Shutdown leaves disabled veterans families in fear

It isn't as if we did anything wrong but yesterday I woke up worried about the VA check not being in our bank account. I wondered why we had to pay for what the congress has done yet again. There was talk years about about how the congress wanted to review disability claims for PTSD so they could cut veterans off but that plan was squashed. That was the last time I worried about something that we had to fight six years to get. If you think the problems with VA claims are new, it took the VA from 1993 to 1999 to honor my husband's service and the wounds he came home with. PTSD and Agent Orange come with the price he paid for joining but our family has also paid.

So why are we faced with this all over again?

We are not alone. I am tired of members of Congress stomping their feet while refusing to do the right thing. If they really believe the government is good for nothing, then why were they given the opportunity to make sure it stopped working? Never figured that one out. They seem like a bunch of brats complaining about no one wanting to discuss why they can't burn down the government.

When it comes to the military the folks in congress have a lot to learn from them but they should start with the simple fact the men and women in the military and our veterans knew what it was like to work together as if their lives depended on it. They were willing to die to prove how much someone else mattered.

Shutdown is worrisome time for couple living on vet benefits
KATU News
By Joe English
Published: Oct 1, 2013

PORTLAND, Ore. – Kelli Landis is the caregiver for her husband, who was injured in Iraq.

A head wound left him with memory problems and severe migraine headaches. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Landis said.

Landis works part-time as a nanny, but she says her full-time job is essentially taking care of her husband. The couple lives on his veteran benefits. They got their money this month, but there were no promises they’d get it next month if the government is still shut down.

“If it happens that we don’t get our income next month, we may get evicted. Everything’s up in the air, but that’s quite a possibility,” she said. “That’s very frightening to us.”

Landis says it’s a challenge to have a wounded soldier in the family, but a government shutdown could make it even more difficult.

“With someone who’s disabled, trying to move that quickly, if we can’t make rent, is going to be very difficult.”

Landis said they’ll try to find someone to stay with if their benefits don’t come through next month.
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