Republicans v. Troops
Jan. 7, 2003 - October 2006
Does Appointed President George Bush Really care about our Troops?
2006
October 2006
Eric Newhouse
Veterans with emotional disorders are overloading treatment facilities, which haven't received the funding they need to provide adequate help, according to two new government reports.
But Montana VA officials in Helena said their new budget gives them 10 percent more funding this fiscal year than last.
A report issued Thursday from the House Veterans Affairs Committee's Democratic staff found that the number of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have sought help for post-traumatic stress disorder doubled - from nearly 4,500 to more than 9,000 - from October 2005 through June 2006.
September 17 2006
For Fiscal Year 2006, Federal funds for Traumatic Brain Injury research was $14,000,000. The proposed among for FY2007 was $19,000,000. This is in keeping with the increase of TBI cases arising from the Iraq War.
The Bush Administration is pushing to reduce TBI research funding to $7,000,000 - half of this year’s budget.
Traumatic Brain Injury is the ‘signature wound’ of the Iraq War. We are still learning how to recognize it - yet the funding is to be cut!
September 17 2006
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) has labeled White House veterans’ budget proposals “a disgrace and a sham.”
Peter S. Gaytan, director of health care and benefits at the American Legion, testified before Congress that the Bush administration is trying to "balance the…budget on the backs of America's veterans."
August 29 2006
Radiation exposure took Alice Broudy's husband a generation ago.
This week, a court ruling sliced away at her bid for redress.
In a quiet ruling that nonetheless resonates nationwide, a federal appellate court rejected efforts by Broudy and others seeking claims on behalf of "atomic veterans." The same court simultaneously rejected bids by other veterans exposed to biological and chemical agents.
May 29, 2006
"In this place where valor sleeps, we find strength in knowing that those who served in freedom's cause have acted with principle and steadfast faith."
"Failing our veterans." As Cynthia Dickstein, author of that column, says:
Bush, who sends soldiers to risk their lives every day in Iraq, strongly supports rescinding the lifetime healthcare benefits promised to WWII and Korean veterans. His proposed budgets, despite dollar amount increases, don't factor in inflation or the increasing numbers of veterans needing healthcare, and thus have repeatedly failed to fully fund benefits to the men and women who have served our country.
Consequently, VA hospitals and clinics have closed, many veterans' healthcare programs have been cut back or eliminated, entire groups of vets have been denied eligibility for service, and those that are eligible may wait months and even years for appointments and necessary surgeries at the remaining VA facilities.
But the president lectures us about the importance of supporting our troops.
March 22, 2006
Some have become like Terri, due to "better armor" that protects the body but not the head. And we don't see these soldiers -- they are overflowing Army hospitals ... And Bush cuts veterans' benefits and veterans' health care to buy more hi-tech weapons because he wants to take over the world.
March 15, 2006
In case you missed it in the Senate yesterday, Daniel Akaka (D-HI) proposed a bill to increase Veterans medical services funding by $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2007 and Republicans shot it down with extreme prejudice.
Feb. 21, 2006
for health care, a proposal that could force the Republican-run Congress to choose between savvy politics and budget discipline.
Annual health care costs for the military have doubled to nearly $38 billion in the past five years, nearly one dollar of every $12 the Pentagon spends. The price tag is projected to soar to $64 billion by 2015.
To help contain those costs, President Bush's proposal includes higher prescription drug co-payments for all beneficiaries of military health care except those on active duty, and increased annual enrollment fees for military retirees under age 65.
February 17, 2006
January 14, 2006
On Saturday morning a soldier affected by the order reported to DefenseWatch that the directive specified that "all" commercially available body armor was prohibited.
2005
Oct. 16, 2005
The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.
“This is outrageous,” the senator said in a telephone interview. “It makes me angry that this administration has broken another promise to our troops.”
Oct. 14, 2005
His hand had been blown off in Iraq, his body pierced by shrapnel. He could not walk. Robert Loria was flown home for a long recovery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he tried to bear up against intense physical pain and reimagine his life's possibilities.
The last thing on his mind, he said, was whether the Army had correctly adjusted his pay rate -- downgrading it because he was out of the war zone -- or whether his combat gear had been accounted for properly: his Kevlar helmet, his suspenders, his rucksack.
But nine months after Loria was wounded, the Army garnished his wages and then, as he prepared to leave the service, hit him with a $6,200 debt. That was just before last Christmas, and several lawmakers scrambled to help.
This spring, a collection agency started calling. He owed another $646 for military housing.
July 29, 2005
Untold numbers of servicemembers residing off base will see their next paycheck shrink by as much as $250 -- and many of them may not even know the blow is coming.
Disbursing shops at several 1st Marine Division and 1st Force Service Support Group battalions surveyed over the past week said they learned only recently about the elimination of "geographic rate protection" under the Basic Allowance for Housing.
