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Trump’s Budget Calls For Cuts To VA Benefits As Tradeoff For Extending Choice Program
Trump’s Budget Calls For Cuts To VA Benefits As Tradeoff For Extending Choice Program
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President Donald Trump’s budget released Tuesday proposes cutting monthly stipends to some disabled, unemployed veterans and reducing veterans’ cost-of-living adjustments as offsets to continue a program that allows veterans to seek care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The $186.5 billion budget calls for $2.9 billion in new spending in fiscal 2018, which begins Oct. 1, to fund the Veterans Choice Program, which was created as a temporary measure and allows veterans, in certain instances, to seek health care in the private sector at the VA’s expense. Trump’s budget also asks for $3.5 billion more for the program in 2019 and every subsequent year.The increase would bring the total amount that the VA spends through its various community care programs to $13.2 billion in fiscal 2018.
The Choice program — created in response to the system-wide scandal of veterans suffering long waits for health care — was set to end Aug. 7, 2017. Congress passed legislation in April allowing it to continue beyond the expiration date with the approximately $1 billion remaining of $10 billion appropriated for the program in 2014.
It’s now authorized to continue until it runs out of money. VA Secretary David Shulkin is working on improvements to the program, which has been criticized by veterans and lawmakers as confusing and complex.
“Veterans’ access to timely, high-quality health care is one of this administration’s highest priorities,” the budget states. “The budget provides mandatory funding to extend the Veterans Choice Program, enabling eligible veterans to receive timely care, close to home.”
Listed as one of the offsets for the extra cost is a new restriction on compensation for veterans through the VA’s “individual unemployability” program.
Currently, veterans eligible for the program have a 60 to 100 percent disability rating through the VA and are unable to secure a job because of their service-connected disability. The program allows them to get paid at the highest compensation rate. For 2017, the monthly rate for a 100 percent disabled veteran living alone is $2,915 per month.
The change, which the budget describes as a “modernization,” would stop the higher payments once a veteran who is eligible for Social Security payments reaches the minimum age to receive them. Veterans who have already reached the age to receive Social Security would be removed from the VA benefit program if Congress approves the proposal.
The change would save $3.2 billion for the VA in fiscal 2018, according to budget documents.
Also listed as an offset to the Choice program is a practice to round down cost-of-living adjustments to all veterans who receive disability compensation. The practice was standard until 2013.
The Office of Management and Budget estimates reinstating the round-down policy would decrease payments by a total of $12 annually per veteran. It would save $20 million for the VA in fiscal 2018, the documents show.
The last offset would be to cap student veterans’ Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits for flight training. Flight programs tend to be more expensive than other courses of study, the budget states. It proposes capping benefits for flight training at the maximum the VA will provide to students at private schools, which is about $21,000 each year. The cap would save $42 million for the VA for fiscal 2018, according to the budget.
“Through these tradeoffs, VA will focus its budgetary resources on providing veterans with the most efficient and effective care and benefits,” the budget reads.
In total, the president’s budget calls for $82.1 billion in discretionary spending for the VA, an increase of about 6 percent from fiscal 2017. Once mandated funding is included, the budget surpasses $186 billion.
If passed by Congress, the VA’s budget would be another in a succession of increases for the agency. When former President Barack Obama took office in 2008, the VA budget was about $90 billion. In 2012, it was $130 billion.
Shulkin said at a congressional hearing earlier this month that he would not be seeking a budget increase for the VA in future years, but needed one in fiscal 2018 for modernization efforts.
He is set to testify about the budget Wednesday morning before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
“The 2018 budget request reflects the strong commitment of the president to provide the services and benefits that our nation’s veterans have earned,” Shulkin said in a statement issued Wednesday. “VA has made significant progress in improving its service to veterans and their family members. We are fully committed to continuing the transformation across the department, so we can deliver the standards of performance our veterans expect and deserve.”
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©2017 the Stars and Stripes. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Email your senators today! Urge them to support Senator Rand Paul's bill to block critical parts of a $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia
Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows but here we are!
