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Veterans' Issues

While I have a number of differences with my opponent in this race, Leonard Boswell, including major differences on the Iraq War, I commend him for his work on behalf of veterans. One of the two bills he successfully introduced during his 12 years in Congress seeks to prevent suicide among veterans. But much more remains to be done.

The Problems
Military spending under the Bush Administration has grown substantially, from 48% of discretionary spending in 2000 to 51%. Last year alone, the government spent $526 billion – and that figure doesn’t include $173 billion spent during the year on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.[i] Yet during the same period, the Bush Administration made minimal increases and sometimes even cut the budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Furthermore, the Bush Administration has done its best to hide the true cost of its two wars from the public. It has been keeping almost the entire financial cost of the war out of the normal budget process, instead funding it through supplemental spending bills.

The human cost is likewise kept out of public view as much as possible. The Department of Defense for example, “maintains a separate, hard-to-find tally of troops wounded during ‘non-combat’ operations, a figure that includes those injured during vehicle and helicopter crashes and training accidents, as well as those who succumb to a disease or physical or mental illness during deployment that is serious enough to require medical evacuation to Europe.”[ii] 

During the Vietnam era, the evening news would show footage of the flag-draped coffins of our fallen heroes arriving at Dover Air Force Base, greeted by an honor guard. It was a solemn reminder of and tribute to those who, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, had given “the last full measure of devotion.” But during the Bush Administration, the public and the media have been banned from witnessing the regular arrival of America’s military dead. They seemed to have been worried throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that photographs of the coffins would undermine public support of the wars.

The two wars are straining our military to the breaking point. The Bush Administration has required our military personnel to serve not only multiple tours of duty, but longer and longer tours of duty, as well. Many who have fulfilled their commitment to military service and wished to return to civilian life have been forced to remain in the military for as long as the government requires (the ‘stop-loss’ program). It has been reported that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, “has rarely made a public speech without mentioning the need to reduce the strain on the Army,” and that the Joint Chiefs favor a speedier withdrawal from Iraq than President Bush for that reason.[iii] 

At the same time, the number of injured veterans is growing rapidly. Because of the nature of equipment, kinds of weapons used, medical care, etc., a much higher percentage of wounded or injured veterans than in previous wars survive. In Vietnam, there were 2.6 injuries per fatality; in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number is over 7 to 1. Add in injuries unrelated to combat, and the number is 15 to 1. Apart from injuries, there are large numbers who become victims of disease; these account for two-thirds of medical evacuees.[iv]

As of March 19, 2008, the number of American military casualties in Iraq stood at 3,992 and the number of military wounded at 29,395. In the Gulf War, 45% of veterans filed disability claims. This percentage is likely to be larger for our veterans from this war given the high numbers of non-fatal injuries caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Cases of physical and mental disabilities have skyrocketed.  

At home, we are witnessing an unprecedented human cost among the veterans who return from Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 263,000 have been treated at veterans’ medical facilities for a variety of conditions. More than 100,000 have been treated for mental health conditions, and 52,000 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Another 185,000 have sought counseling and readjustment services at walk-in “vet centers.” By December 2007, 224,000 returning soldiers had applied for disability benefits. Most of the veterans are providing evidence of multiple health problems. The average claim cites five separate disabling medical conditions (e.g., loss of hearing, skin disease, vision impairment, back pain, and mental health trauma). The least fortunate among our veterans have suffered unimaginable horrors, such as brain trauma, amputation, burns, blindness, and spinal damage. Some have multiple injuries, a condition physicians refer to as “polytrauma.” One in four returning veterans has applied for compensation for more than eight separate disabling conditions. [v]

Along with most Americans, I was shocked when the scandalous conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital were disclosed. And the problem is much bigger than one hospital. It was reported recently that, at a VA hospital in Illinois, at least 19 patient deaths have been traced to the inadequate care they received.[vi]

There has been an increase in the psychological damage of war as evidenced in the cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. There have been reports of military commanders discharging personnel from the service for ‘behavior’ problems rather than for medical reasons such as PTSD. The result is that the veterans discharged in this way are ineligible for medical benefits.  

Elimination of Services 

The Bush Administration has also eliminated services for many veterans.

In 2003, former VA Secretary Anthony Principi announced the decision to ration care based on need and income level. He suspended enrollment of the lowest priority group of veterans (“Priority Group 8”), those who were above a certain income level and not disabled, and increased co-payments and other fees for other groups. This has placed VA health care out of reach for at least 400,000 veterans since then.[vii]

The VA Health Care Fact Sheet 164-2 (March 2008) refers to the “high-income veterans” who make too much money to qualify for free VA health care. According to the VA’s January 2008 “Financial Income Thresholds,” a “high-income” veteran is a single person making more than $28,429. This is an outrage.

