Veterans face paying more for America's debt?

Veterans say they wrote a blank check to Uncle Sam the day they signed up to serve. Our first President was a General named George Washington and pretty much felt the same way.

“The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

I have that quote at the bottom of my emails for this reason. They are the first people we thank in November on Veterans Day and their families are the ones we think about on Memorial Day. Too bad too many have such a short memory of the price these men and women paid for the sake of the rest of the country.

Mine is a military family. We don't ask for much and as a matter of fact, wish we didn't have to. The price we are paying everyday for my husband enlisting to go to Vietnam is something we would rather do without. Since he came home so long ago, the war came with him in his body and his mind. He's the reason I do what I do everyday.

Since I read so many reports from across the country for this site, I read some things I wish I didn't ever see. Comments like the VA is a free ride for fakers and they just want the money. Politicians saying that the VA should be privatized and give the disabled vouchers. These same people line up to slam the VA and complain about how much they are messing up, but all of them have very short memories.

It doesn't matter what year they served, or what political party was in charge at the time they were sent. It doesn't matter what nation they were sent to. It shouldn't matter if the American people agreed with it or not because the people they elected sent them. Sent them to do a job and risk their lives to get it done.

We read about the contaminated bases they lived on along with their families. We read about the weapons used that caused their illnesses like Agent Orange. Over and over again we read about the dangers they face for our country from one generation to the next. We also read about people talk about how grateful they are and the debt they owe to the men and women getting the job done but when the rest of this country decides this group is not worth taking care of as much as it was when there was more money in the budget is sickening.

22 million veterans are not being taken care of because they are not all wounded, ill, poor, needy, elderly or receiving a dime from the government. Think about that for a second. We can't even properly take care of a smaller percentage than 7% of the population after they signed their lives over?

Veterans fight changes to disability payments
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Mar 30, 2013

WASHINGTON — Veterans groups are rallying to fight any proposal to change disability payments as the federal government attempts to address its long-term debt problem. They say they've sacrificed already.

Government benefits are adjusted according to inflation, and President Barack Obama has endorsed using a slightly different measure of inflation to calculate Social Security benefits. Benefits would still grow but at a slower rate.

Advocates for the nation's 22 million veterans fear that the alternative inflation measure would also apply to disability payments to nearly 4 million veterans as well as pension payments for an additional 500,000 low-income veterans and surviving families.

"I think veterans have already paid their fair share to support this nation," said the American Legion's Louis Celli. "They've paid it in lower wages while serving, they've paid it through their wounds and sacrifices on the battlefield and they're paying it now as they try to recover from those wounds."

Economists generally agree that projected long-term debt increases stemming largely from the growth in federal health care programs pose a threat to the country's economic competitiveness. Addressing the threat means difficult decisions for lawmakers and pain for many constituents in the decades ahead.
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