A New Day Dawning But Mandatory Funding of the VA must WAIT!

by Bob Hanafin, 

I received my NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008 issue of THE VVA VETERAN and noted an OUTSTANDING editorial by John Miterko, Chair of the VVA Government Affairs Committee, on views VVA has expressed to President-elect Obama that would improve operations and management at the VA during an Obama Presidency.

However, the bad news is that VVA ops for Advanced Funding of the VA as opposed to Mandatory Funding that due to the economic meltdown must take a back seat to other national priorities.

I’m going to restrict most of the following section to exactly what John Miterko wrote in the November/December 2008 Issue of THE VETERAN, I certainly don’t want to put words in John’s mouth or VVAs, my commentary will follow.

I will mention that our editor (Veterans Today) John P. Allan posted another excellent article by John Miterko back on March 14, 2008, talking about how the Army misuses and abuse the medical term Personality Disorder to not only get ill troops back into combat but also to scam them out of being able to claim a VA Disability for PTSD or related mental illnesses by claiming them as pre-conditions prior to active duty.

Frankly, those pre-existing medical conditions were conveniently overlooked by both Military Recruiters AND so-called Military Medical Professionals. “Personality” Discharge Limit In Defense Authorization Bill".

     NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008

A New Day Dawning

BY JOHN MITERKO, CHAIR, VVA
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS STAFF

An Extract

Now is the time to follow up with the [Obama] transition team to urge them to take ACTION. As one of the first order of business at the VA, the Obama administration must insist that VA obey all laws at VA, including completing the National Veterans Longitudinal Study [this impacts every generation of Veterans], seeking funds to increase long-term care for veterans, and taking steps to improve transparency of decision-making at the VA, especially with decisions about the shape of medical care in general and fiscal decisions that supersede best clinical judgment, such as the overly restrictive formulary for pharmaceutical medications and contracting out care wholesale from VA Medical Centers to essentially gut them.

We need the VA to start taking a complete military history as part of the computerized patient treatment file, and to train its own clinicians and other staff properly in the wounds, injuries, maladies, diseases, and conditions that result from military service.

We need much greater accountability up and down the line in every area of the VA. We need advanced funding.

[What happened to MANDATORY FUNDING HUM? More on that later]

We need an increase in Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, and an end to the “widows’ tax.” We call for an end to the exclusion of veterans and veteran advocates from the decision-making process at VA and other agencies that make key decisions that affect the lives and well-being of veterans, such as decisions on employment assistance and veterans preference [in hiring].

We need a VA that will keep faith with every generation, and will not attempt to throw away Vietnam veterans by not having a single research study funded at or by the VA that deals with the long-term adverse health impact of Agent Orange and other toxins prevalent in the war-time environment. [Not mentioned is Gulf War Illness, Depleted Uranium, or other suspected toxins that pollute the war-time environment of younger veterans of the Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan, and future wars. However the implications of the VA doing NOTHING are the same, so VVA doesn’t have to mention the illnesses that plague younger veterans].

As President-Elect Obama noted in his victory speech and in his first press conference, this is a challenging time because of two wars and an economy that continues to weaken. [Here comes the bad news] Some commitments, such as mandatory funding may have to give way to enactment of advanced funding this year, and revising assured [mandatory] funding as the economy improves.

[VVA notes that] many of the recommendations that [VVA] President John Rowan has made to the President-elect cost little or no money, and others, such as increasing accountability and fixing a broken procurement process, will save significant funds that can then be channeled to enhanced medical care and other vital services

At Vietnam Veterans of America, we will continue to pursue justice for veterans and their families of every generation, and we will seek support from both sides of the aisle in our efforts.

Comments by Major Bobby Hanafin, U.S. Air Force-Retired:

John mentions an overly restrictive formulary for pharmaceutical medications and contracting out care wholesale from VA Medical Centers to essentially gut them. In this VA is but following a model long set by DOD to cut back support and medical care for Military Retirees, anything DOD Personnel run by Dr. David Chu, does to cut back on career military will certainly be crap that rolls down hill to VETERANS in general who did not chose a military career].