July 10, 2005
The day before his 22nd birthday, a bomb hanging from a tree along a road near Fallujah exploded above Rory Dunn’s Humvee.
Dunn’s forehead was crushed from ear to ear, leaving his brain exposed. His right eye was destroyed by shrapnel; the left eye nearly so. His hearing was severely damaged.
“I remember a bright flash. The trees lit up, and the Humvee was shaking,” Dunn recalled during a recent interview while curled up in an easy chair in the living room of his mother’s Renton home.
Within minutes of the May 2004 explosion, he was strapped on a stretcher and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Baghdad - the first step in his 10-month struggle to recover.
Yet, even as Dunn fought to overcome his traumatic brain injury and other wounds, his mother, Cynthia Lefever, fought the Army to ensure her son continued to receive critical care from Army specialists. Lefever said the Army tried to pressure her son into accepting a discharge before he was ready - pressure other severely wounded soldiers say they’ve experienced, too.
April 26, 2005
Last week, a "patriot" spewed tobacco juice in Jane Fonda's face at a book signing in Kansas City, Mo. Though intended as a spit-and-run, 54-year-old Michael A. Smith was quickly taken into custody by the event's embarrassed security detail.
Fonda, 67, was signing her best-selling autobiography "My Life So Far" for fans who had waited for hours when Smith did what only a coward would contemplate doing to someone who had no reason to expect such gross incivility.
Things like that aren't supposed to happen in Kansas City, ground zero for Red State America.
Somewhere along the line, a Vietnam veteran decided that "Hanoi Jane" was more worthy of his contempt than a government that consistently cuts veterans' benefits while exploiting patriotic fervor.
February 25, 2005
More than 10,000 Washington state veterans could face a $1,000-a-year increase for their medical care under a Bush administration budget proposal, a veterans advocacy group says.
And state officials warn that the White House spending plan could force out roughly half of the 600 residents at Washington’s three veterans homes, possibly resulting in the closure of one of them.
“It’s almost hopeless for the average vet to get taken care of,” said John Kenny, who fought as a machine gunner in the Philippines and New Guinea during World War II. “It’s a scandal.”
The administration has proposed charging some veterans a $250 annual fee for access to medical services provided by the Veterans Administration and more than doubling the copayment for prescription drugs from $7 to $15. The new fees would apply to single veterans making more than $26,000 annually and married veterans making about $30,000 annually.
In addition, the Bush administration budget would significantly reduce federal support for state-operated veterans homes and impose new limitations on who can be admitted.
January 25, 2005
The Wall Street Journal describes the pittance set aside for veteran’s benefits as "Congress’ generosity," even as the Republican- controlled Congress and Bush Pentagon get set to slash billions more from Veterans Administration’s VA) programs. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (1-25-05), Pentagon official David Chu, in a mockery of the contribution of veterans, defended a new round of cuts by ironically describing funding for programs like veterans’ education and job training, health care, pensions, VA housing and the like as "hurtful" to national security.
January 19, 2005
During a tribute to the troops yesterday at the MCI Center, Mr. Bush told nearly 7,000 soldiers in attendence:
"As we prepare to celebrate our nation's 55th presidential inauguration, I can think of no better way to begin than by giving thanks for our freedom and those who make it possible."
Of course, as soon as he's sworn in, he plans to propose a budget to Congress that cuts veterans benefits. Remember this item from the The Washington Post ?
"Veterans programs are also expected to be pinched [in Bush's proposed budget], with flat funding, higher deductibles and co-payments for health care and a squeeze on benefit eligibility, aides said."
2004
October 3, 2004
The disability benefits and health care systems that provide services for about 5 million American veterans have been overloaded for decades and have a current backlog of more than 300,000 claims.
And because they were mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans had become eligible for health care and benefits as of Aug. 1. That number is rising.
At the same time, President Bush's budget for 2005 calls for cutting the Department of Veterans Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, and some veterans report long waits for benefits and confusing claims decisions.
March 27, 2004
The administration has widely touted a $1.7 billion increase in discretionary funding for the Education Department in its 2005 budget, but the 2006 guidance would pare that back by $1.5 billion. The Department of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to get a $519 million spending increase in 2005, to $29.7 billion, and a $910 million cut in 2006 that would bring its budget below the 2004 level.
March, 2004
In a deal reached last fall to end the ban on concurrent receipt of military retirement and disability compensation for some retirees, Congress and the White House also agreed to establish a bipartisan commission to review current disability programs and, if needed, recommend reforms.
Just as the partial concurrent receipt deal is controversial-dividing disabled retirees into haves and have-nots-the Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission now taking shape also could be politically charged.
