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Thursday, November 11, 2004
Support the Troops - Veterans Day Edition
Posted by Tim Tagaris"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how the perceive Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation."
- George Washington
6.8 million veterans choose the VA for their primary health care provider.
VFW Comannder in Chief, Edward Banas, called the amount of funding for veterans health care, "a disgrace," a "sham," "inexcusable," and "deplorable."
2004 Budget cuts $200 million from Impact Aid, a program to support schools serving military children.
At least 250,000 veterans are forced to wait for their disability claims to be resolved by the Veterans Administration (VA). Sometimes up to two years. Despite the fact that thousands of veterans returning from Iraq will file disability claims, the FY 2005 budget reduces to number of staff responsible for processing those claims.
In an effort to "restructure" to VA, the Bush Administration announced the closing of seven hospitals. (NY, PA, KY, OH, MS, CA, TX) That's a total of approx. 5,800 beds nationwide.
A 2002 study showed that 150,000 veterans wait more than six months for an appointment for primary care.
The "Disabled Veterans Tax" forces veterans to forgo one dollar of their pension for every one dollar they collect on disability.
If you want to support the troops, then call your Congressman and demand that Congress implement Mandatory Funding of Veterans benefits. The implementation of mandatory funding would ensure timely and quality access to health care for our veterans.
Here are the bills: Senate Bill 50, The Veterans Health Care Gaurantee Act. And HR 2318 The Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act.
Notes: VFW Release 2/2/04, House Appropriations Committee, Minority Staff 6/17/03, Department of Education, www.ed.gov, House Committee on Appropriations hearing, Principi testimony 3/31/04, Associated Press 8/4/03, National Priorities Project, 2004.
Posted at 09:29 PM in General | Technorati
Comments
CNN says that the military hospital in Germany is seeing a drastic increase in the number of casualties coming in. The implication is that they are coming in from the fighting in Falluja, but I don't know what the numbers look like and the sources that CNN is using say they can't say. The good news is that they seem to have been relatively successful and that most of the city has been cleared.
This would be a good time to check in on those people around you who have friends or loved ones in Iraq. This has to be an especially tough time for these people. Let's not forget that a lot of the folks fighting over there are kids. And those kids have parents back home.
Posted by: Dan Hogan at November 14, 2004 08:05 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
Dan-
And a lot of the guys over there HAVE kids. My brother is a single parent. My mom is taking care of his daughter while he is over there. Thanks for the positive message.
Posted by: John at November 14, 2004 09:34 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment
With the hollidays approaching, we should all take a minute or two to send the guys abroad a quick (or not so quick) message.
http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/tooursoldiers/
http://www.heromiles.org/
http://anyservicemember.navy.mil/
http://www.operationmom.org/index.html
http://www.operationuplink.org/
I'd like to see a surge of messages right as all of us sit down for the major holliday meals, starting this Thursday evening.
Pass it on.
Posted by: Dan Hogan at November 21, 2004 06:54 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment