Bush team wants to take away my VA benefits

[Elwood P Dowd]

They're up to it again. Just how sick can this Bush crowd get? I can't
even afford health insurance, so the VA is my only hope. Now they want
to do this. We've got to get the word out. I'm sending a copy of this
article to everyone in my address book. I was drafted during Vietnam and
gave two years out of my life to serve this country. Imagine how the Iraqi war vets are gonna' feel when they find out they're putting their
lives on the line for Bushit's rich oil buddies and defense contractors, only to be denied proper medical care when they return.

http://www.indiemediamagazine.com/article.php?story=20040201025638295



Do you support our troops? If so, prepare to be outraged that our commander in chief does not.

The Bush Administration's 2004 budget proposed gutting Veterans Administration (VA) services, including health care funding. Proposed cuts included: denying at least 360,000 veterans access to health care; $250 annual premiums; increased pharmacy co-payments; a 30 percent increased primary care co-payments; and increased waiting time for a first medical appointment.

Because of budgetary shortfalls, the VA suspended the enrollment of veterans not injured in service earning between $24,450 and $38,100 annually. VFW officials estimated the administration's VA budget is at least $2 billion short of meeting the demand for quality health care.

The FY 2004 budget approved by Congress calls for reducing VA funding over a 10-year period by $6.2 billion. Cuts are in the areas of veterans' health care and disability benefits.

<more>

[lcordero]

1. with the help of a rubberstamp Senate

[alcuno]

2. "Shut Up and Sing"

That Laura Ingraham character says her book is about Hollywood, but I think it's a message to the rest of us to just go along with the plan. Be a patriot and just take it.

[liberalhistorian]

3. EVERYONE should give

a copy of this fascist, doublcrossing bullshit to EVERY VETERAN AND CURRENT MILITARY SERVICEMAN OR WOMAN THEY KNOW. EVERY SINGLE ONE. And make sure your local paper has a copy, write letters to the editor of every paper you can think of, ESPECIALLY the repuke ones, etc., etc. We MUST GET THE WORD OUT! If I hear ONE MORE FUCKING WORD about how Shrub "supports the troops" and the Dems don't, I'm gonna need a 40-foot bucket to puke in. And I'm giving this to my gung-ho on repukes and the military boss as well.

[Elwood P Dowd]

5. You got it!

I'm calling and emailing people about this until I run out of
names. Then I'm going to make copies and start give them to
strangers. I have three uncles still living that are WWII vets
and republicans. This will not set well with them. They're already
upset with the spending and immigration policies. This might just
wake 'em up.

[Webster Green]

4. We need a massive veteran's march on Washington DC...

A little October surprise for the fucking chimp.

[raysr]

6. VA

VA is all I have for health care. Non-service connected, but it's on a sliding scale. I have to wait a long time for an appointment, and the Seattle Hospital doesn't look real reasurring, but it's all I have.

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. This is like a horrible nightmare

I simply cannot understand the American people. The majority just don't
seen to care. I'm getting mostly negative responses like, "Bush is just
doing what is best for the country"......"Maybe these vets are just abusing the free care. They can buy insurance like the rest of us."

[csw77]

7. It's sad

And it's sick that Bush is trying to do this. I tried to explain this to my military Bush lovin' pal the other day and she refused to even believe it!

[newyawker99]

20. Hi csw77!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[moondust]

9. Why $38,100?

Does that mean that somebody making $38,100.01+ annually is still eligible? How does that work?

[Elwood P Dowd]

11. I was thinking the same thing

Maybe Rove discovered that Vets making over 38K a year vote repub, so
they get to keep their benefits. I'm stuck in the benefitless hole
the way it looks. However, if the economy stays tanked, I will be under
22K in 2004. I'm self-employed, and the orders are drying up. Didn't even make a thousand bucks in January.

[Elwood P Dowd]

10. Bump

Come on folks. We need to get the word out. The Bushits want to keep falling back on 9-11, supporting the troops, the war to protect our freedom, and such. While all the brain-dead Americans are waving flags, praising Bush, and supporting the troops, the Bushits have sunk to the lowest of lows by royally screwing the troops when they come home.

That damn clueless, draft-dodging monkey in the White House will wind up back in Texas playing with his little woody if just 10% of the American veterans discover the truth. You piss off one vet, and before you know it about everybody in town knows the story. Piss off a couple of million, and the whole damn country knows about it.

