Questioning Bush’s Record on Veterans
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| Tue, 09-21-2004 - 8:51pm |
September 2004
On August 16, President Bush stood before the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and proclaimed: “ …my administration has a solid record of accomplishment for our veterans… To provide health care to veterans, we've increased VA medical care funding by 41 percent over the past four years.â€
The truth is far more complex.
In 1997, Congress gave the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) the authority to collect and retain veterans’ copayments for health care. As a result, about 6.4 percent of the VA’s medical care system is now (fiscal year 2004) comprised of veterans’ copayments. The Bush Administration has made no secret that it would like to increase the share of this budget borne by veterans, including combat-decorated veterans, while at the same time taking steps to discourage veterans’ use of their health care system or explicitly bar their entrance into the system. The Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2005 would increase the share of the budget financed by veterans to 8.7 percent.
The Congress—for the third consecutive year—has rejected the legislative proposals in the President’s budget that would charge a new enrollment fee for certain veterans and increase copayments for pharmaceutical drugs. Democrats in the House and Senate have also asked VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi to reconsider his current position to prohibit some veterans from enrolling in the VA health care system.
The President’s claim that “we’ve†added 41 percent for VA medical care gives the false impression that he has endorsed all of these increases to the VA budget. In fact, the President has requested only about a 25 percent increase in appropriated funding over five years; the remainder has come from funding added by Congress and from increased collections of copayments from veterans.
Keep in mind that during the same period, the number of veterans entering the VA health care system grew by almost 50 percent. Additionally, medical inflation (which VA forecast at five percent per year) increased by seven to eight percent per year. The total average annual increases of eight percent over the five budget cycles in question still have required VA to take dramatic action to continue to deliver health care services to veterans. In addition to halting enrollment for tens of thousands of veterans with incomes as low as $25,000 who might not be able to afford private health insurance, VA has proposed elimination of nursing home care for all but the most severely service-disabled veterans.
Moreover, the President has actually opposed Congressional efforts to add funds to the VA health care system. On July 26, 2002, Congress authorized $275 million to address the costs of caring for VA’s higher priority groups -- service-connected and low-income veterans and those in need of specialized services. The President failed to designate these funds as emergency spending pursuant to the Balanced Budget Act, so the additional resources Congress sought to provide, which would have remained available to the agency throughout fiscal year 2003, were sacrificed.
The Bush Administration also objected to Congressional attempts to add $1.3 billion for veterans’ health care in the FY 2004 Emergency Supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction Bill. Joshua Bolten, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) wrote to House and Senate appropriators on October 21, 2003: “The Administration strongly opposes these provisions that would allocate an additional $1.3 billion for VA medical care…â€
A second Bush term would likely create an even more difficult funding environment for veterans’ programs. OMB guidance leaked to the Washington Post this spring indicated that, for fiscal year 2006, the White House would require VA to identify $910 million to cut from its fiscal year 2005 budget request for discretionary programs -- primarily, medical care, construction, and research.
The President also told the VFW: “We've reduced the large backlog of disability claims by about a third; we will reduce it even further.â€
Again, not so and not likely. When President Bush assumed office in January 2001, 278,334 veterans’ disability claims were awaiting a VA rating decision. As of August 21, 2004, there were 330,380 disability claims awaiting a rating decision. The one-third reduction claimed by President Bush is not supported by VA’s own data.
I am concerned that the Bush Administration’s emphasis on productivity as a goal in itself, has actually been harmful to veterans. Veterans need a timely accurate decision when they apply for benefits. In an effort to meet production goals, I have found veterans rated on the basis of inadequate medical examinations which do not fully address the impact of a veteran’s disability on his or her ability to function. It is tempting for well-meaning VA employees under pressure to reduce the backlog to decide the claim rather than sending the examination back to correct the deficiencies.
One measure of accuracy is the marked increase in veterans’ claims pending at the Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA). When President Bush assumed office, 87,291 appeals were pending. As of August 14, 2004, there were 149,222 appeals pending. With increasing frequency, BVA continues to send claims back for evidence which should have been obtained before the claim was decided.
The prospect for the future is even worse. Despite increasing numbers of claims for service-connected compensation from the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as past conflicts, the Bush Administration fiscal year 2005 budget calls for 289 fewer full-time employees to handle disability compensation claims than were on the rolls in 2003. Cutting employees who decide these claims at a time when the number and complexity of claims is increasing does a great disservice to veterans.
The misdirection in the President’s speech continued: “For more than a century, federal law prohibited disabled veterans from receiving both their military retired pay and their VA disability compensation. Combat-injured and severely disabled veterans deserve better. I was proud to be the first President in over 100 years to sign concurrent receipt legislation.â€
Considering his threats to veto it, his party’s vehement objections to it, and the behind-closed-doors Republican “compromise†that excludes two-thirds of those eligible and forces the rest to wait 10 years to receive full benefits, “proud†seems an odd choice of words.
“We're getting the job done in Washington, D.C.,†said the President to the VFW. Earlier this year, VFW Commander-in-Chief Edward S. Banas, Sr., gave his own assessment: “The President ignored veterans in the State of the Union Address and with release of his 2005 budget, it is further evident that veterans are no longer a priority with this administration … the American people will not tolerate this shoddy treatment of America’s veterans, especially at a time of war.â€
Lane Evans is the U.S. Representative for the 17th Congressional District of Illinois and is the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
