Barack Obama

2 Illinois lawmakers criticize Bush budget plan for veterans

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Quad-City Times
By David Heitz

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and U.S. Rep. Lane Evans teamed up Friday to attack President Bush's budget plan for veterans, saying it is irresponsible to keep funding flat at a time when thousands of weary American soldiers continue to return home from battle.

Obama, D-Ill., called Bush's proposed budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs "woefully inadequate."

"It is not only our patriotic duty to provide this care, it is our moral duty at the most fundamental level," the senator said during a news conference held at the Moline congressional office of Evans, D-Ill. "I don’t think any of us would ever want to look a veteran in the eye - someone who has fought and bled for this country -- and say, 'We can't provide you with the care you need.'"

U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., discuss what they believe will be a negative effect the Bush budget proposal will have on veterans during a press conference Friday afternoon in Moline.

For fiscal year 2006, the Bush administration requested an increase of one-half of 1 percent over last year's budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA. When adjusted for inflation, Obama said, the budget actually provides less money for veterans' services than it did last year.

Evans, the longtime congressman from Rock Island, has introduced legislation, the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act of 2005, that would place veterans' health care on an equal playing field with all major federal health-care programs by determining resources based on need.

"In his State of the Union message last week, President Bush saluted the bravery and sacrifice of our troops abroad," said Evans, a Vietnam-era veteran himself and the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee. "He also said that this grateful country will do everything we can to help them recover.

"The flat-lined budget he has proposed makes a cruel mockery of this rhetoric."

Allen Abney, a White House spokesman, defended the president's record on veterans. He said the VA's health-care budget has gone up 46 percent since Bush took office.

"The president is deeply committed to honoring our nation's veterans and his leadership has proven that over the last four years," Abney said.

He added that the administration's proposals on drug costs will not have an impact on low-income veterans and those with service-related disabilities and special needs.

Evans said officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs have testified that they need up to a 14 percent increase in funding for medical programs to maintain their current level of services. The Bush administration has proposed a 1.7 percent increase, he added.

Obama quoted founding father George Washington on the need for treating veterans right: "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 earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

He said the government has been failing to live up to its obligation to veterans, particularly in Illinois, calling the state’s disability compensation system "broken."

"Compensation levels granted to Illinois veterans, when compared to levels granted to veterans in other states and territories, ranks 50th out of 52," Obama said. "A veteran in Puerto Rico who is disabled, on average, is receiving almost $5,000 more than a veteran with the same disability here in Illinois.

"That's unacceptable by George Washington's standards and it should be unacceptable by our standards as well."

Obama also said, "I voiced these concerns to Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson at his confirmation hearings last month and he pledged to visit Illinois to find out why veterans in Illinois are being treated more poorly. From my position on the Veterans Affairs Committee, I am in a position to make sure he fulfills that commitment."

Bill Allen of Rock Island, a member of the Vietnam Veterans of America, said it is time the government gives veterans the respect they deserve. He recalled a trip he once took to Chicago with Evans during which they dressed like "bums" and mingled with homeless veterans.

"We saw veterans that were actually fighting for access to Dumpsters," Allen said. "We thought that was terrible, and I can only say that since then we've seen things get a lot worse."

(Times reporter Ed Tibbetts contributed to this article.)