Surrogate Care– unless you’re from a prior “conflict”?

An interesting article in the paper several days ago caught my eye. Sen. Tennis Shoes Murray was pushing for implementation of a new VA program that the General is predictably dragging his feet on. It seems there are a number of Vets from the Iraqi/Afstan conflict with collateral damage. Much of it seems to be from IEDs and land mines. I’m serious. Someone actually started adding up the casualties and was stupefied at the big numbers. It’s too bad they didn’t keep better figures on our body counts in Vietnam rather than the VC’s. They might have gotten more concerned BEFORE we arrived at 58,000 + KIA.

Nevertheless, the powers that be who squander all our taxes have come up with yet another new VA program. Try this one on for size. Congress has decided that Vets with 100% or more rated disabilities who are probably entitled to A&A/housebound are going to be entitled to a caregiver 24/7 paid for by VA. I am not enlightened or knowledgeable enough yet to know whether they will also be entitled to A&A on top of this new benefit.

Here’s the kicker. Only Vets injured after 9/11/01 will be eligible for this new perk. The convoluted logic used to arrive at this inclusion/exclusion decision is deceptively simple- Vets who are younger are POORER and lack the assets of older, more established disabled Vets. Somebody at VA should look at their own compensation tables and then tell us again with a straight face that we are rich compared to a younger Vet.

I was rated P&T in 07. I spent every nickel staying alive from 94 on when I first filed. The IRA? Gone. The Health Savings Account? Likewise. Stocks and bonds. Zip. My rental properties? Sold to pay my ever burgeoning medical costs. My first daughter didn’t go to college because we used that to live on. My second (my son), lucked out and got in on the Chapter 35 DEA benefits. I am no longer “rich”. In fact, everything I managed to save is gone. My assets measured against those of a ODS/OEF Vet are probably comparable at this point.

So, for VA to implement this program with strictures that disenfranchise whole classes of Vets is asinine and poorly thought out. It will inevitably lead to class warfare among us. How do you decide who is more deserving? A Vietnam Vet who had the misfortune of losing both legs to a Bouncing Betty or a Vet who had the bad luck to be in the #2 Stryker that caught the brunt of the IED? Both lives are equally destroyed. Yet now we have the George Orwell Animal Farm conundrum of “Some pigs are more equal than others”. The consequences of this wouldn’t rub me quite so raw but for the inane rationale. Add to that the fact that there are currently less than 400,000 Vets rated P&Tor 100% via TDIU. VA is notoriously stingy with the money entrusted to them by Congress for VA compensation. Apparently, that penuriousness doesn’t deter them from awarding themselves lavish year end bonuses for a job well done.

We already have to jump through numerous hoops and obstacles to obtain a small pittance from VA as it is. Vets who are so disabled as to be unemployable still face ratings “experts” insisting they’re good to go. Only 14% even get there-often via appeal. If and when they do, they are given pennies on the dollar for their sacrifice. How, then, to square the disparity of this new entitlement with equal sacrifice, albeit in a different era and a different theatre of operations? Any suggestions, Senator?