[symbolman]

12. Go to

http://www.takebackthemedia.com and click on the ARMY OF ONE ad..

we ran this ad nearly 3000 times during the Primaries in New Hampshire all over cable from ESPN to CNN..

We've been trying to get the word out..

[Elwood P Dowd]

13. I'm stuck with dialup

will check it out later. Thanks

[Seldona]

14. Bookmarked.

I will be spreading the word localy, and will do what I can to get the word out to more vets than our littel neck of the woods.

Obsene is all I can say.

[Don_G]

15. Given BushCo's History

Of making money at the expense of the taxpayer and making bad decisions, where else can the money come from?

It's just a continuation of the Regan Policy to turn the Vietnam Vets out of the VA hospitals near Military Bases with a bus ticket to nowhere.

[trof]

16. check your inbox

[Rebellious Republican]

17. DU Vets, take action, here is a comprehensive list of Veterans...

Associations and Advocacy groups. http://www.amvets.org/HTML/resources_for_you/pertinent_links.html
Send out emails to them, the more they get, the more the understand that we are pissed! I have sent emails to all with a copy of the news link. Here is what I did.........

Dear Sirs or Madam, I have copied an article that gives me cause for concern. Is this true and if so, what is being done to combat it. President Bush seems to talk a good line in support of us veterans, however his actions tell a different story! I am sending this out to various veterans associations, who may be in a better position than I to get to the truth of the matter. I would hope that any and all veterans advocacy groups are looking out for our (Veterans) best interestsAnd yes I have a claim in with the VA for loss of hearing, and have had it in since August, 2003, and still have not heard a word back from them!
Very respectfully
My Name

Please click on the link at the bottom for the full article.

Do you support our troops? If so, prepare to be outraged that our commander in chief does not.

The Bush Administration's 2004 budget proposed gutting Veterans Administration (VA) services, including health care funding. Proposed cuts included: denying at least 360,000 veterans access to health care; $250 annual premiums; increased pharmacy co-payments; a 30 percent increased primary care co-payments; and increased waiting time for a first medical appointment.

Because of budgetary shortfalls, the VA suspended the enrollment of veterans not injured in service earning between $24,450 and $38,100 annually. VFW officials estimated the administration's VA budget is at least $2 billion short of meeting the demand for quality health care.

The FY 2004 budget approved by Congress calls for reducing VA funding over a 10-year period by $6.2 billion. Cuts are in the areas of veterans' health care and disability benefits.

The cuts affect VA discretionary funding, which could mean discontinuation of burial benefits for veterans or delays in the cost-of-living adjustment for disability benefits.

Some veterans must pay a new $250 annual enrollment fee to join the VA healthcare system. The VA believes 1.25 million veterans nationwide, already under the VA healthcare plan, may no longer be able to participate because of the new fee.

Veterans who can remain under the VA health-care system will pay increased co-payments for physician benefits and prescription drug cost, amounting to an estimated increase in out-of-pocket expenses of $347 each year.

The Bush Administration's budget proposal would have under-funded the VA by more than $2 billion. Bush's proposal would have cut the number of employees available to process disability claims, yet veterans already wait more than six months for a review of disability applications. The Bush plan for dealing with the waiting lists at VA clinics and hospitals is to reduce the number of veterans treated by the VA.
http://www.indiemediamagazine.com/article.php?story=20040201025638295

[9215]

18. Clinton accomplishments for Vets.

Being a Vietnam Era Veteran myself I find it very strange that so many military people are rabid Clinton haters:


Update for May 2000)

€ On February 7, 2000, the President submitted his FY 2001 budget to Congress to provide $48 billion in funding for VA. That amount includes a $1.5 billion increase over the previous year -- the largest increase in discretionary spending for veterans ever proposed by any President.

€ VA has been transformed from a hospital-based system to an ambulatory/outpatient system with approximately 1,241 sites where health care is delivered to veterans. Since 1994, VA has expanded its system to include 689 ambulatory and community-based clinics.

€ As a result of VA's transformation over the past five years, the number of patients treated increased by more than 24.4 percent; acute bed days of care reduced 67.8 percent; and outpatient visits have risen by more than 44 percent annually while staffing decreased by 11 percent.

€ On October 1, 1998, VA launched a new health-care benefits plan for veterans. It provides for easier access to a broader array of services at VA facilities throughout the United States as well as in Puerto Rico. By the end of 1999, more than four million veterans had enrolled in the VA health-care system. The new plan permits VA to provide a continuum of health care to veterans, better assess demand for services, and manage its resources to deliver care in the most appropriate setting.

