Bachmann removes cuts to vet benefits from proposal
Last month, I wrote that Tea Party Congress woman, Michele Bachmann proposed cuts to some veteran payments as part of her $400k budget proposal.
…Bachmann…has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.
Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.
She’s issued a statement dated Friday that she’s backed off from those proposals;
“One point on my discussion list was a $4.5 billion proposal that would affect payments made to our veterans. That discussion point has received a lot of attention and I have decided to remove it from consideration. The problem of government spending must be solved, but not on the backs of our nation’s war heroes. I have always been a proud supporter of the United States military and I continue to stand with our veterans. In the months ahead I look forward to working with our Veterans Service Organizations to ensure that we fulfill our commitments to those who sacrificed so much in their brave service for our country.”
This is good news, but there are others out there on both sides of the aisle who see veterans as easy targets for budget cuts.
Category: Veterans Issues
Veterans are a minority. Not of race or color, but of actions and choice. One thing that truly separates us from other minorities, is that we are as a whole, more civically minded, and far more likely to be vocal. Also we recognize no race or creed, as “ours” we are all, and defend all. In so many ways as a group Veterans are enviable beyond any other minority, and, I think that we are far more deserving of the entitlements than the myriad of handouts given to people whose sole reason for being a “minority” is simply being born.
Amen Doc, or as I put it we’re cranky old farts who don’t suffer
bullshit, embeciles, or fools lightly.
Too late. She should resign.
My representative (Jason Chaffetz R-UT) is one of these. He is strong TEA party and promotes himself as a major conservative. But he supports immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan and cuts to the DOD/VA.
Doc, excellent post. Thanks for heading off the likes of our own Joey, who’d whine that we just expect this “entitlement”.
Bob, have you contacted Chaffetz? You have to start somewhere. Let him know how you, and the rest of us, feel. And keep after him.
Then why’d she suggest that horseshit in the first place?
The only reason she’s backing down is because her job is at stake.
I call BS on the comments here and on the last (related) post. I’ve met Rep Bachmann several times, and she holds vets in the highest regard.
Not only was she endorsed by Vets for Freedom, but she took flak for speaking with the VFF National Heroes Tour in 2008. When a bunch of liberals protested the tour speaking at a local high school, Bachmann helped arranged for us to speak instead at the local VFW, and she signed permission slips for a dozen high school kids who cut class to attend.
At the 2010 MN GOP convention, I saw her recognize vets in the audience by the ribbons they wore-Vietnam, Desert Storm, OIF-she knew what each ribbon was and where they had served. And I mean she knew; she was alone in a crowd of people without some staff flunkie along to help out.
The point of proposing cuts to the VA is a main tenet of the Tea Party–there is no area of the budget that can be sacrosanct or off limits. If anyone here thinks there isn’t 5% of the VA budget, or the Pentagon for that matter, that isn’t wasted to inefficiency or bureaucracy, then I say you are smoking something.
The national debt of this country is so serious that it is a national security threat, comparable to the threat we face from terrorism. For all those of you that say cut anything except for veteran’s benefits, I say this-
We are veterans, not victims. Vets are not a ‘minority’; we are a privileged few who have been given the honor of serving our country, and we continue to serve no matter when we stop wearing the uniform.
While you are right that we shouldn’t see funding cuts out of proportion to the rest of the budget, you need to stop deluding yourselves that there wont be budget cuts across the board.
Doc, I’m just a “retired brat”, but I don’t view veterans’ benefits as entitlements. Y’all EARNED them through your service…
To all my fellow TAHers that called or wrote to her office I offer up a hearty THANK YOU!! I know when I called, the gal who answered the phone must have received a lot of calls from Vets, because her response made it sound like I was way down the list of callers that had made their feelings known. I know I put the word out with my brothers and sisters in the AL here in Minnesota, as well as many of my Tea Party bretheren.
I was asked by the gal if I lived in the 6th district (Bachmann’s) to which I said no, however I was a supporter of hers that had contributed money in the past, plus I was a Tea Party member and was involved in Veterans issues on a state level. I didn’t let her dismiss my call because I wasn’t a constiutuent of Bachmann’s, because in this day and age, with communication between people as it is, they know that there will be no shot of people in their district not hearing about this kind of stuff, especially when it’s something that doesn’t just affect people in their district, but the nation as a whole.
