Thank you for supplying those facts on VA benefits. So Kerry is flat-out lying on the stump. I wish an unbiased moderator and/or a GOP representative would start publicly calling him out on this. Thanks again for the ammo.
Just look at the CBO for Veterans expenditures as well as H.R. 2297 which is a $1 Billion bill for Veterans benefits.
Also, go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2004/hist.html and pull down "outlays by agency" and you can see the actual budgets per department as well as projected outlays.