€ VA has shown dramatic improvements in the quality of patient care in recent years, in a number of areas outperforming the private sector. VA is rolling out a world class patient safety process lead by the National Center for Patient Safety and its four Patient Safety Centers of Inquiry.

€ With about 36 percent of the total veteran population 65 years old or older (compared with 13 percent of the general population), long term care is a critical issue for America's veterans. VA is intensifying its strategy development for providing long term care for elderly veterans; in the meantime, all currently available long-term care beds will remain open to serve veterans.

€ Since 1995, VA has reduced its overall benefits staff by 2,200 employees (16 percent), but has increased the number of adjudication officers (individuals who process claims). By the year 2002, VA will have more than 6,000 adjudication officers more than half of its total benefits division's work force.

€ VA reached a new high in the percentage of benefits payments processed by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). Of the $1.7 billion in compensation and pension benefits paid monthly, more than 76 percent are through EFT, far surpassing the federal government average of 65 percent.

€ Education beneficiaries throughout the nation now receive toll-free telephone service by dialing 1-888-GIBILL1. They are first connected to an automated response system that provides general information, answers to frequently asked questions, recent payment information, and limited, beneficiary-specific master record information. Callers can opt to speak to an Education Case Manager at any time during the call if personal attention is wanted.

€ The President signed into law a provision to extend VA's authority to provide priority health care to Gulf War veterans through 2001. VA has contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to review and evaluate available scientific evidence to determine whether there is an association between illnesses Gulf War veterans are experiencing and their service in that war.

€ The President created a Military and Veterans Health Coordinating Board to improve collaboration between VA, Department of Defense, and the Department of Health and Human Services on a wide range of health care and research issues relating to past, present and future service in the Armed Forces.

€ The federal research commitment of VA and other departments on Gulf veterans' health issues has now reached $145 million cumulatively in support of 159 research projects.

€ VA established environmental research centers at three VA medical centers to explore the health effects of possibly toxic exposures on Gulf War veterans. The centers supplement other extensive VA research into the possible health effects of Gulf War service. Another center has been established to research the reproductive risks of military service, including Gulf War.

€ The President urged passage of unprecedented legislation (now law) to permit VA to pay compensation benefits to chronically disabled Gulf War veterans with undiagnosed illnesses. VA extended the manifestation period for undiagnosed illnesses through December 31, 2001.

€ VA established a special Gulf War Information Hotline (1-800-PGW-VETS), a Gulf War Review newsletter and town hall meetings to enhance communications with Gulf War veterans. Gulf War veterans may also find information through a Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses page on a VA World Wide Web site.

€ The Administration issued decisions that VA would award disability payments, on the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange or other herbicides, to Vietnam veterans suffering from respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease, the liver disorder porphyria cutanea tarda, prostate cancer, and acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy.

€ VA began providing compensation, health care and vocational training to Vietnam veterans' children who suffer from spina bifida. Health care is provided by the Shriners Hospitals for Children through an agreement with VA.

€ VA established the Center for Women Veterans (CWV) to assess and improve VA1s delivery of services to women veterans. The CWV participates in and promotes improvements to women veterans' programs by integrating clinical care, education outreach and research on women veterans-related issues.

€ VA established:
- Eight comprehensive women veterans' health centers;
- Four stress-disorder treatment centers for women veterans;
- A national counseling program at VA medical centers and readjustment counseling, or Vet Centers, across the country for sexual trauma victims;
- Policies assuring availability of gender-specific care, including mammography screening, at all VA health-care facilities;
- A Women Veterans' Division at VA's National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, Massachusetts; and
- Collaborative relationships with other federal agencies to assure women veterans' issues are incorporated into the national agenda on women. These relationships include: the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Women's Health; Department of Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service and Council on Crime Victims Assistance Program; and the Department of Justice Violence Against Women Task Force.

€ There are few more compelling images than the fact that the Nation's defenders make up one third of America's homeless population. A recent national study indicates that for Americans under the age of 35, the risk of becoming homeless is greater if you are a veteran. VA is the only federal agency providing direct, hands-on assistance to the homeless.

€ In FY 00, VA will spend more than $150 million in support of its homeless initiatives, and will fund an additional $17 million in direct grants to homeless programs in communities across the nation. Over the past five years, the direct grants program has provided more than $41 million for community-based activities to help homeless veterans.