The shift in terminology for VA funding really bothers me, John [VVA} says that we need advanced funding note that the terminology MANDATORY FUNDING has disappeared from the discussion by a major VSO - HUM? I’m not saying that advanced funding is not a good or bad idea but it is yet another compromise like what VSOs had to settle for with the Disabled Veterans Tax, VSOs are still fighting to ensure every veteran who served a military career or worse yet was forced to leave that career due to their VA disability gets both their military retirement pay and VA disability. VSOs settled for a compromise with a then Republican controlled Congress that left behind hundreds if not thousands of disabled veterans with promises of continuing the War on Benefits. Every time any VSO reaches a compromise with excuses (real or politically motivated) how many veterans, troops, and families get LEFT BEHIND?

VVA says on behalf of President-Elect Obama that these are challenging times with an economic meltdown, corporate America, and let’s not forget the auto industry holding their hands out like some paupers out of a Charles Dickens novel for welfare handouts from American tax payers. Folks that means eventually raising taxes to bail them out.

I can reasonably accept and understand this bad news that veterans, troops, and families must WAIT for mandatory funding at least a year or more (wink). I can even comprehend the economic reality of veterans funding being labeled a domestic program per se, when OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) tells the President any President that mandatory funding of all programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Defense, and other Domestic) programs are unsustainable from 2006 until 2050:

Source OMB projections based on OMB data.

Heck, VA funding is not even considered as other domestic funding, since it is not mandatory. What I’m passionately against, as a Life Member of VVA is that yes, some commitments, such as mandatory funding, may have to give way to enactment of advanced funding this year, and revising assured funding as the economy improves, but that is kowtowing to Congress at a time when VSOs need to be getting more aggressive with Congress regardless which party is in control. It has been said that Democrats are more supportive of veterans than Republicans and more Democrats have showed less resistance to mandatory funding of the VA than Republicans, now let’s see just how true that is. I’ll be looking and checking, and I voted for Obama. That doesn’t mean I’m any more willing to give him a get out to mandatory funding card anymore than I am to give one to Bush. We’ve already given Obama a get out of the War on Terror (THE DRAFT] free card alone with every able bodies male (and female if you prefer) who leaves the fighting and dying up to other Americas to do FOR THEM.

Advanced funding BTW is not a bad thing, it is better than what crumbs from the federal budget Veterans have been thrown to by Congress since the end of the Vietnam War, and we even had to fight for crumbs. Advanced funding (Google the term) means essentially funding the VA in two year increments instead of annual funding to ensure the VA doesn’t run out of money at the end of a budget cycle (OCT each year), and I guess by definition it is one step away from mandatory funding, because at least funds are expected to be there at the end of a fiscal year. VA management need not continue going before Congress hat in hand with VSOs holding their horses to beg for more money for US.

However, don’t let any VSO or Congress tell you that either the Republicans or Democrats have spent more than the other party on US, just to further divide and confuse us.

Source: houston conservative.org

Republicans brag about the Bush administration outspending the Clinton administration as proof that Republicans care more about veterans than Democrats. Well truth be told economic necessity will make it a given that the Obama administration will spend more to sustain veterans cares than the Bush administration and still not keep up with inflation. The only veterans that get inflationary protection are via COLAs for the relatively few veterans on disability and pensions, and that amount of economic security depends on how low or high a veteran is rated.

The fact is that both have spent more on us and that is an economic reality not humanitarian desire, but neither party has kept up with inflation or on-site costs of utilizes, maintenance, medical advances, and technological advances that are expensive plus take away from immediate veterans care. The costs of running the VA and trying to make it prosper even if Congress seriously wanted to, when I worked for the VA way back in the day [1974-1977] as a GS-3, GS-4, and GS-5, I was making at that time about 3,000 to 5,000 bucks a year working for the VA by-god. I made more than that in the Vietnam Era Army. Of course managers got considerably more. That same GS-3, 4, or 5 today makes four to five times keeping up with inflation. Same can be said for what a draftee or volunteer Private was paid going to Vietnam compared to the same Private today. An analogy is that volunteers today are paid luxuriously compared to their Vietnam War counterparts; again it is to keep pace with inflation and attract VOLUNTEERS to do something most Americans distain.