Email your senators today!
Urge them to support Senator Rand Paul's bill to block critical parts of a $110 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia
Dear Douglas ,
You may have heard that President Trump -- apparently unsatisfied with the pace of military escalations across the Middle East -- recently signed a $110 billion arms deal to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not surprisingly, weapons industry stock prices soared in response to the news, including stocks that Trump has a personal stake in.[1]
This arms deal is the largest arms deal in U.S. history, and it’s being offered to a country that’s been indiscriminately bombing Yemen with U.S. support for over two years, killing thousands of civilians in the process.
Thankfully, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is planning to introduce a bill anytime now to block a key component of the arms deal; the portion containing munitions being used against civilians in Yemen. Thanks to the Arms Export Control Act, Paul can actually force a vote in the Senate, making this a crucial time for your Senators to hear from you.
Please email your senators today and ask them to support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop Trump from putting more U.S.-made bombs into the hands of human rights violators and war criminals.
The truth is the U.S. was simply wrong from the start to offer support for Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen back in March 2015. Since then, with arms sales, logistical support, and political support from the U.S., the Saudi-led military coalition has brought the people of Yemen to their knees, killing thousands of civilians directly by bombing schools, hospitals, and other critical civilian infrastructure, and indirectly putting millions of lives at risk by cutting off access to food and medical supplies.
But since taking office, President Trump has not only escalated U.S. military involvement in Yemen, he’s also offered Saudi Arabia an arms deal worth nearly as much as the combined value of arms deals offered to Saudi Arabia under President Obama’s entire time in office.
The U.S. is already complicit in countless war crimes and human rights violations carried out at the hands of the Saudi-led coalition. Awarding Saudi Arabia with any additional arms, let alone the largest single arms deal in U.S. history, is simply unconscionable.
Please email your senators today and ask them to cosponsor and support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop a key portion of the Trump-Saudi arms deal.
Last September, Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced the same type of bill to block a comparatively small arms deal; a $1.15 billion sale of tanks and other military hardware. Their effort didn’t succeed outright, but with 27 Senators on board with blocking the arms deal, it had a real impact on U.S. policy, contributing to the Obama administration’s decision to suspend a sale of precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia late last year.
With Trump’s behemoth arms deal, the precision guided missiles are back, as are new shipments of jets, helicopters, ships, and more, all weapons systems that Saudi Arabia has used to devastating effect against the people of Yemen. This time around, with a stronger case for stopping the sale of weapons being used in Yemen to commit war crimes, we have a real chance to stop the worst parts of this arms deal in their tracks.
Email your senators today so they know their constituents won’t stand for their complacency on this issue. Ask them to cosponsor and vote for Sen. Paul’s bill to block a key portion of the largest arms deal in U.S. history to one of the worst possible candidates for it.
Thank you for standing with us.
Humbly for peace,
Jon Rainwater
Executive Director
Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund
P.S. We have a real shot at stopping significant parts of this arms deal right here and now, but there’s only a short 30-day window in which Congress can act. Please email your senators today and demand that they support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop Trump from giving Saudi Arabia more munitions to kill civilians in Yemen.
References:
[1] “Donald Trump personally profited from missile-maker Raytheon’s stock jump after his Syria attack,” Raw Story, April 8, 2017
You may have heard that President Trump -- apparently unsatisfied with the pace of military escalations across the Middle East -- recently signed a $110 billion arms deal to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Not surprisingly, weapons industry stock prices soared in response to the news, including stocks that Trump has a personal stake in.[1]
This arms deal is the largest arms deal in U.S. history, and it’s being offered to a country that’s been indiscriminately bombing Yemen with U.S. support for over two years, killing thousands of civilians in the process.
Thankfully, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is planning to introduce a bill anytime now to block a key component of the arms deal; the portion containing munitions being used against civilians in Yemen. Thanks to the Arms Export Control Act, Paul can actually force a vote in the Senate, making this a crucial time for your Senators to hear from you.
