Veterans Budget Gets $63 Billion Boost From Obama White House

[teejay53]

Thought this may be interest.

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Veterans Budget Gets $63 Billion Boost From Obama White House

Posted: 04/05/2013 4:43 pm EDT | Updated: 04/08/2013 10:54 am EDT

WASHINGTON -- Despite growing pressure for budget cuts, the Obama administration next week will propose spending $63.5 billion for veterans services in fiscal 2014, asking for a 4 percent increase over current spending.

The money is targeted at eliminating the backlog of veterans claims for benefits and increasing mental health services, including treatment for military sexual trauma. The budget proposal, which will not be officially unveiled until next week, also will make permanent two tax credits to encourage employers to hire veterans.

Since 2009, the overall budget, including mandated programs and discretionary spending, has risen from about $100 billion in 2009 to $140 billion this year, an increase of about 40 percent. The VA's discretionary spending this year is roughly $61 billion.

The backlog in claims has long bedeviled the VA, which currently is working on 854,000 veterans benefits claims, of which 595,000 are overdue. The VA inspector general earlier this year found a veteran who has been waiting more than four years for his paperwork to be finished. Much of the backlog has been caused by the addition of new benefits for which veterans can file claims,

including exposure to Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam War, and Gulf War syndrome.

But the VA also has been struggling to replace its antiquated paperwork claims process with an automated digital system, which is now installed in 30 of the VA's 56 regional benefits offices. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told reporters at the White House on Friday that by the end of 2013, the system will be completed. The goal is to eliminate the backlog by 2015, but "the effects of automation are going to begin to show themselves" long before that, he said.

At present, even with much of the system bogged down in paper, VA claims adjusters are completing 1 million claims a year, Shinseki said.

"We're glad to see the increase in the budget," said Paul Reickhoff, chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. But he was highly skeptical of the VA claims that it is making progress on reducing the backlog of veterans claims for benefits. "The customers on the ground, our members, don't see it," he said.

The proposed budget increases for 2014 include nearly $7 billion for mental health services such as treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and providing such service for veterans families. It also includes medical and rehabilitation services for the 50,000 American military personnel wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.

"We've been at war for 10 years and we have far more complex injuries to deal with," said Shinseki, himself a veteran wounded in the Vietnam War. Taking care of these wounded veterans, he said, "is going to go on for years."

Shinseki turned aside a question about what the White House Office of Management and Budget, which has approval authority over agency budget requests, had rejected out of his budget proposals."You could always use more money," he said. But he added that President Obama has been a strong advocate for veterans, and his budget requests have increased every year.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough acknowledged that the battle with Congress over spending and taxes "is forcing a lot of very difficult choices." But he said spending on veterans "is at the top of our list." He did not rule out, however, the possibility that the OMB had pruned back the budget requests from the VA.

"It wouldn't surprise me if this was not the first time in the history of the OMB process that there was wrestling over the ultimate number," McDonough said. "But we feel good about the investments we've made in veterans and their families over the course of five years," he continued, singling out the VA's new automated claims processing system.

He said of Obama, "There is nobody more impatient than the guy we're reporting to."

Link to article

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/05/veterans-budget-2014_n_3023036.html

[john999]

I got 10% in 1971 and my compensation was $28 dollars a month. The difference between 10% then and 10% now is all due to the COLA. A decrease in the COLA over 20 years will really put you behind the 8 ball if you get your money from SSA/SSD, VA, Federal Civil Service retirement/military retirement. I get $675 a month from a private disability insurance program. When I started to collect 12 years ago $675 seemed a nice sum. Now since there is no COLA it is fast shrinking in buying power. I got the policy in 1985 when $675 plus my postal disability seemed like a nice retirement. 16 years later when I started to collect it seemed tiny.

John

[carlie]

Carlie...

Small drops of water fill the pool. Sure..2% here, 3% there does not seem like a lot, but, overtime, they amount to a lot. Have you never known someone old on social security getting $400 per month?

Probably, when they retired, $400 per month seemed like a lot. But..given a few years of inflation, along with far less raises, you you get the classic "fixed income" problem. That is why these "small raises", which they intend to make smaller, are so important. They eat you alive a little bit at a time. Like the frog in the slowly heated pot, he does not notice the water is heating up slowly and boils to death. But, if you put the frog in a boiling pot of water, he would hop out instantly.

bronco,

My 69 year old sister currently gets $400.00 per month for her SSA retirement.

[carlie]

I got 10% in 1971 and my compensation was $28 dollars a month. The difference between 10% then and 10% now is all due to the COLA. A decrease in the COLA over 20 years will really put you behind the 8 ball if you get your money from SSA/SSD, VA, Federal Civil Service retirement/military retirement. I get $675 a month from a private disability insurance program. When I started to collect 12 years ago $675 seemed a nice sum. Now since there is no COLA it is fast shrinking in buying power. I got the policy in 1985 when $675 plus my postal disability seemed like a nice retirement. 16 years later when I started to collect it seemed tiny.

John

You and bronco have opened my eyes a bit more.

I truly never realized that the only way our comp increases

is from COLA's.

[Pete53]

From what I have seen for most Seniors the change in COLA not so much but for Disabled could be many thousands of dollars.There is some talk about not changing VA COLA when SS does. In my own mind I think that the COLA's have already been changed quite a bit they are much smaller than the 90's.

Lets face it we probably have more to worry about changing system so that Veterans have to take into account any kind of compensation.

I am at a loss why the Vultures go after Seniors and Veterans and Poor when there are so many other ways they could get budget in line.