Maybe not intentionally, but VVA is asking veterans, troops, and their families to make additional sacrifices at least for one year on behalf of the Obama administration for their War on Terror, including economic sacrifices, while the rest of American voters sacrifice nothing that doesn’t come natural. I for one as a Life Member of VVA am highly skeptical that any VSO is willing to compromise its principles and promises of mandatory funding of the VA for nothing less than that. This sounds more like a set up to defend the Obama administration and Democrats than it is looking out for the interests of all Veterans. If any VSO can go on the attack criticizing what the Bush administration has or has not done for veterans, the same must apply to any administration that is by the very definition of non-partisan. Lastly, I’m passionately opposed to any move by the leadership of any VSO to manipulate the terminology for VA funding away from mandatory to advanced funding though I understand advanced funding is better than what we’ve got now. ]

One only need compare the chart above of what partisan political supporters point at as proof that one partisan administration is spending more on veterans than another, mind you the Democrats will come out with a similar chart in a few years showing how much more the Obama administration has spent than Bush and it will be factual but misleading. Compare all this chest beating and bragging with the overall cost of billions wasted in the War on Terror that could have gone towards not only making veterans medical and related benefits mandatory but have change left over for other domestic programs that are discretionary.

Source: Congressional Research Service (2007) "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11."

In 2008, we are looking at a little under 40 billion spent on veterans healthcare alone, and a little over 45 billion on total VA related spending. These veterans related spending was expected to reach 40 to about 48 billion by 2009 (see veteran spending chart above). Compare this to how much has been wasted on the War on Terror since 2003, in 2003 Congress (by-partisan) wasted 81.1 billion, in 2004 Congress wasted 94.1 billion, in 2005 Congress wasted 107.6 billion, in 2006 Congress wasted 121.5 billion, and during 2007 Congress reached a milestone in wasting 173 billion, in 2008 the last year listed by the Congressional Research Service, Congress wasted 147 billion on the War on Terror.

To the leaders of VVA, the American Legion, VFW, DAV, whomever that ask veteran, troops, and families to give Congress or any Presidential administration a break, please remember that Congress has spent but 40 to 45 billion on the after effects of war on Veterans, Troops, and our families while Congress has wasted a total of 724.3 billion on the War on Terror. Even if we optimistically assume half of that amount when directly to troop and family support of those fighting and dying in the war, we can assume that 362.15 billion was still WASTED, because there has been no Congressional or Presidential accountability on where the money really went! That is 317.15 billion more wasted on the War on Terror than spent on those who fought and died in it.

Given those shocking figures how dare any VSO ask us veterans, troops, and families to stand in line behind corporate America, the auto industry or anyone else and wait for a bailout. To be more reasonable, does Congress or any administration deserve or need a breaks from the overall costs of war when they’ve wasted and continue to waste much more than spent on the small one percent of citizens and voters who carry the burden of the slogan War on Terror.

On balance I commend VVA for noting] that many of the recommendations that [VVA] President John Rowan has made to the President-elect cost little or no money, and others, such as increasing accountability and fixing a broken procurement process, will save significant funds that can then be channeled to enhanced medical care and other vital services. Why is it that for decades VA management has been obsessed with buying things, outsourcing, and I mean building contracts, shuffling ill Vets here and there within hospital grounds to build this and that, then the projects either don’t get done or end up not benefiting most veterans.

VVA says we will continue to pursue justice for veterans and their families of every generation, and seek support from both sides of the aisle in our efforts. The first place we at VVA can start is to stick by our passion for Mandatory Funding and not give an inch regardless the excuse or political expediency, or at least ask Congress and our own VVA leadership what and why veterans are continuously being asked to sacrifice more and more to the war effort compared to corporate America, and the auto industry when they come begging the American tax payer for welfare handouts. It is a given that veterans who made it possible for corporate America and our auto industry to flourish (too many Veterans to count are also members of automotive Unions) then squander our collective prosperity, but it is way past time for America’s Veterans and Troops to begin demanding what WE EARNED from Congress a Veterans and Troops Bailout, not cutting any administration or political party slack, because the national focus is on our domestic economy and not on war, veterans, or our troops.

Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired

Life Member VVA

Life Member DAV

Member VVAW and IVAW.

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