Posted on 02/15/2005 10:46:39 AM PST by GianniV
The Veterans Affairs Department needs at least $4 billion more than President Bush has allotted or else veterans' health care and disability claims will suffer, Sen. Barack Obama warned Monday.
Obama (D-Ill.) criticized the president during a press conference in Chicago, calling him "bull-headed" and warning that Bush's proposed 2.7 percent increase for the VA doesn't consider an increased demand from returning Iraqi veterans.
"When you adjust for inflation, the president's budget has even less money for veterans than it had a year ago," said Obama, who serves on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "We have a tendency to applaud our Armed Forces when they are overseas and in uniform and have a tendency to forget about them when they come home."
Bush's proposed VA budget of $71.3 billion raises VA medical care spending by $800 million but doubles prescription drug co-payments and calls for some veterans to pay a $250 annual fee for service. It also eliminates some state grants for veterans in nursing homes.
Obama also says it's time for the VA's inspector general to conclude a national investigation into disparities in disability pay that have shortchanged Illinois veterans.
"Recent reports by the Chicago Sun-Times have clearly shown the Illinois disability compensation system is broken," Obama said.
Pay probe
The VA inspector general's office launched its investigation in mid-December after a Sun-Times series revealed that Illinois' wounded veterans receive as much as $5,000 less than veterans in other states and Puerto Rico and that the pay disparity has gone on for seven decades.
The inspector general's office has not commented on its progress since it began the probe and has not returned phone calls to the newspaper in six weeks.
"VA Secretary [Jim] Nicholson said it was going to take a while to get it done. I don't want 'a while' stretching into six to nine months," Obama said. "My assumption is that it should take somewhere between six to eight weeks. My estimation is that we should have some answers soon."
Obama predicted that if Bush's budget for the VA remains unchanged, it will mean veterans will have to wait longer to have a disability claim decided. Currently nearly half a million veterans' compensation and pension claims are still waiting a decision, he said.
Check out the graphic "Veteran Population Declining" at the link you provided.
The number of vets who are dying is increasing (as the WWII and Korean vets die) and the money for vets' health care is increasing. What is Osama Obama worried about?
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