CHICAGO,
IL -- Late into the night of March 20, the U.S. House heard speech after
passionate speech in favor of a resolution proclaiming support for U.S.
troops in Iraq, but offering them nothing substantive.
Minutes
after passing that symbolic resolution, Republicans passed their budget
calling for a $28 billion cut in veterans' benefits and health care, with
Republicans providing all but one vote. This huge cut was reduced on Friday
to $6.2 billion, the amount originally proposed for veterans' cuts by President
Bush in his 2004 budget.
Is
this good news for Illinois veterans? Not unless they want their already
eroded benefits cut even further.
I
find it incomprehensible that a plan to reduce benefits for veterans in
Illinois and across the country would even be contemplated at a time when
hundreds of thousands of active-duty soldiers are risking their lives in
Iraq.
A
report produced by the Government Reform Committee Democratic staff concluded
that the cuts proposed by the Bush administration would cause:
''.
. . over 65,000 Illinois veterans, including an estimated 36,000 veterans
enrolled at VA facilities in the Chicago area, to be denied VA health care
or to drop out of the VA system, while increasing costs for thousands more.''
First,
the Bush administration has already stopped enrolling Priority 8 veterans
(those who have an income of $38,100 or more and no service-related disability),
denying them access to any VA care. The report found that as a result of
this proposed suspension, 173,000 veterans nationwide would be denied care,
including 7,160 in Illinois, of whom 4,000 are in the Chicago area.
Second,
President Bush would require the VA to charge all Priority 7 and Priority
8 veterans now in the system a $250 annual enrollment fee in order to receive
service.
As
a result of the fee, the VA estimates that 55 percent of enrolled Priority
7 and Priority 8 veterans would be forced to drop out of the VA system
nationwide, including 32,000 veterans in the Chicago area. (Priority 7
veterans have incomes between $24,644 and $38,100 and have no service-related
disability.)
Finally,
a third set of provisions would increase co-payments for Priority 7 and
Priority 8 veterans who do stay enrolled in the VA program.
The
co-payments for primary care services would increase 33 percent, from $15
per visit to $20 per visit. The co-payments for prescription drugs would
more than double, from $7 to $15 per 30-day prescription.
On
average, the report concluded, veterans would have to pay an additional
$97 a year in co-payments plus the new enrollment fee of $250. However,
many veterans could see an increase of almost $600 a year.
I
join the Disabled American Veterans in asking, ''Is there is no honor left
in the hallowed halls of our government that you choose to dishonor the
sacrifices of our nation's heroes and rob our programs--health care and
disability compensation--to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy?''
Democrats
in Congress are now fighting the president's proposal and are working to
restore cuts in veterans' benefits and veterans' health care for the sake
of our troops fighting in Iraq and the millions of veterans across the
country. But this fight cannot be won unless veterans let the president
and the Republican-controlled Congress know that they will not stand for
these cuts.
Despite
all the enthusiastic and well-deserved praise of our troops coming from
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Bush administration has failed to put its
money where its mouth is.
Rep.
Jan Schakowsky is a Democrat from Illinois' 9th Congressional District. |