€ VA maintains collaborative relationships with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Labor, Department of Defense and Public Health Service to ensure minority veterans' issues are properly addressed by federal agencies.

€ VA's 18-member Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans issued three annual reports containing recommendations based on its evaluation of the effectiveness of VA programs and services in meeting the needs of minority veterans.

€ The VA Center for Minority Veterans conducted more than 40 town hall forums across the country, giving veterans a chance to share their concerns and have agency officials available to address them.

€ VA signed an agreement with the Navajo Nation to open a Vet Center on the reservation to provide counseling to Navajo veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Plans are being formulated to open three additional one-stop Vet Centers on other Indian reservations. VA and the Oneida Nation signed an historic agreement for the Oneida Health Clinic to provide medical services to veterans precluding them from traveling long distances to obtain care from a VA facility.

€ VA translates the annual "Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents" handbook into Spanish and posts it on the VA home page on the World Wide Web (www.va.gov/pubaff/fedben/spfedben.pdf).

€ VA increased by 83 percent the dollar value of contracts awarded to minority-owned small businesses since 1993.

€ VA's highly decentralized structure (second only to Defense in the number of facilities) creates significant opportunities for small and disadvantaged businesses. VA is the only federal agency to establish procurement goals for contract awards to veteran-owned businesses and spent $179 million with those firms in FY 1998.

€ The Administration, through the direct funding efforts and assistance of the Department of Labor, has helped an estimated 500,000 veterans find jobs.

€ A joint effort by the Departments of Defense, Labor and Veterans Affairs provided job assistance to 130,000 special disabled veterans.

€ The President signed the Veterans Employment Opportunity Act which preserves veterans preference for federal jobs.

€ In FY 1999, approximately 561,000 veterans died, more than 1,500 each day. The National Cemetery Administration (NCA) estimates that the annual number of veterans1 deaths will continue to climb for the next decade, with the number of interments in VA national cemeteries increasing to more than 108,000 by the year 2008.

€ NCA opened two new national cemeteries in 1999 (Saratoga National Cemetery in Albany, New York, and Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery near Chicago, Illinois) and will add two more in calendar year 2000: Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery in Texas and Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery near Cleveland, Ohio. These additions will increase the number of national cemeteries to 119, with more than 13,200 acres and 3 million projected gravesites.

€ The State Cemetery Grants program allows VA to fund construction of state veterans cemeteries, which complement VA national cemeteries. In FY 1999, grants totaling more than $7 million were awarded.

€ VA is working closely with Department of Defense (DOD) to ensure that our Nation's final tribute to those who have made personal sacrifices in defense of our Nation are carried out according to Public Law 106-65, the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2000. This law requires DOD to provide military funeral honors for all eligible veterans beginning January 1, 2000. The military funeral honors ceremony consists of the folding and presenting the United States burial flag and the playing of Taps. The law defines a military funeral honors detail as consisting of two or more uniformed military persons with at least one member of the veteran's parent service of the Armed forces.

€ In addition to making a vast array of VA information available to the public on the VA Internet site, VA now answers veterans' questions electronically on the federal government1s first interactive customer service page (www.va.gov/customer/consumer.htm).

€ VA, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, established an on-line data base to provide health care providers and patients with timely information about the potential effects of year 2000 date changes on specific biomedical equipment. VA has also taken the lead in National Patient Safety Partnership efforts to increase awareness of the need for appropriate measures to alleviate potential risks.

€ On Veterans Day 1998 at Arlington National Cemetery, President Clinton spoke movingly about the debt we owe our nation's veterans. He said:

"Every day, some of us have the privilege to see these silent white rows inscribed with their crosses and crescents and stars of David to remind us that our achievements in peace are built on the sacrifices of our veterans in war, and that we owe the most solemn debt to these brave Americans who knew their duty and did it so very well. We come together today to acknowledge that debt to them; a duty to provide for our veterans and their families, to give them every possible opportunity to improve their education; to find a job; to buy a home; to protect their health."



Clinton backed up words with deeds.

http://www.va.gov/pubaff/AAMAY00.htm

[Tinoire]

19. There is a precedent. Read this! Macarthur teargasses Veteran protestors

What we need is a Veterans march on Washington. The numbers of homeless, wronged Veterans would simply astound America.