Bureaucratic Nightmares

When veterans return home, and if they haven’t been excluded from veteran benefits because they aren’t disabled or considered “high-income,” they still face challenges in obtaining health care and disability benefits. Once out of the military, they do not qualify for military health care and benefits, and until the VA has processed them, they do not qualify for veteran health care and benefits. Unlike the government of the U.K. and other allies who assume the truth of veterans’ claims, the U.S. system places the burden on the veterans to prove their eligibility. This includes a 23-page application and, since the Department of Defense “often fails to provide the statistical documentation necessary to move veterans from its payroll and medical care systems into the VA . . . [t]he result is that veterans often need to undergo a second round of medical diagnostic tests in order to qualify for VA disability benefits and medical care.”[viii]

The Government Accountability Office published a study in 2005 that “found that the time to complete a veteran’s claim varied from 99 days at the Salt Lake City office to 237 days in Honolulu.”[ix] One case I learned of was that of a soldier disabled by a mortar explosion who was sent home and went without benefits for 19 months, and he only received them when two veterans’ advocates “intervened with the VA and told [his] story to Newsweek magazine.”[x]

Disability claims are further behind. As of the end of last year, the Veterans Benefits Administration had a backlog of “over 400,000 new claims, with 110,000 pending for more than six months.”[xi] Within the next two years, the VA “expects to receive another 1.6 million claims….”[xii] But as Stiglitz and Bilmes indicate,

Perhaps the most distressing implication of the six-month-long bottleneck in the VA claims process is that it deprives veterans of benefits at the precise moment when – particularly for those in a state of mental distress – they are most at risk of suicide, falling into substance abuse, divorce, losing their job, or becoming homeless.[xiii]

And even when wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan do make it through the bureaucratic maze and qualify for benefits, “often they get served only by crowding out older veterans, who must wait longer – or may never get the care they need.”[xiv] This is a scandal.

Suppressing Veterans’ Votes

The politics of the VA goes beyond the extent and quality of its care for veterans, however. The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, which required that state agencies assist in the voter registration process, also permits federal agencies to assist. However, since Democrats nominated a Vietnam veteran for president in 2004, Sen. John Kerry, the Bush Administration’s VA has blocked efforts to register veteran voters in all of its locations. That may change this year, of course, now that the Republican nominee for President will be a veteran and the Democratic nominee will not be!

The Solutions

We have a solemn responsibility to the men and women who have served in our nation’s military. Therefore I support a program of reforms to strengthen our commitment to veterans, including these taken verbatim from Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz of Columbia University and government finance expert Linda J. Bilmes of Harvard University: 

·         Shift the burden of proof for eligibility (presumption) for health care benefits and disability from soldiers to government

·         Veterans’ health care should be viewed as an entitlement, not a matter of discretion

·         A Veterans Benefit Trust Fund should be set up and “locked,” so that veterans’ health ad disability entitlements are fully funded as obligations occur

·         National Guard and Reservists who fight overseas must be eligible for the Benefits Delivery at Discharge program and all other military benefits programs

·         A new office of advocacy should be established to represent the interests of veterans

·         Simplify the disability benefits claims process, especially for veterans with PTSD

·         Restore medical benefits to Priority Group 8 veterans

·         Harmonize the transition from military to veteran status, so that it becomes a truly “seamless” transition

·         Increase education benefits for veterans[xv]

I support concurrent receipt for retired military personnel, i.e., those who retired with military pay should be allowed to concurrently receive veteran disability payments for any service-related disabilities.

Given the increasing demand for VA services, I favor revisiting the Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services (CARES) findings that recommended closing many VA facilities.

I also favor allowing VA facilities to be used for registering veterans to vote. I concur with John Rowan, the president of Vietnam Veterans of America, who recently said:

Veterans know the price of freedom. While only one-quarter, at most, of the veteran population utilizes VA facilities for their healthcare, designating VA medical centers – as well as community-based outpatient clinics and even regional offices – as voter registration agencies should help more veterans have the opportunity to fulfill their civic responsibility which they have sacrificed so much to preserve for all of us, and vote.[xvi]

America has made a solemn covenant with the men and women who have served in our armed forces, and in recent years we have been letting them down. It is time for us to honor their commitment to our nation by honoring our commitment to them.

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