“This commission could perform a useful function,” said Rep. Ted Strickland (R-Ohio) of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “I fear, though, that it will have negative consequences for veterans,” recommending limits on veterans’ “disability services and payments.”
2003
October 30, 2003
First he cuts veterans benefits on the eve of the Iraq invasion, now Our Fearless Leader is supporting our troops by denying treatment.
More than 400 sick and injured soldiers, including some who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, are stuck at Fort Knox, waiting weeks and sometimes months for medical treatment, a score of soldiers said in interviews.
The delays appear to have demolished morale-- many said they had lost faith in the Army and would not serve again-- and could jeopardize some soldiers' health, the soldiers said.
The Army Reserve and National Guard soldiers are in what the Army calls medical hold, like roughly 600 soldiers under similar circumstances waiting for doctors at Fort Stewart, Ga.
September 12, 2003
September 11, 2003
September 11, 2003
April 22, 2003
When President Bush flew in to St. Louis last week to praise District 837 members who produce the F-18 fighter jet, he said “The successes of our military begin right here on the factory floors.” What he forgot to mention was that 238 IAM members in the audience were scheduled to receive layoff notices within 72 hours of his visit. The President also didn’t say anything about his efforts just days before to block a 26-week extension of unemployment benefits.
President Bush has consistently praised workers in public while working behind the scenes to undermine them. He praised labor’s incredible response after 9/11 and then opposed funding for more police and firefighters. He praised members of the armed forces for their service in Iraq, yet proposed a budget that cuts veterans benefits.
April 15, 2003
Letter to the Edit - Rutland Herald
Every body claims to support the troops. Some do so by backing war. Others by not wanting to send young people to fight an illegal and immoral war. To the pro-war side, I ask, did you know that the Republican majority on the House Budget Committee in March rammed through a resolution that would cut $844 million from veterans’ medical care for next year? At the same time, they managed to come up with $900 million to give to Dick Cheney’s old company Halliburton and a few other big Republican sugar daddies who will quite conveniently be rebuilding
Iraq after the war.
Over the next 10 years, the Republican changes would cut $24.7 billion from veterans’ medical care, disability compensation and other benefits. Just when they send our young men and women into military action in Iraq, the Republicans back home chop their current and future benefits. This includes, by the way, payments to their families, should they be killed in action. This is just the first step. Veterans can expect more cuts. The rich can expect more tax breaks. And the rich seldom have their children serve in the military. And guess what? Of the 434 members of Congress in the House, how many do you think has a son or daughter in the military? Just one. Thank you, Congress,
for supporting our troops.
Wake up, people.
April 7, 2003
Amazingly, the Bush administration's budget calls for a $15-billion, 10-year reduction in veterans benefits, such as compensation, pensions and educational assistance. The cuts in veterans benefits, along with hundreds of billions in cuts to other domestic programs, would be made to accommodate the $726 billion tax break (mostly for dividend income) that President Bush wants.
The House Budget Committee made further cuts that worsened the effects on veterans benefits, slashing VA health care by $10 billion and cash payments - including disability compensation to 2.6 million disabled veterans and widows - by $15 billion over the next decade and beginning this October.
The Senate budget resolution calls for increasing VA health care spending and increasing veterans compensation.
The Senate proposes to spend $1.8 billion more on veterans in 2004 than the president's budget proposed.
April 1, 2003
The House budget cuts veterans benefits across the board, health care benefits, disability benefits, survivor benefits, pensions, everything, a total of $28 billion in cuts over the next decade. In my State, in North Carolina, more than 30,000 veterans will be pushed out, forced out of the VA system. Tens of thousands more North Carolina veterans would face sharply higher costs.
The budget cuts benefits when needs are increasing. World War II veterans and Korean War veterans are aging.
Their health care needs are pressing, and Vietnam veterans are just behind them. There are already waiting lists, and those lists will only grow longer, if the benefits are available at all.
The men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan must see this budget and wonder if our praise for them today is simply hollow rhetoric intended to score political points, not a sincere appreciation for their service. The House budget walks away from our debt to veterans so we can cut taxes.
I know that I am not the first today to point out on this floor how lopsided that tax cut favors the richest Americans. I know that I am not the first to point out that Americans making more than a million dollars a year get a tax cut of $90,000, but ordinary Americans fare much less well. Half of North Carolina families get less than $100 a year. One-third of North Carolina families get nothing at all.
Jan. 7, 2003
Veterans groups are angry at President George W. Bush for supporting a 1995 government decision to rescind an old promise of free lifetime health benefits for military retirees.
This is the man who told veterans and active-duty military personnel after the 2000 campaign that he would make sure "promises made to our veterans will be promises kept." So why does he persist in short-changing the retirees, especially when he is preparing for another war and hoping to lure more volunteers for the military?