Please email your senators today and ask them to support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop Trump from putting more U.S.-made bombs into the hands of human rights violators and war criminals.
The truth is the U.S. was simply wrong from the start to offer support for Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen back in March 2015. Since then, with arms sales, logistical support, and political support from the U.S., the Saudi-led military coalition has brought the people of Yemen to their knees, killing thousands of civilians directly by bombing schools, hospitals, and other critical civilian infrastructure, and indirectly putting millions of lives at risk by cutting off access to food and medical supplies.
But since taking office, President Trump has not only escalated U.S. military involvement in Yemen, he’s also offered Saudi Arabia an arms deal worth nearly as much as the combined value of arms deals offered to Saudi Arabia under President Obama’s entire time in office.
The U.S. is already complicit in countless war crimes and human rights violations carried out at the hands of the Saudi-led coalition. Awarding Saudi Arabia with any additional arms, let alone the largest single arms deal in U.S. history, is simply unconscionable.
Please email your senators today and ask them to cosponsor and support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop a key portion of the Trump-Saudi arms deal.
Last September, Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Al Franken (D-MN) introduced the same type of bill to block a comparatively small arms deal; a $1.15 billion sale of tanks and other military hardware. Their effort didn’t succeed outright, but with 27 Senators on board with blocking the arms deal, it had a real impact on U.S. policy, contributing to the Obama administration’s decision to suspend a sale of precision-guided missiles to Saudi Arabia late last year.
With Trump’s behemoth arms deal, the precision guided missiles are back, as are new shipments of jets, helicopters, ships, and more, all weapons systems that Saudi Arabia has used to devastating effect against the people of Yemen. This time around, with a stronger case for stopping the sale of weapons being used in Yemen to commit war crimes, we have a real chance to stop the worst parts of this arms deal in their tracks.
Email your senators today so they know their constituents won’t stand for their complacency on this issue. Ask them to cosponsor and vote for Sen. Paul’s bill to block a key portion of the largest arms deal in U.S. history to one of the worst possible candidates for it.
Thank you for standing with us.
Humbly for peace,
Jon Rainwater
Executive Director
Peace Action and the Peace Action Education Fund
P.S. We have a real shot at stopping significant parts of this arms deal right here and now, but there’s only a short 30-day window in which Congress can act. Please email your senators today and demand that they support Sen. Paul’s bill to stop Trump from giving Saudi Arabia more munitions to kill civilians in Yemen.
References:
[1] “Donald Trump personally profited from missile-maker Raytheon’s stock jump after his Syria attack,” Raw Story, April 8, 2017
Veterans For Peace In D.C To Struggle Against The War Machine -Can You Help Us Get the Word Out?
Veterans For Peace In D.C To Struggle Against The War Machine -Can You Help Us Get the Word Out?
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Can you help us get the word out?
We have a TV advertisement, which we will run in the Washington, DC area on MSNBC. Can you help us let as many people know as possible that veterans are gathering against war, against militarism and against the system that is destroying our society, our future and our planet?
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"If you can give $5, $20 or more we can let millions of people know we will be there, in DC, the heart of the Empire, so they can join us and so they, thousands of them, may join us outside the Lincoln Memorial, march to the White House and fight for Peace and against war; for Life and against death; for Love and against hate; for those things we need and we cherish in our society; and against the greed and the destruction that we have too much already in our society." -Matt Hoh, Veteran, Member of Veterans For Peace
You contribution no matter how small or large will help us make a difference.
As veterans who took an oath to defend the Constitution “against all enemies foreign and domestic” We cannot stand by and let this happen.
More Information on VFP's Memorial Day Action "Stop Endless War! Build For Peace!"
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Poets' Corner- On Memorial Day For Peace-War And Remembrance
Poets' Corner- On Memorial Day For Peace-War And Remembrance
Not all war poetry can stand the test of literary greatness or longevity but it is almost all very poignant and to the point
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