====
In 1932, during the Great Depression, over 60,000 unemployed World War I veterans came to Washington to protest their condition, and to seek increased borrowing privileges on their bonus certificates. While they did not hold a formal march, the "Bonus Marchers" simply engulfed the Avenue, with many camping out in vacant buildings in the Federal Triangle area. Others camped on the Anacostia Flats. After the Senate rejected the Patman Bonus Bill on July 15, <snip / sentence unclear>. Many veterans attempted to sit down in the street, but were routed by tear gas. MacArthur's troops continued down on to the Anacostia camp which they then burned. In the 1960s a number of large civil rights and anti-Vietnam War marches were held on or near the Avenue.

http://www.nps.gov/paav/protest.htm


1932-96: World War I veterans block the steps of the Capitol during the Bonus March, July 5, 1932. (Underwood and Underwood)

About the Bonus Army

A "shameful but little known 1932 police action," featured future Generals MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower all playing a part in dealing with the so-called "Bonus Army" comprised of demonstrating World War I veterans, burning them out of their encampment of makeshift huts and tents on the mud flats by the Anacostia River outside of the beltway. Little is generally known about this extraordinary event in American history, one which quite directly let to FDR's huge election win in 1932... and all that followed!

In 1924, a grateful U.S. government passed legislation that authorized the payment of cash bonuses to war veterans of World War I, adjusted for length of service. This was to make up for the wages the men had missed by serving in the army at only thirty dollars a month while others back home worked at high-paying wartime jobs. The bonus was due to be paid in 1945, however, the Crash of 1929 wiped out many veterans' savings and jobs, forcing them out into the streets. Groups of veterans began to organize and petition the government to pay them their cash bonus immediately, although veterans were within two years allowed to borrow money against the bonus.

But because of the country-wide depression, in 1931 Congress expanded the privilege of borrowing with an amendment adopted over the veto of President Hoover, increasing the loan value of the certificates from 22.5% to 50% of face value. As a result of the opposition of President Hoover and numerous Senators and members of the House, due primarily to the fact that the country was trying to work it's way out of the depression and such an action would put a significant strain on the federal budget, a group of 300 veterans in Portland, Oregon organized by an ex-Sergeant named Walter Walters, decided to exercise their First Amendment rights by marching on Washington, D.C. to press their demands. Other veterans groups around the country rallied to the idea.

<snip>

On 28 July 1932, two veterans were shot and killed by panicked policemen in a riot at the bottom of Capitol Hill. This provided the final stimulus. Hoover directed Secretary of War Patrick Hurley to tell then Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur that he wished the Bonus Army Marchers evicted from Washington. Troops from nearby Forts Myer and Washington were ordered in to remove the Bonus Army Marchers from the streets by force. One battalion from the 12th Infantry Regiment and two squadrons of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment (under the command of Major George S. Patton, who had taken over as second in command of the Regiment less than three weeks earlier) concentrated at the Ellipse just west of the White House. At 1600 hours the infantrymen donned gas masks and fixed bayonets, the cavalry drew sabers, and the whole force (followed by several light tanks) moved down Pennsylvania Avenue to clear it of people.

Against the advice of his aide, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, MacArthur had taken personal command of the operation. Hoover had ordered MacArthur to clear Pennsylvania Avenue only, but MacArthur immediately began to clear all of downtown Washington, herding the Marchers out and torching their huts and tents. Tear gas was used liberally and many bricks were thrown, but no shots were fired during the entire operation. By 2000 hours the downtown area had been cleared and the bridge across the Anacostia River, leading to the "Hooverville" where most of the Marchers lived, was blocked by several tanks.

<snip>

http://www.thegunzone.com/lore.html

==

"We were heroes in 1917," said one veteran bitterly, "but we're bums now."

\By July 1932, almost 25,000 people lived in Anacostia, making it the largest one in the country.

<snip>

As the weather and the rhetoric grew hotter, concern grew that the Bonus Army Marchers could cause widespread civil disorder and violence. There were scuffles with the police and some Senators' cars were stoned by unruly crowds of veterans.

Retired Marine General Smedley Butler*, an immensely popular figure among veterans and who had become a vocal opponent of the Hoover Administration, participated in Bonus Army demonstrations and made inflammatory speeches.

<snip>

Nevertheless, President Hoover considered the Bonus Army Marchers a threat to public order and his personal safety. After the closing ceremonies for that session of Congress on July 16, many members left the Capitol building through underground tunnels to avoid facing the demonstrators outside.



More here: http://beachonline.com/hoover.htm or google: veterans protest macarthur Anacostia