As Bush pours money into the military, he reduces money to military veterans

As Bush pours money into the military, he reduces money to military veterans

By Frederick Sweet

Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, a Navy veteran and winner of the Silver Star in the Vietnam War, sent a letter July 30 to President George W. Bush requesting a reversal of his new policy of withholding information of Veteran Administration benefits from veterans and their families. Bush ordered VA centers around the country to cease informing veterans and their families about government health care services and to stop recruiting new veterans to use them.

 

     The VA is obliged to provide medical services to all veterans who have service-connected disabilities and then to all veterans that are indigent — first those with combat injuries and then those who are destitute. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs has the discretion, however, to offer eligibility to more veterans. In 1996 during the Presidency of Bill Clinton, Congress instructed the VA to expand its eligibility to include all veterans, not just those who are combat disabled or indigent. These additional veterans, including those with civilian injuries, are given a lower priority.

In his letter, Kerry also called for the resignation of Laura J. Miller, a deputy undersecretary for health for operations and management, who is carrying out Bush’s draconian VA policy. But Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony J. Principi said he directed Miller to send the memo, and he rejected Kerry’s call for Miller’s resignation.

When Principi was confirmed as Secretary by a unanimous vote of the Senate, he had said about veterans: “America now reaps the fruit of the service of 24 million veterans. However, their service imposes upon us a reciprocal obligation. The president-elect has charged me with the mission of transforming that obligation into the benefits and services earned by generations of veterans. I am proud to respond to that call, just as those veterans responded when their country called upon them.”

Defending his response to Kerry, Principi said, “We have a serious situation in the VA, and I think it is irresponsible to strongly recruit for new enrollees when we cannot meet the expectations and the needs for the people currently enrolled…. To me it would just be irresponsible and lead to unfulfilled expectations.”

According to an August 1, 2002 report in the Boston Globe, Kerry told his Senate colleagues: ”I hope the administration is going to keep America’s promise to our veterans…. It’s almost so obvious that it should go without saying, but I hope that this [Bush’s VA policy] is going to be reversed immediately.”

In Miller’s memo, which Veterans Administration officials leaked to Kerry and The Recorder of Greenfield, Massachusetts, the deputy undersecretary highlighted the growing strains on the VA. Miller said the department has received “very conservative budget guidance for 2004,” and is risking its goal of a maximum 30-day wait for veterans’ services.

We’re in a time of war, Ralph Cooper, executive director of the Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse in Boston, said. What kind of message are you sending to combatants with a memo like [Miller’s]?

Last month, as part of a $5.1 billion budget package, Congress included $275 million for veterans’ medical care that would have helped to cover VA expenses. President Bush, however, labels the bill loaded with pork that he will reject. According to the Washington Post, Bush is rejecting the $5.1 billion Congressional authorization (including the $275 million earmarked for veterans’ care) to teach lawmakers a lesson about what he considers overspending. Bush did sign, however, a $28.9 billion bill for supplementing homeland security and defense funds.

According to Tom Materazzo, an Army veteran of World War II and commissioner of Veteran Services for Boston, “If you said publicly to America that we’re trying to ration veterans’ services — and what else is it? — no one would like how that sounds. The cure is to provide the money.”

In an earlier address to the Disabled American Veterans, National Adjutant Arthur H. Wilson, referred to the more than one-third of America’s homeless people who are veterans: On any given night in America, more than 275,000 homeless men and women are veterans. That’s the equivalent of 18 infantry divisions on the streets of this great nation with no place to call home — quite literally, an army of homeless veterans. And that is simply intolerable.”

Wilson concluded, “Just as we don’t leave our wounded behind on the battlefield, we must not leave our homeless veterans behind abandoned on the streets of our cities.”