Let me start with the fact that I am not the President of anything, I am not even a Michelle Bachmann type, I am a simple American, who has spent my life as a soldier during 2 wars, I enlisted during the Vietnam War on October 31, 1973. I served on the DMZ of South Korea, the closest I came to the Vietnam war was escorting 2 bodies home from the far east as the official escort from Guam to Travis Air Force Base and then stayed on active duty until Sep 1982.
I then joined the Army National Guard and was activated for this nations first war with Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait. All I was trying to do was finish 20 years of military service so I would be entitled to my military retirement, I never imagined I would be activated for a war, they never activated Guard units for Vietnam, Guard units used to be a safe place to do 20 years and then become eligible for the Grey retirement cards, the monthly check and the benefits of being retired military at the age of 60. The reduction of forces after the Cold War ended changed the previous rules.
So 22 years ago I was activated as a middle aged man for a short war, from November 31 1990 until May 1991 when they sent us back to Fort Stewart and gave us a quick medical check handed us some checks and said go home, with a new DD214 and a few more medals.
Little did I know how important that would be for me in just less than a decade when I became totally disabled and filed for SSD and Veteran Affairs compensation. I had my entire world changed due to the rapid acceleration of my Cardiac issues, and other major health issues that led the VA doctors to put me in a power chair in Sep 2003, due to a bad heart that was irrepairable, and ejection fraction less than 30% and the fact I can NOT walk more than 100 feet under my own power.
Due to the condition of my heart surgeons refused to operate on the 3 herniated disks in my lower back L3, L4, L5 and S1, the pain from the sciatica is excruciating at times, which is most of the time, there are no comfortable positions for more than 10 or 15 minutes.
So my state of life is pain, I seldom leave my home due to my inability to deal with crowds of people, shopping sporting events, political rallies, etc, I just don't do well with people. Simply put I don't play well with others.
The VA doctors supported my claims for disability and the Social Security administration approved my claim in 4 months based on my veterans health treatment records, the VA took from Oct 2002 until June 2009 to reach the same conclusion, after I filed appeals, NODs and a formal appeal to the Board of Veteran Appeals where the Judge finally granted the claim in my favor.
This left me with a knowledge of the intricacies of dealing with the mounds of paperwork the VA requires for a compensation claim and the determination not to take NO for an answer, so I now spend my days helping other disabled veterans and their spouses in dealing with the hassle of submitting and resubmitting the same papers over and over again. Mostly it is a process of keeping their spirits up until they finally get the envelope telling them that their claim has been approved.
I am lucky in that I am now on a fixed income from SSD and the VA and those checks are deposited like clockwork every month, it was not the retirement plan I had worked towards, I was hired by the Postal Service when I left the Army, I had 17 years of service when I finally had enough of the stress that had caused me 7 heart attacks, a stroke and 2 failed stents and under a great mental strain I walked out the door to never return in May 2000. The job I went to did not pay half of what I walked away from, but the position was not going to kill me from stress either.
The psychiatrists say I was not thinking clearly and was under tremendous stress when I walked out that door and away from 27 years of government employment, all I knew is that I felt if I stayed there I was going to die, and I didn't want to die, so I walked and the rest as they say, is history.
Luckily for me the events of my younger life enabled me to obtain veterans compensation benefits, so my 16 years of total Army and National Guard service was not wasted, I was determined to be totally and permanently by medical issues caused solely by military service which enabled me to be rated at SMC S level, and qualified my family for CHAMPVA medical care, college scholarships for my children under Chapter 35 and through the South Carolina Scholarship program for totally disabled veterans.
My son Kevin who turned 18, on Feb 2, 2010 tossed that all away and enlisted himself in the Army so he could follow Dad's footsteps, me I wanted him to go to college first and then if he wanted to enlist go in as a 2LT, it pays better and has better possibilities for his future, besides after more than 200 years of Baileys being enlisted soldiers and Non-Commissioned Officers, I wanted more for my son, I wanted him to become a commissioned officer if he felt the need to serve, but he did it his way, despite the scholarships he already had available to him.
He has finished basic and is now at AIT learning to do the job he chose in that oxymoron field known as military intelligence. But he is doing it his way.
