$20 Billion in Afghanistan, Iraq Contract Cash Goes to Unidentified Companies
By Spencer Ackerman - November 20, 2007, 12:59PM
Ah, Iraq. The land of milk and honey for a defense contractor. Not that all those contractors have such high profiles. In fact, due to a clever bit of disclosure chicanery, some of them are completely unknown, even to budget watchdogs.
The Center for Public Integrity's brand-new report on Iraq contracting, Windfalls of War II, identifies at least $20 billion in contract money that has gone to non-U.S. companies that it cannot identify:
Not bad enough to get you really angry?
Now that you read the above, how about this?
VA Budget Earns High Praise
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Disabled American
Veterans (DAV) is commending lawmakers for approving a conference report
that will provide the largest increase in funding for the Department of
Veterans Affairs in its history. DAV now calls on Congress and the
Administration to support this important legislation and enact it by
Veterans Day.
"The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill
calls for an 18 percent increase over the VA's 2007 funding level," said
DAV Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman. "This
increase in veterans health care and other programs is especially welcome
news at a time when our nation is at war."
As approved by a House-Senate negotiating panel, the measure calls for
$43.1 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Veterans
Affairs, the bulk of which is for veterans health care services. That total
is $6.6 billion above the fiscal year 2007 enacted level and $3.7 billion
above the President's request. Importantly, the funding increase approved
by Congress does not rely on user fees or higher prescription co-payments
that had been part of the President's budget request.
go here for the rest
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&
amp;STORY=/www/story/11-06-2007/0004699276&EDATE=
But as this was good news to the DAV, this happened
DNC: Bush Talks About Veterans Funding in Texas While Threatening to Veto it in DC
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following release was
issued today by the Democratic National Committee:
Heading into the Veterans Day holiday weekend, President Bush is in
Texas today to visit an Army medical center in San Antonio. While the
President is offering more empty rhetoric about standing with America's
veterans and military families, back home in Washington he is preparing to
veto Democratic efforts to provide more than $3.8 billion for veterans'
employment and re-training programs.
President Bush's veto threat comes as an Associated Press report that
shows the Bush Administration is not doing enough to protect the legal
rights of reservists and members of the National Guard who have lost their
jobs as a result of extended tours in Iraq. According to a new survey of
soldiers returning from the war, one in four reported losing their jobs
while on military leave. Yet government investigators have been "too
willing to accept the employer's explanation for a worker's dismissal."
[AP, 11/8/07] The bill President Bush has threatened to veto also includes
$23.6 million to help homeless veterans, including the "more than 400
veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars" who have turned up homeless
shelters across the country. [New York Times, 11/8/07]
go here for the rest
Cost of homeless veterans
GAO report to congress September 27, 2007
VA estimates that about 196,000 veterans nation wide were homeless on a given night in 2006.
The GPD program is one of six housing programs for homeless veterans administered by the Veterans Health Administration, which also undertakes outreach efforts and provides medical treatment for homeless veterans. VA officials told us in fiscal 2007 they spent about $95 million on GPD program to support two basic types of grants-capital grants to pay for the buildings that house homeless veterans and per-diem grants for the day-to-day operational expenses. Capital grants cover up to 65 percent of housing acquisition, construction, or renovation costs. The per-diem grants pay a fixed dollar amount for each day an authorized bed is occupied by an eligible veteran up to the maximum number of beds allowed by the grant-in 2007 the amount cannot exceed $31.30 per person per day.
go here for the rest of this
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d071265t.pdf
There is more there but I'm sure you get the point just from this part alone. We have more homeless veterans now than when this report took a look at the figures. It cost $31.30 a day to pay for a grant to house these homeless veterans but we managed to blow over $20 billion because Bush asked for it and wouldn't answer for it. (Ok there was even more missing but I wouldn't want you to pop a gasket yet.)
New England Journal of Medicine
The veterans were therefore assessed 10 to 20 years after their service in Vietnam. The prevalence of current PTSD was 15 percent among men and 8 percent among women. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD was higher — 30 percent among male veterans and 25 percent among female veterans.
