinese will own us if we keep going in the same direction. I still say it's our leaders that have gotten us into this fix. I see nothing wrong with the government protecting our national forest. If they hadn't stepped in private industry would have all our forrest with housing development. Yes I think the government has done good in some things but we don't need government in everything. Greed is the root of all problems.

 

[EASY77]

RE: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

I am with Tex on this one. It is not that nobody cares, its that the progressives (read Obama, Pelossy and Reid) spent all our money, THERE IS NO MORE MONEY, and they are going to continue to borrow from the chinese to spend some more. The Govt is going to find every and any way to suck what you have left also.

Spring better hurry up, before they figure out a way to ban or tax some more our MH's, Trucks that pull TT's or 5th W.

Travel Easy !!!!

 

[Triple E]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%


Well the Bold and Fresh Tour was a blast. O'Reilly wasn't as funny as Beck but that didn't matter. If you are a Progressive and an Obama lover you might get a little upset. Wish you could of have been there.

ps. I am not trying to change the subject. :clown:



:8ball:

 

[TexasClodhopper]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%



See? This is really why we are in this situation. It is so difficult to tell people that have special interests in mind, those that have "reached the golden age", those impoverished and those that are disabled that it is WAY PAST time to "gore their ox". Everyone has been indoctrinated to except the idea that the government "should be able to care for" {insert your favorite subsidy here}.

You were taught this by the PROGRESSIVES starting in the era of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. (Have you ever heard of the "progressive" income tax? The more you make the higher your tax rate?) Your schooling started changing around that time and has continued since.

And now here we are today. We've supplied generations of people with "support" for one thing or another and promised generations that we'll "support" their lifestyles to death for almost a whole century. The argument is over. We have arrived.


It doesn't matter who did it. It doesn't matter how it was done. There's only one thing that everyone alive today has to retrain their brain to accept and realize ...THERE IS
NO MORE
MONEY
Anything you want your government to supply now will just add to the problem. It is just difficult for so many indoctrinated people to recognize what a government subsidy is. Some of the first subsidies you might think of are those "dang welfare" recipients or those "dang farmers", but by and large the biggest subsidies are handed out to those that have "reached the golden age" and those that are disabled.
Now before you go getting off on me for beating up on old folks and the disabled, hear me out. (I'm one of that group, too!)

The point I'm making is that you should expect the largest group of subsidy recipients to be affected the most. We've already seen it with the way the Progressives were/are forcing nationalized "health care" on us. The only place they can find funding is to reduce the subsidies to those that have "reached the golden age". (If you don't think the Congress is full of Progressives, then in his State of the Union speech, why did President Obama address and welcome the "Republicans" and his "Progressive friends?" He did not address his Democrat "friends." Democrats and Progressives are not the same animal.)
So, the original poster was up in arms about a cut in a "benefit from 50% off down to only 10% off". He doesn't see this as a government subsidy that we can no longer provide, but we're going to provide some of it just so no one gets REALLY angry. We'll cut it back "progressively" so you won't be pained all at once.

Get used to it. It is small potatoes compared to what is coming. Guess what? The check is not going to be in the mail forever.

Hunker down and think of how you are going to exist without your favorite government subsidy.

 

[C Nash]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

Tex you should be a politician :laugh: I think I can agree with most you say but you put it so far above me that I dont know what your saying :laugh: I don't like the government taking care of everthing :angry: If I had all I have paid into the system I would be ok but I realize that what I was putting in went to provide for my mom and dad and others. I could live well off what has been taken from my checks over my lifetime. I do agree that the government has saved land for future generations to enjoy by creating the National forrest. I remember when I could take a gun and hunt most anywhere I wanted and fish on any stream. No more it's all posted as my property is. I used to camp in the COC parks for 4 dollars but now it's ten plus so prices have gone up and this I accept. Still say it's greed and mismanagement that causes a lot of the problems. I can exist without government subsidy. I'm a country boy and we can survive :laugh: but I can't and still pay all the taxes levied on us :angry: Guess we are the generation that will have dreamed the American dream only to wake up and find a nightmare :laugh: I have seen people that are able to work but want the government to take care of them and this includes disabled and folks with nothing wrong with them. If you are disabled, young is there something you can do and not be a burden on the system? If your able and not working are you just lazy? Just can't find the job you want? Bet a Mexican will be willing to do it. Now Tex remember you got to just put it simple for me to understand :laugh: Remember Progressive was a magazine to me Think when all is said and done we will fall out of the bag with the same basic view. I just can't articulate it like you can :laugh: Dang, that soapbox just slid out from under me again

 

[JamesH]

Re: Forest Service to cut Access Pass benefit from 50% down to 10%

I agree with you Tex, I know someone on this forum that is in a wheelchair and can not walk with out assitance that there is no more MONEY to help him. Everytime he goes to the doctor he is put into a system that if he sees him more than six times a year, no matter what is wrong, he will be denied.
We let this happen and we still are letting it happen. Where is our VOTE and VOICE.