Probably the most sobering aspect of the decade of unnecessary and misguided wars is
coming home to the nation now.
By one measure, the cost of health care and disability compensation for veterans from those conflicts and all previous American wars ranks among the largest for the federal government — less than the military, Social Security and health care programs including Medicare, but nearly the same as paying interest on the national debt, the Treasury Department says.
Ending the current wars will not lower those veterans costs; indeed, they will rise ever more steeply for decades to come as the population of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan expands, ages and becomes more infirm. To date, more than 2.2 million troops have served in those wars.
Studies show that the peak years for government health care and disability compensation costs for veterans from past wars came 30 to 40 years after those wars ended. For Vietnam, that peak has not been reached.
In Washington, the partisan stalemate over cutting federal spending is now raising alarms among veterans groups and some lawmakers that the seemingly inexorable costs of veterans benefits will spur a backlash against those programs.
Though there is currently strong bipartisan support for veterans programs, some budget proposals, including from Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, and Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, have called for trimming benefits for veterans and military retirees.
“Those proposals have been batted back so far,” said David Autry of the Disabled American Veterans. “But we’ve got more vigorous budget hawks today. If they are willing to bring the nation to the brink of insolvency, who knows what else they might do?”[...]
In a hearing before the panel on Wednesday, Heidi Golding, an analyst with the Congressional Budget Office, testified that the annual cost of caring for veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would nearly triple or more in the next decade, rising to $5.5 billion to $8.4 billion in 2020, from $1.9 billion in 2010.
The Simpson/Bowles deficit commission targeted veterans, slating them to pay more of their own health care costs. Remember this lovely sentiment from Simpson to the nation's disable vets? "The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess." The chained CPI formula that most negotiating parties in the debt ceiling debate seem to have agreed upon doesn't just cut future benefits of Social Security beneficiaries, it would also cut veterans pensions.
Veterans have good reason to fear the new austerity regime—they've already been targeted, and as more of them return, often terribly disabled, the costs of their care as they age will only increase. Despite their service to the nation in these misguided wars, despite their sacrifice, they'll be just as disposable as the rest of the middle class when it comes time to collect their due.