Illinois' Military Death Benefit Fund Dried Up

[Frustratedlady]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-warfamilies_bd_01apr01,1,1744462.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true



State fund for war's dead out of money
Families must wait as bill languishes

April 1, 2007


Brea Tate was 1-1/2 months' pregnant when her fiance was sent to Iraq. She told an overjoyed Lance Cpl. Jonathan Kyle Price on the phone that they were having a baby girl.

After he was shot to death in Ramadi, Iraq, Tate learned in October that she and her daughter were eligible to receive more than $280,000 from a state program to provide payments to families of fallen service members.

But Tate hasn't received a penny.

A fund established in 2004 to grant families of soldiers and Marines the same death benefits as relatives of police officers and firefighters has run out of money, state officials say. Twenty-two families are waiting for a combined $6.5 million in payments, as deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan outstripped the fund and the funding mechanism became mired in the state budgeting process in Springfield.

Last November, the state Senate stuck extra funding into proposed legislation that also would have paid for school lunches, racetrack subsidies, fire prevention programs and lawmakers' salaries. The House took up the bill but couldn't agree on funding levels with senators and the governor's office before the General Assembly's term expired.


Isn't this another federal mandate placed on the states' shoulders?

[acmavm]

1. Jeeze, I am so absolutely torn on this I never quite know what to think.

I understand these poor people who are dying are doing so because they are serving under perilous conditions at the command of 'our' government in a war 'we' started. Having state those premises, my problems are: 1) It is not a legitimate war with an enemy who harmed us first, in fact we did first harm; 2) There is no way to win this war, it's against 'terra' not a nation or a people; 3) Not only are the troops suffering for the lies and criminal acitivity of this administration, but the whole nation is paying (as well as generations to come who will find themselves footing the bill for this obscene grab for oil and grab for influence over the Middle East; and 4) It is now time for the people who are fighting in the sand dunes of Iraq to start sticking up for themselves, to say that their lives are worth more than dying over a lie (or a number of lies to be more accurate).

We are all hurting because of this war. We are all feeling the lack of money because they've taken everything we had and are wasting it on two wars run by incompetents that we can NEVER win. So when I see articles like this where there's no money for a big pay-off for war widows and the families I just want to say, so what? None of us are coming out of this fiasco with anything but debt. This government has let criminals loot the Treasury, they have put the burden on the lower/middle classes to pay and fund their criminal activities all the while telling us that we should be happy to lose our rights and freedoms because it is all for this great cause, the one they call 'THE WAR ON TERRA'. I wish, I really do, that there was no reason to have to worry about kids losing Mommy or Daddy or Brother John or Sister Mary or Grandpa/Grandma Whomever/Whatever to IEDs or a bullet while on patrol, or whatever but as long as the military support the 'pResident', this will continue to happen. And as long as our military personnel find themselves in a position to kill innocent civilians for their masters, this will continue to happen. There is no longer any way to hide the fact that this is/was/and always will be a war of choice, not a war to defend our country. And as long as the military personnel over there do the bidding of this corrupt government, then why should I worry about whether or not their families have the big insurance pay-off to help tide them over after Mommy/Daddy/etc. dies supporting this administration? I hear the support the troops 'meme' constantly like that's a way to legitimize an illegal and immoral killing field. I don't see it that way. The only way to support them is get them out of there and they (the troops and their families) need to start demanding that as well.

[Frustratedlady]

2. Well, you certainly hit the nail on the head.

I just think that if the federal govt. is going to mandate these payments and they aren't covered under insurance, let the feds pay the bill. But then, there are no federal funds, either.

We have GOT to get this creep out of office before 2008. Wouldn't it be great if he would resign and save us all a lot of time and money. You'd think he'd be tired of playing president, by now, and want to take his ball and go home.

[windbreeze]

3. See the thing is...he isn't interested in playing prezinent....

he wants to play dictator...and he isn't quite there yet...
wb