John Youmans: Disabled Vets Say Phase-In $87 Billion for Iraq
John Youmans: Disabled Vets Say Phase-In $87 Billion for Iraq
About
the Author
John F. Youmans is a retired prior-enlisted (E-7) USAF major and a well decorated disabled Vietnam Veteran who served at Bien Hoa AB from 1966-1967. Mr. Youmans served 30 years in the USAF. One of his most enjoyable positions was as the executive officer at the USAF Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. Media relations and coordination was an important part of the job, working with and meeting flying legends like Chuck Yeager. Mr. Youmans was a reporter for the Daily Record in Dunn, N.C. for several years when forced to resign due to his disability stemming from Hodgkin’s Disease and Agent Orange. Mr. Youmans has taken the task of advocating improvements for veterans’ benefits as a personal goal. Confined to home, he has joined the new breed of Internet journalists. His articles have been published in many hometown newspapers across the country. Mr. Youmans is a also a staff writer for www.supportthevets.com and submits articles for several others on the Internet such as www.usdr.org
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Disabled Veterans are being denied funds by the Bush administration. To fully offset the repeal of the Disabled Veterans’ Tax, imposed on more than half a million disabled veterans, a piecemeal compromise with a 10-year phased-in program is currently being discussed. Unfortunately, such a program would mean many current disabled veterans would be in the grave before their chance to receive their benefits came to fruition. This battle against an unjust tax has continued for 18 years, while the President’s request for funding $87 billion to support Iraq has taken less than two months. Many veterans are suggesting a phase-in program for the $87 billion needed for Iraq and to have full restoration of veterans retirement pay now.
Many members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, are having a difficult time handing President Bush a blank check for $87 billion to spend as he wishes in Iraq. Most agree funding of the military troops is mandatory, whether they agree with the war in Iraq or not. However, much of the funding is unexplained. Much of the money is to provide unnecessary standard of living increases for Iraqi citizens while American families are being deprived.
Meanwhile, disabled retired veterans continue to be deprived of their hard-earned (and promised) full retirement pay. Disabled military members are the only group of retirees who are forced to deduct every dollar they receive from VA disability from their retirement pay. All other federal retirees collect both. Why is that?
It is almost impossible to conceive spending $87 billion in any short amount of time. It is also almost impossible to believe that President Bush wants to provide a standard of living for many Iraqis that far surpasses the standards that exist in many communities across America today.
Bush’s funding request includes money for museums and memorials in Iraq, radios and phones for Iraqi businesses, and computer training and graduate school for Iraqi citizens. Nearly $5.8 billion would go toward rebuilding Iraq's electricity system. An additional $2.1 billion is earmarked for its oil infrastructure, $3.7 billion for water and sewer building, $800 million for telecommunications and transportation improvements, and $900 million to upgrade hospitals and health care.
According to several polls, less than half of Americans say they approve of spending an additional $87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. With Iraq sitting on huge oil reserves it is difficult to understand why Americans have to do without only to help those in Iraq.
Many veterans feel it is impossible to do all that this money is earmarked to do any time soon. You just can’t do all of that at the same time. Perhaps the Iraqi people can wait 18 years for their computers and graduate school funding or other improvements being denied to Americans. It has been that long since disabled retired veterans began asking for their full retirement pay, a retirement they fought hard for, and put their lives on the line for, fighting wars for this great country. But the Bush administration would rather provide money to our enemy than to the disabled vets who won our freedom in this and all prior wars. Something is wrong when the Commander-In -Chief puts the welfare of his military and veterans continually in last place.
The Bush administration says it costs too much to pay approximately 565,000 disabled veterans their earned retirement pay, at an estimated cost of about $40 billion over the next ten years, but he has no problem giving away approximately $90 billion over that same period to184,000 people in this country that are making over $1 million or more per year.
"87 Billion for Iraq and not a dime for disabled veterans of America. The House Appropriation Committee voted 47-14 to provide the $87 billion request for Iraq this last week. At Bush's request, the Senate will most likely obediently follow and approve. It required less than three weeks to discuss, debate, scrub and clean the request in committee.
"The same committee that decided HR303 would cost too much, self consciously removed such items as $153 million for new trash trucks and $9 million to devise a postal code system. Thus, they shaved the request down to a mere $87 billion. I thought it was for over a period of perhaps one Iraqi's lifetime, but it is only for the first year.
"It is difficult to perceive that Congressional members of that committee can spend $87 billion on a foreign country after considering it for such a short time and have not been able to find the funds for retired disabled veterans in the last eighteen years."
Another article shows preferential treatment for civilian employees again: "The House offered $26 billion in relief to companies struggling to keep up with pension plan payments, but put off a long-term fix of a system that has jeopardized retirement benefits for millions of workers. Industry groups say excessive pension obligations are diverting capital needed for investment and hiring. Labor organizations are concerned that companies will abandon or default on pension plans if not given some financial breathing room."
Hundreds of thousands of disabled veterans have vowed not to support those who don’t support them. Veterans can’t survive and feed their families on promises by the Bush administration.
Many Republican US Representatives refuse to support veterans and prefer to support strong party lines to prevent full passage of the Disabled Veterans’ Tax by only discussing piecemeal compromises for what they all know is the correct thing to do. Many of these politicians will not be reelected next year when approximately 26 million veterans select who they want to represent them in Congress. They believe constituents come before unfair and unjust party guidance to ignore the rights of veterans.
It was just three years ago when President said, "America's veterans have earned not only honors but specific benefits, and those only become more necessary with the years. America's Veterans ask only that the government honor its commitments as they honored theirs. … In all matters of concern to veterans -- from health care to program funding -- you have my pledge that those commitments will be kept. My administration will do all it can to assist our veterans and to correct oversights of the past."