Dave, while I agree with you that there is room for improvement in the VA, the reasoning that cutting 5% of the Va budget will magically make 5% of the inefficiency or bureaucracy disappear is deluding themselves. I know all about Bachmann. As I said, I am a supporter, hwoever, no matter what her support towards Veterans is, or how many ribbons she can identify, doesn’t make her saintly and off limits to criticism when she has it coming. If they think that just cutting by numbers is going to solve the problems, then the only ones that suffer are the end user, not the ones causing the inefficiency. Maybe they need business professionals writing the regs instead of lawyers? The inefficiency is written in to every bill or reg they write, because lawyers are taught how to write for other lawyers, not for business. Maybe that’s where they need to start looking to trim the fat, instead of thinking that cutting a budget will solve everything.
I think it unwise to cut the DOD at this time, seeing as there is a war on. I think it is unjust to cut the VA seeing as there are a LOT of Joes out there that are pretty messed up. I think there is waste, and LOTS of it. But I also think that there are so many hand outs and redundant programs, and loopholes in laws that simply slashing budgets will do little more than slow the hemorrhage that is government spending.
With all due respect, Dave, what part of this “Bachmann…has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.” is an act that says “I give a damn” to vets?
That figure, $400 billion, is a handsome number. I would certainly like to see our government be able to save that much in spending. But attempting to take that out of the VA, and the benefits of our veterans, comes down to this: a diabetic not getting treatment, even though he’s going blind. Or a heart attack patient not being able to see a cardiologist. Or a vet with a brain tumor not being able to see a neurosurgeon. I’m not trying to be dramatic. The fact is simply this: the big expenses in any medical system are not in the staff and facility. They’re in the care of the patients. It’s in a procedure that costs $400,000 but will save a life. (That brain surgeon I mentioned.) It’s in the day to day supply of insulin and other drugs that will stop or slow diabetic neuropathy. It’s in the cutting edge drugs that can prevent another heart attack, but cost over $100 a dose, per day. THAT’S where the big bucks are, and THAT’S where the costs will get cut.
I understand what you guys are saying, but I think you are overlooking the obvious.
Our country is drowning in debt and government over-spending. If every group in America gives up a little, we can get through this crisis. Or, we can all say ‘screw you, I earned that money, it’s mine’ and we can all watch our country fall apart like the Roman Empire.
How well are our veterans going to be taken care of when the country is broke?
What good is it to have a strong military if our avowed enemy, China, has the ability to destroy our economy tomorrow simply by calling in all of our loans, or even just refusing to lend us anymore money?
#s 6 & 12 ROS:
Putting the cuts on the table is a negotiating tactic. It pulls the teeth of her counterparts to the left (GOP) and far left (Democrats).
In the secondary ripple, it puts government workers’ union, Vet and Healthcare non-profits and similar that their bread and butter is about to get violated in a major way. To keep said bread and butter, they will drop some of their demands which are weakening the system. Mot government workers have “analyst” in their job title. It’s doesn’t take much analysis to diagnose a systemic issue and fix it, so perhaps the govvies pronounce it another way.
The third ripple is for vets and their families to evaluate their condition – are they completely dependent on DOD/VA for income and care? Mostly dependent? Capable of being independent? Completely independent?
It’s politics. It’s business as unusual.
For myself, whenever I hear that DOD/VA needs to be reformed and revitalized and so on, the second breath is expelled saying ‘spend more money!’ We’re spending like nobodies business and buying ourselves a fraction of a fraction of a fraction in improvement. So the answer for our vets must not lie in the arena of money.
I wonder of all American vets and their families, how many are truly fully dependent year-round on DOD/VA for income/care? These are the people who should be our priority. Not ourselves. Of the rest, why not give them little or no benefits until they reach age 60, then they apply for and receive (as it pertains) military retirement, medical, dental, vision benefits and so on?
Having unleashed my fury in all caps, I say for myself and my family, we work towards complete independence from DOD/VA.
I know there are some issues toward creating a persistent focus on our truly needy vets. The scale of dependence-to-independence slides with time, circumstance, and emergent incapacity. But lacking another alternative to spending more money to zero return, I offer it as a start.
Yup, it’s politicians being politicians. Just a tactic. Why can’t we just get something done in America? It is easy to see that veterans need help. Why cut spending to help the ones that protected what we know of America today? We can spend millions on other “nonsense” projects?..