Shabby Treatment

Posted by RP

April 16, 2007

Here are some excerpts from a recent statement by Senator Carl Levin, (D), Michigan, as he opened a joint meeting of the Senate Armed Services and Veteransâ€™ Affairs Committees. Now if you’re a died in the wool “Shrub” fan and feel our fearless leader can do no wrong and the Democrats will ruin the country, do me the favor, as a38 year military veteran, of just reading a little of what’s going on. The is not a Republican vs democrat issue, it’s not a Liberal versus Conservative issue … this is one of the few places you will see a senior government official of either party owning up to what we are doing wrong with our veterans. It’s not a Republican problem, it’s not a Democratic problem, it’s a problem for all of us who rely upon these brave men and women to go and do the country’s dirty work … and then treat like dog poop when they get hurt on the job. It’s been this crappy since I was a brand new E-1 in 1965 and it hasn’t gotten much better, no matter which parry controlled Congress and no matter who was in the White House since. Of course, if you’re one of the 98% of Americans who never served and don’t care … feel free to hit the nest web site … maybe your stock is up a few points.

…. we meet together this morning to consider the complex and inconsistent disability rating systems of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs and the problems relative to transition of service members from the military to the VA.\

Our nation has a moral obligation to provide quality health care to the men and women who put on our nationâ€™s uniform and are injured and wounded fighting our nationâ€™s wars. This obligation extends from the point of injury, through evacuation from the battlefield, to medical facilities operated by the military services and the VA. Our responsibility ends only when the wounds are healed. Where the wounds will never heal, our obligation extends throughout the lifetime of the veteran. I am sad to say that we as a nation are not meeting this obligation.
…..
Disability ratings by the military services are inconsistent with disability ratings by the VA; ratings for similar disabilities vary widely between the military services; and, for some disabilities, the ratings do not accurately reflect the impact of the disability on the memberâ€™s ability to function in an information age society. These programs are not only complex and difficult to navigate, service members often feel like they have to fight for a rating that accurately reflects their disability, i.e., the service they belong to and put on the uniform of acts as their adversary. We simply have to do better than this. The cracks between the military and VA delivery systems must be filled. The transition must be smoothed out. The differences must be removed. The adversarial aspects must also be removed.

The militaryâ€™s disability rating is extremely important to the lives of our wounded warriors and their families. Those with disabilities rated at 30% or higher are medically retired, entitling them and their families to healthcare for life through the militaryâ€™s TRICARE health care program, a military pension, and access to commissary and post exchange benefits. Those whose disabilities are rated less than 30% are given a medical separation with severance pay. Although these service members whose disabilities are rated at less than 30% are eligible to receive health care through the VA, their families are not. The VA disability rating is equally as important because the amount of VA disability compensation is based on the VA disability rating. …

The American people are deeply angry about the shortfalls in care for our wounded veterans. The war in Iraq has divided our nation, but the cause of supporting our troops and our veterans unites us. We will do everything we possibly can do, not as Democrats or Republicans but as grateful Americans, to care for those who have served our nation with such honor and distinction â€“ an obligation which all Americans accept and insist be met to the fullest.

There’s a lot more the senator said and a lot more that could be said, but I’ll tell you the plain and simple truth of the matter. When a guy gets his legs blown off by an IUD or a gal gets shot in the face and has to live the rest of her life with no jaw, the powers that be, both in the military services and (especially) in the Veterans Administration, have one goal, an done goal only in mind. Make the service member rate with the least amount of disability possible … save the almighty dollar so we can pay even more outlandish fees to the Halliburtons and Bectels of the world. It’s sad. It’s not right. It deserves not only congress’s attention but the attention of all of us, and I say, stop treating our wounded and broken vets so damn shabbily.

The President appointed Senator Bob Dole to investigate the egregious fiasco in active duty Army health care pointed up by the shocking reports on Walter Reed … months ago. Just last week Senator Dole released a press statement assuring us he would not be going on a”witch hunt”. Now Bob Dole is a wounded vet and I expected better from him. What is taking so damn long, and, perhaps, a little witch hunting might well be in order … Republican or Democrat. Shabby treatment, Bob.

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