President's FY06 Budget Shortchanging Veterans??

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[Fatigued Mother]

VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS E-NEWSLETTER & UPDATE February 2005

Welcome to the February edition of the VFW email Newsletter.

VFW NATIONAL NEWS: President's FY06 Budget Shortchanging Veterans

Budget cuts for veterans' programs in the Bush administration's FY06 budget will drastically curtail access to VA care say VFW officials. The budget proposal calls for doubling the co-pay for prescription drugs and requiring an enrollment fee for veterans desiring to use VA health-care facilities. VFW Commander John Furgess says it's pretty clear that the funding of veterans' health care and other programs is not an administration priority and is accusing the Bush administration of trying to balance the federal deficit "... on the backs of military veterans."

Read more: www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=2362

[Fatigued Mother]

I received this in an email from a veteran friend who is a member of the VFW and the DAV. Does anyone know anything about this?? I'm new to this site. I'm simply looking for answers and thought the Freepers could help me! = ) If this information is filled with bias or is incorrect in any way, I would appreciate a lead in the right direction. I have heard that the Freepers are good at pointing the way. What say ye??

[TwilightDog]

Congrats, Shari.

[NEBUCHADNEZZAR1961]

I say cut the foreign aid budget and give it to the vets. Its the only way to be sure.

[MJY1288]

Did this email come from MoveOn.Org? and did you sign up today just so you could post this unattributed email?

Begone Troll

[TwilightDog]

I told her to sign-up so she could ascertain if whomever sent out this email was someone posing as a veteran's group.
She's not a troll.

[USNBandit]

Ease up. I've heard the same thing on MSM. It looked like an enrollment fee of a couple hundred bucks (don't know if it's one time or yearly) and an increase in pharmaceutical co-pays. I think it was for those with veterans benefits, don't know about straight retirees.

[Smartaleck]

"Did this email come from MoveOn.Org? and did you sign up today just so you could post this unattributed email?"

Did you bother to read what was posted before popping off?
Obviously not.

Perhaps you should take your own advice.

The link is at the bottom of the post.
www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=2362

[Fatigued Mother]

Begone Troll, I got this in an email from a friend who is a veteran. He and I do NOT see eye to eye in politics. He does his best to pick out the "bad" with this administration and although I don't agree with everything this administration does, I'm not very quick to believe the bad. I like to get the whole story before responding to his emails.

[Smartaleck]

My guess there's probably more to it.

"really only about $100 million" they say.
$100 mil here, $100 mil there....pretty soon it adds up.

If you look at the website you'll also notice it doesn't say anything about the Pres proposal to increase the death benefits from $25,000 to $250,000.

[Fatigued Mother]

Smartaleck, I'm suspicious also. I think the death benefit increase is good but I would much rather have the extra money to keep them alive and kickin. = )

[TwilightDog]

The choice of article titles and foci of emphasis on the VFW web site seems kind of suspect.

[endthematrix]

The President submits a budget. Congress gives more dollars to many of the programs and trims off some to others. The VFW has to lobby just as any other group requesting funding. Also critics of the Bush administration are quick to exploit any dissension within patriotic groups.

[FactsMatter]

It appears to be based on information from the 'Ultra Liberal' Veterans of Foreign Wars.

http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=2362


President's FY 2006 Budget Disappoints VFW

Washington, Feb. 7, 2005--"The president has delivered a disappointing funding request for the Department of Veterans Affairs," said the leader of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., in reaction to the administration's fiscal year 2006 budget request that was released today.

"The claimed increase of $880 million for VA health care funding is really only about $100 million once you subtract those amounts that would be shouldered by military veterans," said John Furgess, the VFW's commander-in-chief. "And $100 million neither matches inflation nor do anything to help the VA keep pace with the needs of a veterans' population that now includes wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

"This budget will cause veterans' health care to be delayed and may result in the return of six-month-long waiting periods. That is especially shameful during a time of war."

Two key issues are the proposals to charge a $250 enrollment fee that would impact approximately 2.2 million veterans and a prescription co-payment that would more than double from $7 to $15. The VFW is concerned that the enrollment fee and prescription co-payment increases will cost some veterans thousands of extra dollars in health care expenses, while driving an estimated 220,000 veterans away from the VA, to include those who may not have access to other forms of health care.

"The message that this budget communicates is that part of the federal government's deficit will be balanced on the backs of military veterans," he said, "because it's clear that the proper funding of veterans health care and other programs is not an administration priority."

The budget proposal slashes $351 million from veterans' nursing homes by serving 28,000 fewer residents and eliminates $104 million in state grants. It cuts $4 million from medical and prosthetic research, bringing to $53 million the total amount cut from research in two years. The proposed increase of 113 employees to help process veterans disability claims barely covers the number of positions that were deleted just last year, and won't begin to make a dent in the current backlog of 480,000 compensation and pension claims, a number of which are from veterans from the current war on terrorism.

"The country's 25 million veterans, 2.2 million uniformed members and their families voted overwhelmingly for this administration last year to make a difference in their lives," said Furgess, "yet this budget fails to live up to the nation's obligation to veterans because it doesn't acknowledge that the costs of war continue long after the last shots are fired."

The VFW national commander is now calling on all 2.4 million members of the VFW and its Auxiliaries, as well as all servicemembers and their families, to urge their congressional members to correct the shortfalls in this budget."

"Without the American soldier, there would not have been a United States of America, and I shudder to imagine the rest of the world," he said. "Our nation must honor its commitment to care for those who are ultimately responsible for every liberty we enjoy today."

[MJY1288]

My Apologies for the quick dismissal of your Post, but we have been deluged by Trolls in the past few days. The 2006 Budget is a proposal, it's not the law of the land and Congress will have to approve of it.

Every year we see stories claiming Bush is stabbing the backs of our Military, and yet he has proposed and pushed through 3 major pay hikes and many increases in benefits. And here we are again bickering over a Budget that has not even been debated.

Please accept my apology for the reflexive remarks and Welcome to Free Republic,

Mike

[endthematrix]

Highlights of President's FY '06 Budget Proposal

"With this budget, the department will be able to care for a record number of our high-priority patients, those veterans counting on us the most, including veterans of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom."

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Press Release

[TwilightDog]

See, so you get a friendly cat out of this?:

[Fatigued Mother]

Mike, accept my apologies for calling you "Begone Troll!" I thought it was your nickname!! = 0 I now know what a troll is and that it is not your name! = X Thanks for the info on the pay hikes! I will pass that info on for sure. Apology accepted! = )

[MJY1288]

"The VFW national commander is now calling on all 2.4 million members of the VFW and its Auxiliaries, as well as all service members and their families, to urge their congressional members to correct the shortfalls in this budget."

And John Warner will make sure of it. What needs to be remembered is that every budget proposal is presented with politics in mind. We all heard and saw the media describing the 2.57 Trillion budget proposal as "Austere" and "Lean". That is what sticks in the minds of those who don't follow these things. Once the Committee's hold their hearings and make their changes, it goes to the President for his signature. We control the House and Senate and any increase in the proposed budget outside of the Military will be met with every republican blaming the RATS.

It happens every year, and every year the Military gets what it needs

[MJY1288]

Thanks :-)

[Fatigued Mother]

Thanks for the article! I passed it along. = )