thedrifter
10-18-03, 06:37 AM
10-15-2003
Mixed Review on Support to Veterans
By Roger Moore
Defense and veterans issues are normally “no-brainers” in Republican circles. The Democrats still don’t fully grasp either issue, but after observing the widening rift between veterans and their Commander-In-Chief, they smell blood in the water.
Approaching the three-year mark in his first term, President George W. Bush has accumulated a mixed record on veterans’ issues, with the passionate debate over the administration’s opposition to Concurrent Receipt reform all but drowning out a number of positive programs that his administration has made.
Left untreated, the situation will probably come back to seriously hurt the Bush administration, and a host of Republicans, in 2004.
At this juncture, two major questions need to be asked of the administration’s handling of veterans’ issues. They are:
What has President Bush done to help the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans?
In a very real sense, the administration has a record it can point to with pride.
According to Congressional Budget Office numbers, with the 2004 Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act, spending on Veterans Benefits and Services will have doubled since 1991. Other improvements include:
* H.R. 801, The Veterans’ Survivors Benefits Improvements Act of 2001, added $100 million in new health care benefits for surviving spouses of veterans and extends life insurance coverage to spouses and children of service members.
* H.R. 1291, The Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001, authorized over $3.1 billion for educational, housing, burial and disability benefits and increased the Montgomery G.I. Bill benefit amount by 46 percent over two years. The educational benefit for qualified veterans increased $11,268 from $24,192 to $35,460.
* H.R. 2716, The Homeless Veterans' Comprehensive Assistance Act of 2001, provided $1 Billion for our comrades-in-arms who are homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless.
* H.R. 2540, The Veterans’ Compensation Rate Amendments of 2001, provides $2.4 billion over the next five years for a 2.6 percent cost of living adjustment for disability compensation.
* H.R. 3447, the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement Act of 2001, established chiropractic care nationwide and increased spending on veterans’ health programs by $1.4 billion.
This information comes from one of our own former warriors, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA.
One of the most significant contributions from the Bush Administration, has been strong support for the Gulf War ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) study.
The initial study was conducted by Dr. Robert Haley, Chief of Epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern. His work provided the impetus for a parallel VA peer review study, both of which dovetail with the ongoing studies of Gulf War Syndrome.
After meeting with Dr. Haley and VA researchers in 2001, DVA Secretary Anthony Principi approved full benefits for Gulf War veterans diagnosed with ALS even before a published study existed, according to an announcement from UT Southwestern on Sept. 22, 2003.
I believe, that Secretary Principi's decision “to do the right thing” and approve retroactive benefits and treatment for Gulf War vets was morally courageous and entirely against the “business as usual” outlook in Washington, D.C.
But from the audible rumblings in our retiree and disabled veteran communities, you'd think that the Bush administration had completely turned its collective back on us. Why? Because of the second question.
Why has President Bush not reversed previous administrations on Concurrent Receipt?
In the grand scheme of things, the entire debate over Concurrent Receipt hinges over the Bush administration’s spending priorities.
The only areas that get more scrutiny that the Defense Department, are health care and energy. While defense expenditures are constitutionally required, only the energy area threatens our economic freedom and stability more than health care.
This crisis-in-the-wings involves two of the three areas of concern, energy and health. The administration’s willingness to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into diplomatic initiatives aimed at preserving our access to foreign energy (e.g. the Middle East and United Nations), and civilian health entitlement programs is what apparently has fueled its opposition to Concurrent Receipt.
The White House, through the Office of Management and Budget, preaches fiscal discipline in the federal government, yet still accedes to blackmail from the U.N. and domestic special interest groups with billions of our hard-earned dollars.
President Bush could win back the support of millions of angry veterans and their families simply by taking $5 or $10 billion out of the vast array of pork-barrel spending programs and provide it in VA services and Concurrent Receipt payments to the men and women who served alongside his father in World War II or who answered the president’s own call to duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The same question can be asked of Democratic congressional leaders such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-SD.: Are the Democrats willing to give up some of their precious pork and social programs to aid veterans, rather than using this issue to create divisiveness? Do they really care about veterans’ sacrifices, or have they figured if they can’t beat the Republicans, they’ll just tear the country apart, regardless of the harm it will cause the veterans community?
But it is the Bush administration that will bear the judgment of veterans on this matter. It was Bush’s Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, Dr. David Chu, who said of Concurrent Receipt on Oct. 25, 2002, “It’s always nice to give any group more, but it ought to for this price tag be based on a clear problem we're solving, and we don’t see the problem we're solving.”
Veterans could inform him of the simple justice involved: When the country called, we went, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We served in rain, sleet, snow – stand up, hook up, and go. We didn’t ask if there was enough money to feed our families or pay our bills while we died on the beaches of Normandy, in the skies of Korea, in the jungles of Vietnam, or the blinding hot sands of Southwest Asia.
The best thing about being a veteran is that he or she is free from the old, “Yes sir, three bags full” obedience to orders that are necessary in military service. American veterans will be watching closely over the next 12 months to see if the Bush administration takes action to pay the debt of honor it owes them.
Roger Moore is a Contributing Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at rmoore_dw@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Defensewatch%20Special.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=5&rnd=163.70251759052206
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Mixed Review on Support to Veterans
By Roger Moore
Defense and veterans issues are normally “no-brainers” in Republican circles. The Democrats still don’t fully grasp either issue, but after observing the widening rift between veterans and their Commander-In-Chief, they smell blood in the water.