In a best-case scenario, active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel as well as veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom with symptoms of PTSD will take advantage of the many mental health services available through the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Educational initiatives will be implemented to help veterans and active-duty personnel recognize that the loss of social support or the effect of recent adverse life events may precipitate a return of the symptoms of PTSD. Veterans and active-duty personnel will also be encouraged to monitor their psychological health and to seek treatment if and when it becomes necessary.
Alas, there is also a worst-case scenario that demands immediate attention. Hoge and associates report that concern about possible stigmatization was disproportionately greatest among the soldiers and Marines most in need of mental health care. Owing to such concern, those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom who reported the greatest number or the most severe symptoms were the least likely to seek treatment for fear that it could harm their careers, cause difficulties with their peers and with unit leadership, and become an embarrassment in that they would be seen as weak.
go here for the rest
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/1/75
House Veterans Affairs’ Committee Hearing Examines the Long-Term Costs of the Current Conflicts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2007
Kristal DeKleer (202) 225-9756
Washington, D.C. – Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, held a hearing on Wednesday to examine the long-term costs of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The hearing focused on how the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is addressing and preparing for these added costs, especially in the area of medical care.
“Congress understands that the cost of war includes the cost of the warrior,” said Chairman Filner. “We cannot continue to debate the costs of these current conflicts without beginning to address the long-term health care needs of combat veterans. Any planned military surge, must be accompanied by a preparation for a surge in short and long-term medical care.”
Since 2001, 1.6 million servicemembers have been deployed. According to the Congressional Budget Office, nearly half of those deployed have separated from the active component or have become eligible for VA care as reservists. One-third of these have sought VA medical care since 2002. In 2008, the number of veterans receiving treatment is expected to rise to 5.8 million, and will include an estimated 263,000 veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF).
http://veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=146
From Veterans For Common Sense
More recently, press reports have focused on a rash of suicides by our troops on active duty. Yet the DOD and VA claim that they have no count on the number of suicides among veterans. This illustrates one of the most effective ways of controlling statistics — simply don't keep track of those likely to be unfavorable or deny that you do so. Similarly, the VA has repeatedly assured the public that it is scrupulously providing for our wounded veterans. Yet the VA has not quantified the true incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans. Why keep track when the figure might bolster the conclusion that the VA health care system is inundated with veterans it lacks the capacity to serve? The VA's responses to recent FOIA requests by Veterans for Common Sense show that only a third — 19,015 out of 53,275 — of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seen by the VA for treatment or evaluation of PTSD receive at least some level of disability compensation by the VA.
The true health care numbers the VA is facing are staggering: The United States has deployed 1.7 million troops to Iraq and Afghanistan war zones, about 900,000 of whom remain in the military and are not yet eligible for VA benefits. Applying a conservative 20% PTSD rate, the VA can expect approximately 340,000 veteran patients with PTSD, and more than 600,000 mental health patients.
And despite the fact that most of our soldiers have yet to become veterans, the VA adjudication system is choking on an unprecedented number of claims. It now takes an average of eight to 10 years for a veteran to exhaust all appeals after a VA denial. The backlog at the VA regional offices, where claims are initially decided, has already risen from approximately 325,000 claims in 2002 to more than 600,000 in 2006, and is expected to swell to about 950,000 by 2008. More than 40,000 appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals are pending, where it now takes an average of almost 1,000 days to decide an appeal. And the delays at the Court of Veterans Appeals are even more protracted: a record backlog of 6,000 appeals — and an average of more than 1,225 days to decide an appeal. These backlogs and delays will inevitably swell as more soldiers return from the wars.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/8734
Now you can pop a gasket and give Congress a call. When they get back from their Thanksgiving break that is. The wounded veterans can wait for them. The wounded veterans can wait I guess as well until there is new president in the White House who will not see funding the VA as " a kid with a credit card" instead of an obligation. They can just wait, suffer, see their homes lost, get kicked out of their apartments, see their family fall apart, while more of them commit suicide because everyone made them wait. No one wants to remember when the bill is due to take care of them, they didn't make us wait when we asked them to go.
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