AKAKA & TESTER CALL FOR DELIBERATE ACTION TO FIX VA’S VETERANS’ DISABILITY COMPENSATION SYSTEM

The Senate and House Committees on Veterans Affairs are now considering whether ot not to substantially increase the amount of pensions for disabled veterans very soon here.  The fight from other quarters to keep that amount of money low is aggressive and disciplined.

You need to understand what is happening and be ready to take immediate action. This is going to require you to read the following attached source documents carefully and slowly.  You need to be well armed for the coming fight.

Gordon Duff and I discussed at great length exactly how to lay this information out for you.  It is extremely important that you be aware of what is happening here.  Take the hour or so you are going to need to familiarize yourself with this information.  The source documents must be read and understood.  Many of our "friends" are not acting in our best interests here.  That is code, let me spell it out.  The traditional veterans organizations are not necessarily in our corner on this one.

We decided that instead of breaking this down, we would simply forward the entire set of source documents to you and let you read them.  If everything works out right, your V.A. pension could be increased considerably within the next couple of years.

This information has been taken directly from The Retired Enlisted Association’s update and newsletter for 18 September 2009.  This is extremely important information and needs to be read completely and slowly because it discusses, among other things, a substantial increase in veterans pensions for Quality of Life compensation, something our country has never attempted for its veterans. Other countries do this all the time.  The monthly increase in your pension could be quite substantial.

The total money outlay from the General Revenue Fund would be huge, so there will be tremendous push back against this from other groups that want that money for their agendas.  You need to inform yourself and become very aware of all facets of this issue. 

The fight will probably be vicious because we are probably talking about an annual expenditure of more than $35 billion dollars a year added on to present DVA expenditures.

Many, many groups in Washington D.C. want that money and will fight to keep it away from veterans’ use.  It is just the way politics works here. If you have never gotten involved in a Veterans Compensation or Veterans Issues bar-room brawl before, this is the time, this is the fight. 

We need every single veterans’ fist thrown in the direction of the usurpers on this one.  This won’t be pretty.  We are talking about big money here and that means the knives come out.  If you have never gotten involved in a political battle before, cherry or not, we need every man and woman with veteran’s status involved in this.

Get ready for combat.  This will probably be a vicious fight for at least a couple of years because the money outlay is huge.  Here is the information.  It is taken directly from the TREA newsletter.

Please read the source documents.  This could be the most important homework you have ever done in your life.

The excerpt starts here.

AKAKA & TESTER CALL FOR DELIBERATE ACTION TO FIX VA’S VETERANS’ DISABILITY COMPENSATION SYSTEM 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, heard testimony on the state of VA’s system for disability compensation. Witnesses from VA, veterans service organizations and the larger disability policy community urged cautious movement toward fixing what many acknowledge is a broken system.

Senator Akaka stated: “To bring the right changes to a process this complicated and important, we must be deliberative, focused, and open to input from all who are affected. At the same time, we cannot be paralyzed by complexity; the current system is already outdated, and it will get worse until we act.”

Senator Tester stated: “No doubt about it – we need to measure twice and cut once, not the other way around. I hope that among the experts in the room making decisions on ratings are the fighting men and women who are coming back. I would bring them in early in the process, not after the fact.” Later in the hearing, under further questioning from Tester, VA officials pledged that veterans would be involved early in the process of any revisions to the disability compensation process.

Today’s hearing is the latest in a series on veterans’ disability compensation. Witnesses included representatives from VA, Economic Systems Inc,VA’s Advisory Committee on Disability Compensation, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Easter Seals. Records of earlier hearings are available at http://veterans.senate.gov, and the full written opening statements and written testimony are available here .

One last word of caution.  In a fight like this where the stakes are so high, traditional "friends" of veterans are likely to be bought off by groups that oppose this type of outlay for veterans’ pensions.  We cannot under any circumstances depend upon veterans organizations to carry the ball for us.  Trust me, they can be bought off.  You can see signs of that already by reading the source documents carefully.

We are going to have to fight this one ourselves.  Get your email skills up.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)