Untitled Document

News Release
Congressman Bob Etheridge
North Carolina

February 13, 2004

Contact: Sara Lang
Phone: (202) 225-4531

Etheridge, N.C. Veterans Send Valentine Message to President: Have a Heart, Don't Cut Veterans' Benefits

RALEIGH- U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) and North Carolina veterans today sent a super-sized Valentine's Day message to the President and the congressional leadership, protesting cuts in veterans' benefits. The President recently submitted his budget request for fiscal year 2005, which would cut funding for veterans medical care by $13.5 billion over the next five years, raise health care costs for over 1 million veterans and double prescription costs for some veterans.

"For Valentine's Day, our veterans didn't get a bouquet; they got a big budget cut," Etheridge said. "As our men and women in uniform are fighting in Iraq, in Afghanistan and around the world, it is outrageous that the Administration would propose cutting veterans' benefits by $13.5 billion. North Carolina veterans and I are sending this super-sized Valentine message: Have a heart, don't cut veterans' benefits."

The President's budget doubles prescription drug co-payments for certain kinds of veterans, raising them from $7 to $15. It also imposes a steep new $250 annual enrollment fee for health care for some veterans. An analysis conducted last year by the U.S. House Committee on Government Reform showed that these fees could cut more than 27,000 North Carolina veterans out of the health care system.

On top of these cuts, the budget slashes nearly $300 million in funding for long-term care for veterans and cuts 50,000 VA home loans. It eliminates funding for 800 employees needed to process claims, despite the fact that nearly 600,000 veterans are awaiting decisions on their disability claims. The budget also continues a freeze implemented in January 2003 that keeps an estimated 4,100 North Carolina veterans from enrolling in the VA health care system. It does nothing to end the Disabled Veterans Tax once and for all.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars have called the Administration's budget for veterans "a disgrace and a sham." Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi himself testified before Congress that this budget is $1.2 billion below the amount he requested from the White House.