Approaching the three-year mark in his first term, President George W. Bush has accumulated a mixed record on veterans’ issues, with the passionate debate over the administration’s opposition to Concurrent Receipt reform all but drowning out a number of positive programs that his administration has made.
Left untreated, the situation will probably come back to seriously hurt the Bush administration, and a host of Republicans, in 2004.
At this juncture, two major questions need to be asked of the administration’s handling of veterans’ issues. They are:
What has President Bush done to help the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans?
In a very real sense, the administration has a record it can point to with pride.
According to Congressional Budget Office numbers, with the 2004 Bob Stump National Defense Authorization Act, spending on Veterans Benefits and Services will have doubled since 1991. Other improvements include:
* H.R. 801, The Veterans’ Survivors Benefits Improvements Act of 2001, added $100 million in new health care benefits for surviving spouses of veterans and extends life insurance coverage to spouses and children of service members.
* H.R. 1291, The Veterans Education and Benefits Expansion Act of 2001, authorized over $3.1 billion for educational, housing, burial and disability benefits and increased the Montgomery G.I. Bill benefit amount by 46 percent over two years. The educational benefit for qualified veterans increased $11,268 from $24,192 to $35,460.
* H.R. 2716, The Homeless Veterans' Comprehensive Assistance Act of 2001, provided $1 Billion for our comrades-in-arms who are homeless or on the verge of becoming homeless.
* H.R. 2540, The Veterans’ Compensation Rate Amendments of 2001, provides $2.4 billion over the next five years for a 2.6 percent cost of living adjustment for disability compensation.
* H.R. 3447, the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Programs Enhancement Act of 2001, established chiropractic care nationwide and increased spending on veterans’ health programs by $1.4 billion.
This information comes from one of our own former warriors, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-CA.
One of the most significant contributions from the Bush Administration, has been strong support for the Gulf War ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) study.
The initial study was conducted by Dr. Robert Haley, Chief of Epidemiology at the University of Texas Southwestern. His work provided the impetus for a parallel VA peer review study, both of which dovetail with the ongoing studies of Gulf War Syndrome.
After meeting with Dr. Haley and VA researchers in 2001, DVA Secretary Anthony Principi approved full benefits for Gulf War veterans diagnosed with ALS even before a published study existed, according to an announcement from UT Southwestern on Sept. 22, 2003.
I believe, that Secretary Principi's decision “to do the right thing” and approve retroactive benefits and treatment for Gulf War vets was morally courageous and entirely against the “business as usual” outlook in Washington, D.C.
But from the audible rumblings in our retiree and disabled veteran communities, you'd think that the Bush administration had completely turned its collective back on us. Why? Because of the second question.
Why has President Bush not reversed previous administrations on Concurrent Receipt?
In the grand scheme of things, the entire debate over Concurrent Receipt hinges over the Bush administration’s spending priorities.
The only areas that get more scrutiny that the Defense Department, are health care and energy. While defense expenditures are constitutionally required, only the energy area threatens our economic freedom and stability more than health care.
This crisis-in-the-wings involves two of the three areas of concern, energy and health. The administration’s willingness to pump hundreds of billions of dollars into diplomatic initiatives aimed at preserving our access to foreign energy (e.g. the Middle East and United Nations), and civilian health entitlement programs is what apparently has fueled its opposition to Concurrent Receipt.
The White House, through the Office of Management and Budget, preaches fiscal discipline in the federal government, yet still accedes to blackmail from the U.N. and domestic special interest groups with billions of our hard-earned dollars.
President Bush could win back the support of millions of angry veterans and their families simply by taking $5 or $10 billion out of the vast array of pork-barrel spending programs and provide it in VA services and Concurrent Receipt payments to the men and women who served alongside his father in World War II or who answered the president’s own call to duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The same question can be asked of Democratic congressional leaders such as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, Sen. Tom Daschle, D-SD.: Are the Democrats willing to give up some of their precious pork and social programs to aid veterans, rather than using this issue to create divisiveness? Do they really care about veterans’ sacrifices, or have they figured if they can’t beat the Republicans, they’ll just tear the country apart, regardless of the harm it will cause the veterans community?
But it is the Bush administration that will bear the judgment of veterans on this matter. It was Bush’s Undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness, Dr. David Chu, who said of Concurrent Receipt on Oct. 25, 2002, “It’s always nice to give any group more, but it ought to for this price tag be based on a clear problem we're solving, and we don’t see the problem we're solving.”
Veterans could inform him of the simple justice involved: When the country called, we went, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We served in rain, sleet, snow – stand up, hook up, and go. We didn’t ask if there was enough money to feed our families or pay our bills while we died on the beaches of Normandy, in the skies of Korea, in the jungles of Vietnam, or the blinding hot sands of Southwest Asia.
The best thing about being a veteran is that he or she is free from the old, “Yes sir, three bags full” obedience to orders that are necessary in military service. American veterans will be watching closely over the next 12 months to see if the Bush administration takes action to pay the debt of honor it owes them.
Roger Moore is a Contributing Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at rmoore_dw@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Defensewatch%20Special.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=5&rnd=163.70251759052206
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: