I will be the first to admit no one enlists in the military for the benefits of becoming a totally disabled veteran, approximately 2700 a month from VA Compensation and about 1000 a month from Social Security Disability, if they are married and have children then there will be about another 500 a month in family benefits until the children turn 18 and graduate from high school.
On average in each of our nations wars about 9% of all veterans actually become totally disabled and qualify for the payments that she is suggesting be off set dollar for dollar so that they are not compensated twice for the same injury.
I don't know about you or any other people really but to have your compensation reduced even 1000 from 3700 a month would be devastating to a family. At 3700 a month this means a family would get about 44,400 a month, it's not a small amount of money and would provide for a decent home, food, clothes and necessities, something I think all of us would like to provide for our families. But to reduce their benefits to 26,400 annually would most likely leave them unable to buy a home, forget a new car occasionally, shopping at the stores would have to stop and then they would learn to shop at second hand stores.
When the stories of how this nation is treating disabled veterans wounded or totally incapacitated while serving this nation in military service, how many of us would even let our children think about enlisting? How many would volunteer to become a second class citizen for the rest of their life, if they are harmed while serving this nation?
I will be among the veterans in wheel chairs sitting in front of the recruiting stations to inform the nations young what the government is going to really do to them, not the phony promises of medical care for life and support for you and your family if you die or become disabled that has been promised to us in the past only to find out the government lied and the Supreme Court supported the broken promises of life long medical care which they broke in the 80s when they created Tricare. The government blamed it on the lies of recruiters and that it was never put in writing that the lie was just a big misunderstanding from WW2 thru 1980.
That if Michelle Bachmanns plan to offset the SSD payments against the VA comp, it will cause the Congress to have to vote to re-start the draft because there will not be enough volunteers for an all voluntary force if the result will be disabled veterans that can't afford to keep their families together if they become disabled. If you can't afford to buy your kids and spouse food and clothes, let alone afford a decent place to live, how many marriages will survive that? The divorce rate will sky rocket and so will suicides, that is just a fact of life, if these cuts are passed by the Tea Party and Republicans.
I can't imagine they would ever be signed into law by President Obama, not after all he has done for the nations veterans in the past two years, even his wife has made military families one of her causes.
One thing Ms Bachmann has managed to do is galvanize support against her
as shown in this e mail I obtained today
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wants to cut $4.5 billion from the health care, earned in blood on the battlefields, for our American military veterans.
A host of veterans groups slammed Bachmann’s plan:
–Veterans of Foreign War national commander Richard L. Eubank said, “The only discussion the VFW wants is to tell the congresswoman that her plan is totally out of step with America’s commitment to our veterans.” “No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress,” said Eubank. “There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home,” he said. “I want her to look those disabled veterans in the eye and tell them their service and sacrifice is too expensive for the nation to bear.”
–The National Veterans Foundation’s Rich Rudnick told ThinkProgress that Bachmann’s plan is “terribly misguided,” saying, “veterans benefits are minimal to begin with” and that Bachmann’s scheme would be a “real step backwards.” “Cutting back on the VA right now would be showing contempt for American servicemembers’ sacrifices,” Rudnick said in a phone interview this afternoon.
–Disabled American Veterans Washington Headquarters Executive Director David Gorman said Bachmann’s plan is “[s]uch an ill-advised proposal [it] is nothing short of heartless.” “It is unconscionable that while our nation is at war someone would even think of forcing our wounded warriors to sacrifice even more than they already have,” Gorman said. “Their injuries and disabilities were the result of their service to the nation, and our nation must not shirk its responsibilities toward them. How do you tell a veteran who has lost a limb that he or she has not sacrificed enough? Yet Rep. Bachmann wants to do just that.”
–Veterans for Common Sense executive director Paul Sullivan “said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan.” “It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.
–VoteVets.org Chairman Ashwin Madia said, “Michelle Bachmann’s plan would turn veterans away from the care they’ve earned and deserve. Congress voted for two wars that have created many veterans that now need help, and we cannot – and will not – turn our backs to them. That’s bad policy that I think even a majority of Republican voters will stand squarely against.”
http://www.vfw.org/...
VFW Will Defeat Bachmann Plan
"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress."
January 28, 2011
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 28, 2011 — America's oldest and largest major combat veterans' organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to cut $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress," said Richard L. Eubank, the national commander of the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.
On her website, the three-term congresswoman lists more than $400 billion in suggestions to cut federal spending. The VA suggestion would cap increases to VA healthcare spending, and reduce disability compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments — in other words, an offset. She says her plan is intended to generate discussion.
"The only discussion the VFW wants is to tell the congresswoman that her plan is totally out of step with America's commitment to our veterans," said Eubank, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Eugene, Ore.
"There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home," he said. "I want the congresswoman to join us in a tour of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and Poly Trauma Center the next time she's in her home district to witness firsthand the great work the VA does every day to heal their wounds and ease their pain. Then I want her to look those disabled veterans in the eye and tell them their service and sacrifice is too expensive for the nation to bear.
"The day this nation can't afford to take care of her veterans is the day this nation should quit creating them," said Eubank.
Ms Bachmann you have managed to disgust at least 24 million veterans and their families, let alone how many other Americans with this short sighted plan. I am surprised your own party has not denounced it so they won't be tainted by this nasty suggestion. This is such a low uncaring suggestion you should be ashamed, the problem is you are to stupid to realize what you have done with this.
This is beyond even the 200 million a day Presidential trip you blasted based on an unnamed source in an Indian newspaper, this is beyond the idea that the press should investigate Congress for unamerican elected officials you called for 2 years ago, you are a loon lady. You make Sarah from Wasilla seem sane at times and that disturbs even me.
Do me a favor and run for President and name her as your running mate....the Tea Party deserves you