I have a younger brother that has spent the past 2 decades off and on vacationing at California resorts like Pleasant Valley, Pelican Bay, while there he learned a new trade, water treatment, he has spent the past 2 years in college getting the necessary classes needed to get licensed so he can be employed by the treatment plants as a regular employee, he was hired this past week near San Simeon and starts om January 31st, he is in the process of finding a place to rent and get settled before he has to begin work. I was more than happy to help him put deposits down for a place to live and get a motorcycle to get back and forth to work, at age 52, he doesn't have much time left to get his life straight and on track to retire. He seems intent on making it finally, maybe he is finally growing up.
Regardless, I am helping him as he is my brother and I want him to succeed, I never thought I would be considered the stable one in the family where everyone turned to to help them. I am proud of him, he went to interview after interview and I am sure he was disappointed on numerous occasions, we tell ex convicts to get their lives straight but when no one is willing to give them a chance, how are they supposed to do it?
I am a disabled veteran who is treated very nice by the VA Medical center for the multitude of problems I have, I have been getting my treatment primarily from them since 1997 when they did my triple bypass in Feb 1997 which then snowballed into a nightmare of cardiac issue's 6 more heart attacks in the next 18 months 2 failed stents and finally a power chair and total disability.
My Social Security claim took 4 months to be approved and I have recently went thru my 7 year review and was told they will contact me again in another 7 years. My VA compensation claim was a staged rating over the years 50% for PTSD in 2005, then after my appeal 100% P&T for PTSD in 2006 and again they continued to deny service connection for my cardiac issues, finally after getting to a BVA Judge that claim was also granted effective back to Dec 2003 which gave me a VA rating of SMC S, and ensures my family of benefits so when I die they will keep their healthcare from CHAMPVA, my wife will also get to keep the house property tax exemption for our home, the only current benefit we get that she will lose is the tax free license plates I get for being a handicapped veteran, she will have to get a regular license plate and pay the annual ad valorem taxes.
South Carolina has some of the best benefits for totally disabled veterans in the nation South Carolina Veterans Benefits page
I have not had a cost of living allowance raise in the past 2 years, but considering how bad the economy is for over 12% of our fellow unemployed Americans I have nothing to complain about. I am grateful for the package of benefits this nation provides to disabled veterans. Except for my military service and the incidents that led to my disabilities, I could be in a far worse financial picture, I did not go into the military expecting to become disabled by that service, I have relatives that go back to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and had one uncle out of 9 that served that was wounded and lost part of a leg, my father served in 1914-1916 in the 7th Calvary, my step father served in the Army Air Corp 8th Air Force he was in the same air wing as the Memphis Belle, he knew all of the men of that crew, Dale stayed in England and flew more bombing missions while they returned on a war bond tour, he flew some of the worst missions into Germany Scheiwnfurt, Dresden the places that gave him a life of nightmares.
My brothers have all served and yet I am the only 100% disabled vet out of this 250 year history of military service, my son who turned 18 last Feb 2010 is now in AIT and will soon be sent to Afghanistan, I hope he has the luck of the rest of the Bailey's and doesn't follow my military history so to say, I hope he leaves his service in perfect health, is that too much to ask for, I hope not.
I am grateful we have President Obama and not President John McCain, I am grateful we did not go into a second depression, I am sorry that unemployment is still over 9% but the economy is improving is it fast enough, NO, should business be doing more to lower the rates, of course instead of sitting on more than 2 trillion dollars in deposits, it should be put to work hiring Americans, which in turn will have them paying more taxes,and buying more products which makes our economy works.
How to make them do it, I don't have the answers, but I do know that the trickle down economics that Republicans have been exposing since the days of Ronnie Reagan haven't worked, they didn't work in the 80s and they didn't work from 2001 thru 2008 either, all the fiscal conservative Republicans did was cut taxes, added Medicare Part D and fought two wars on the national credit card that they now proclaim is over extended and it is all President Obama's fault, excuse me I was born at night, but it was NOT last night. They are now acting like cheap whores and acting like they weren't paid for last nights services, the only difference a real hooker does something to get paid, the Republican office holders threw that credit card around like no one ever had to pay for it and now they want the nations poor and middle class to have their Social Security and Medical care provided for under Medicare and Medicaid, and they refuse to even hear that tax rates need to return to 1999 levels and to actually tax the nations top 2 percent.
My recommendations to fix the mess our fiscal house is in, remove the FICA cap of 106.000 and tax every dollar, that would cure all that ails SS, return tax tables to the 1999 level for all people making more than 250,000 dollars. In three years then revisit what our financial status looks like and see what needs to be fine tuned, they spent like drunken sailors for decades both parties did, Democrats and republicans and we all need to pay for it, the rich do not need more tax cuts.