Shame on us for creating a subclass of disabled veterans!

Stop Tolerating Veterans Being Pushed Back Into Subclass
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 14, 2017

Remember Memorial Day weekend? There was a lot going on especially for the majority of our veterans. There were lots of ceremonies around the country showing how much the American people care at the same time in Washington, news was getting through the crowds gathered that senior veterans were once again being subjected to subclass veteran status.

The budget submitted by POTUS called for senior veterans to take a huge cut in their disability checks. Why? Because they are collecting Social Security? 

Ok, then no one bothered to explain to these veterans why "permanent and total" meant nothing. After all, since most disabled veterans were receiving the equivalent of 100% with the "unemployable" part, they did not bother to clog up the system to get their service connected rating upgraded. 

After all, they knew about the backlog of claims the younger veterans were facing, much the same way they did when no one cared about them, so they let it go.

Most of these senior veterans were unable to work for a decade, or in many cases, decades, meaning they were not able to pay into Social Security. Ever wonder what that does to the amount of money they pay?

This is a chart from Social Security

This is the Compensation rate from the Department of Veterans Affairs

Most stopped working well before the age of 62 because they couldn't, not because they didn't want to.

Retirement is a dangerous time for them instead of their golden years.

Vietnam Veterans Experience PTSD in Retirement for the First Time 
WGCU NPR News 
By MICHAEL HIRSH
MAY 30, 2017 
"Vets have more time to think. They may have been using work as a way to cope. They were self-medicating by turning into workaholics. Now, that coping mechanism is no longer available, and any number of events can trigger symptoms. Even something as simple as going to an Asian restaurant, even though the vet may have eaten at the restaurant throughout their working life."

It is also clear when you ignore all the "awareness raisers" running around the country talking about veterans committing suicide. Aside from getting the numbers wrong, they totally ignore the fact that 65% of the suicides they know about were veterans over the age of 50!

"Approximately 65 percent of all Veterans who died from suicide in 2014 were 50 years of age or older."

Now you can no longer ignore any of this when you hear about what this plan to cut their compensation is doing to them! We have created a subclass of veterans. 

While they do not want to see anything taken away from younger veterans, imagine what it is like for them to fact this, on top of everything else! 

Caregiver stipend is not for them. It is only for younger veterans even though their "caregivers" managed to do it all with absolutely no help or recognition at all. 

The charities popping up all over the country and handing disabled veterans free homes, are not doing it for them, nor have they ever done it, yet now these veterans are worried about losing the homes they struggled to get and keep.

They have waited longer, fought harder for all generations to make sure no generation ever left another one behind, but that is exactly what we just did to them. If you think a coin, a lunch saying "Welcome Home" will make up for any of this, you are pretty much out of your mind.

How about you actually do something for them? One more thing to consider is that these veterans have lived for decades after facing combat, yet after these decades, the war they had to fight alone at home all this time is still trying to destroy them!