[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

GIVE BLOOD - Bush and House to US Veterans: "Go fuck yourselves!"



 <A HREF="http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1187625";>Click here: Veterans
Angry at Government About Disability Benefits Cuts</A>

<A
HREF="http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1187625";>http://www.kltv.com/Glo
bal/story.asp?S=1187625</A>

03/19/03 - Tyler
Veterans Angry at Government About Disability Benefits Cuts
Morgan Palmer

"In all those years of flying -- 24 hour missions and everything -- I lost
quite a bit of my hearing."Jim Wills is clearly disabled. He's hard of
hearing, he's on oxygen, and he has flashbacks to four bitter campaigns in
Korea."When the battle's over, they're through with us," he says, not of the
enemy, but his government. Jim is just one of millions of veterans caught in
a system that's always short on money. "Now I'm seventy years old. [Soon, the
government] won't have to do anything. I'll be passing on," he says.In the
next fiscal year, a House resolution proposed $844 million in cuts for
veterans' medical care. It's a small percentage of the total, but at a time
when the cost of health care is rising. "The cost of war doesn't end when the
last battle is fought. It's taking care of veterans after the fact. And in my
case, I've been retired 31 years." For those years, he's received his Air
Force retirement pay, but the law says every dollar he gets in VA disability
comes right out of his retirement. "I still get the same amount of dollars,
but one check comes from the VA and one comes from the Air Force." It's
called Concurrent Receipt. Congress has abolished it for those who are sixty
percent or more disabled or have a purple heart. But the change hasn't taken
effect yet. Frustrating, says Jim. "We've got people scattered over the
world, and we're giving money to other countries by the billions, but we
can't fund the warriors. We can't take care of the warriors."Everyone in
uniform today is his brother and his sister. And he hopes things will be
different for them. Congressman Ralph Hall (D-Rockwall) is a co-sponsor of a
bill that would eliminate the Concurrent Receipt restriction for all disabled
vets.  It has yet to reach the House floor.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
 <A
HREF="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7164448&BRD=2027&PAG=461&dept
_id=338604&rfi=6">Click here: Decatur Democrat</A>

<A
HREF="http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7164448&BRD=2027&PAG=461&dept
_id=338604&rfi=6">http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7164448&BRD=2027&;
PAG=461&
dept_id=338604&rfi=6</A>

Veteran fighting government's 'concurrent receipts' policy

By: Eric Mann   February 24, 2003

After 25 years in the U.S. Army, including Korea and Vietnam, Robert "Bob"
Plummer retired in 1977.
      Now, he's fighting again - not as a uniformed representive of the
government, but as an upset citizen opposing an action by the government.
      
      Plummer, living with wife Betty in Woodcrest Retirement Community at
Decatur after moving from Alabama, says he is being financially harmed by
losing $2,450 every month in military benefits he - and thousands of others
in the same situation - say they should be getting.
      The problem is defined by two words, concurrent receipts, and is based
on a law Congress enacted in 1891. The law was revised in 1944. A court case
in 1986 brought a ruling by a federal judge that the law is constitutional,
but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to act on the matter in 1987 - leaving the
lower court ruling in effect.
      Plummer says the 19th century law prevents U.S. veterans from receiving
the full amount of their military retirement payments at the same time they
receive veterans' disablity compensation.
      Under the federal law, retired U.S. military veterans must give up $1
of retirement pay for each $1 they receive in disability assistance from the
Department of Veterans' Affairs.
      For Plummer, $2,450 a month is $29,400 a year - more than many people
are paid annually.
      He made the problem known recently in a meeting at Woodcrest with
Indiana's Sixth District U.S. Representative, Mike Pence, then sent him a
letter stating, "Last year, it looked like [this problem] would finally be
corrected, but because of the president's threat of vetoing the Defense
Appropriations Bill if it contained the concurrent receipt issue, a
watered-down compromise was reached which, when enacted later this year, will
only help two to three percent of the eligible people."
      Plummer says he was astounded that President George W. Bush's veto
threat was enough to stop the corrective bill, which passed the U.S. Senate
99-0. The U.S. House passed a bill providing concurrent receipts, phased-in
over five years, for veterans with 60 percent disability if they were injured
in combat and received a Purple Heart. The 2002 effort died in a conference
committee.
      Plummer acknowledges that if the 1891 law is overridden or repealed,
the cost to the nation will be $20 billion to $50 billion over 10 years.
However, the cost will drop dramatically as the large numbers of people
brought into the military services during World War II and the Koream War age
and die, ending federal payment obligations.
      ************
By ERIC MANN      
      Bob Plummer, who resides at Woodcrest Retirement Community, has a large
file of material about concurrent receipts which, he says, are costing him
$2,450 a month in mlitary benefits he should be receiving.
      Some of the material is summarized below:
      * A story in a magazine for retired officers reads, "To understand the
law's unfairness, look at why the government pays retirees and disabled
veerans. Military retired pay is earned compensation for the extraordinary
demands and sacrifices inherent in a military career.
      "Veterans' disability compensation, on the other hand, is recompense
for pain, suffering, and lost future earning power caused by
service-connected illness or injury.
      "Few retirees can afford to live on their retired pay alone and a
severe disability makes the problem worse by limiting or denying any
post-service working life."
      * "NBC Nightly News" ran four stories on the matter (two in 2001 and
two in 2002), with U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis of Florida, who supports the vets
seeking to end this policy, saying, "It's an insult to veterans and I don't
blame them for being angry about it. It's appalling!"
      * Another lawsuit has been filed to change the law and there are about
2,000 military retirees backing that case.
      * As of last October, it was estimated that some 600,000 military
retirees were affected by the 1891/1944 law.
      * In 2002, five U.S. senators, including Vietnam War vets John McCain
of Arizona and Charles Hagel of Nebraska, wrote to Bush to say the old law
"unjustly penalizes our disabled career soldiers."
      * Officials of The American Legion issued a statement last fall that
"we're not allowing this issue to disappear from elected officials' radar
screen. Congress and the administration have the moral responsibility to
enact" the proposal to eliminate the problem.
      * A newspaper column late last year by Lawrence Korb, one of the
highest officials in the U.S. Defense Department during the 1980s, stressed
the importance of doing away with the old law. He declared, "Giving veterans
with disabilities what is rightfully theirs could easily be done by buying
fewer Cold War relics," canceling unnecessary weapons systems, etc.
      * American Legion National Commander Ronald Conley has said to George
W. Bush, "Your senior advisors claim that reversing the policy of offsetting
a military retiree's check, dollar for dollar, by the amount of Veterans'
Affairs (VA) disability compensation is 'double-dipping' or being paid twice
for the same job.
      "That is simply wrong and I don't believe you share that view. Military
pay is for longevity of service; VA disability compensation is for injury
incurred during military service-plain and simple.
      "The American Legion will not rest until all retired disabled military
veterans are given the compensation they earned by honorable service to their
country."
)Decatur Democrat 2003

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of Ricepaper.jpg]