RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The system that automatically awards disability benefits to some veterans because of concerns about Agent Orange seems contrary to efforts to control federal spending, the Republican co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s deficit commission said Tuesday.
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson’s comments came a day after The Associated Press reported that diabetes has become the most frequently compensated ailment among Vietnam veterans, even though decades of research has failed to find more than a possible link between the defoliant Agent Orange and diabetes.
“The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,” said Simpson, an Army veteran who was once chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has also allowed Vietnam veterans to get money for ailments such as lung cancer and prostate cancer, and the agency finalized a proposal Tuesday to grant payments for heart disease — the nation’s leading cause of death.
Simpson declined to say whether the issue would become part of his work on Obama‘s panel examining the nation’s debt. He looked to Congress to make a change.
Sen. Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat who currently chairs the VA committee, said Tuesday he will address the broader issue of so-called presumptive conditions at a hearing previously set for Sept. 23. The committee will look to “see what changes Congress and VA may need to make to existing law and policy,” Akaka said in an e-mail.
“It is our solemn responsibility to help veterans with disabilities suffered in their service to our country,” said Akaka, who served in the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. “That responsibility also requires us to make sure limited resources are available for those who truly need and are entitled to them.”
Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a Democrat and Vietnam combat veteran, has also raised questions about the spending. The leading Republican on the committee, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, has not responded to several requests for comment on the topic in recent months.
Because of concerns about Agent Orange, Congress set up a system in 1991 to grant automatic benefits to veterans who served in Vietnam at any point during a 13-year period and later got an ailment linked to the defoliant. The VA has done that with a series of ailments with strong indications of an association to Agent Orange, including Hodgkin’s disease, soft-tissue cancers and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Other ailments have been added even though and Institute of Medicine review has found they only have a potential association and that they could not rule out other factors. Those maladies include prostate cancer, lung cancer and diabetes. The committee has said that, for diabetes, more powerful influences include family history, physical inactivity and obesity.
The AP found in reviewing millions of VA compensation records that diabetes is now the most frequently compensated ailment, ahead of post-traumatic stress disorder, hearing loss or general wounds. VA officials use a complex formula when awarding benefits and do not track how much is spent for a specific ailment, but AP calculations based on the records suggest that Vietnam veterans with diabetes should receive at least $850 million each year.
Paul Sullivan, executive director for the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense, said it would be unreasonable for veterans to have to prove on a case-by-case basis that their illness came from Agent Orange. He believes the science supports the decision by VA to grant presumptive benefits.
“The presumptive law is absolutely essential,” he said. “Money should not be an issue.”
Sullivan also said many veterans file claims not for the compensation but for access to free health care.
The VA also acknowledged in its heart disease rule Tuesday that it could cost billions more than initially anticipated. The initial projection was that the new ailments, mostly heart disease but also Parkinson’s disease and certain types of leukemia, would total $42.2 billion over 10 years. But that was based on disease prevalence rates for the general population, not representative of the aging class of Vietnam veterans.
VA used an age-adjusted formula in its latest proposal and estimated that it could cost some $67 billion in the next decade.
“It‘s the kind of thing that’s just driving us to this $1 trillion, $400 billion deficit this year,” Simpson said. “It‘s not that I’m an uncaring person, but common sense is the most uncommon thing in Washington.”
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mtman
Posted on September 2, 2010 at 2:27pmAs a 20 year veteran in the US Navy I was paid a fraction of what my civilian counterparts received. I spent extended periods of time away from my family working 18 hours a day 7 days a week protecting the citizens of this great country. It amazes how this commission can turn a deaf ear to veterans while some of its members like Simpson a guaranteed retirement benefits after just one term. How can they presume to ask me to sacrifice yet again to help my country? I firmly believe that the people that have driven our country to the brink, the elected officials should be the first to sacrifice. They should be ashamed to spend the money they collect everyday from hard working Americans veterans included.
Report Post »rhet 2
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 6:41pmThey have spent billions on rescuing frogs in San Francisco, yoga lessons to cure PMS, and every other vote-buying extravaganza to delight the hearts of every fanatic nutjob group in the country.
Including wasting millions on their own luxurious travels to places like Denmark for worthless, nation-destroying conferences about false and deceitful not-science.
Including mega pay raises for themselves and government employees.
Yet, when it comes to men and women who literally put their lives on the line to serve this nation and preserve our national sovereignty, suddenly these people become budget conscious and demand cut backs in spending.
LET THEM CUT THEIR OWN FAT PAYCHECKS and feed themselves out of their own personal fat bank accounts. Obama makes over 5 million a year: let him pay for his own travel, his own security, his own office remodels, and his own food, clothing and housing. WE NEED THE MONEY for honest, dedicated, REAL public servants — the men and women who proudly endured some really tough misery in order to protect this nation.
Report Post »ConnieG
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 3:18pmDemocrats always cuts military spending. The vets should always be takens care of first and always. Democrats have no problem handing money out to their voters, dead beats, drug dealers, welfare pimps and illegal aliens. Makes me sick. I want to thank each and every person that has served our country, you are the best.
Report Post »chatom
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 11:32amMy husband is one of those proud Veterans they are talking about. He was in VN and acquired Diabetes and had both his legs amputated above the knee because of diabetes. He is receiving VA disability because THE GOVERNMENT determined he was eligible. He gave the service 20 yrs and was promised that if he stayed for 20 yrs he would be GUARANTEED free medical care for life. That lasted until 1985 when they came up with CHAMPUS which paid 80%., which when you are in the hospital 20% still is an astounding amount. Before they pick on our proud veterans why don’t they start with the true waste in DC and cut the Congress lifetime benefits. Also there was nothing automatic about the procedure, it took almost a year for the paperwork to be processed.
Report Post »KnightErrantJR
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 12:34amIt amazes me that the most “logical” place for them to look for government waste is in veteran’s medical benefits. They must have already checked all of the Congressional benefits and found out that there isn’t any waste at all in the administration of their own copious benefits.
Simpson’s comments about vets “not helping” America by receiving these benefits is particularly egregious.
Report Post »saneromeo
Posted on September 4, 2010 at 7:40pmWell we couldn’t ask Pelosi to find cheaper office space could we? I mean she just went through all of that hard work of having some one move for her….
Report Post »honorable dad
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 12:30amAs a Vietnam veteran myself, it is not surprising to me that those who opposed that conflict, (many of whom are now running the country as the Washington ruling class) wish to argue in favor of reducing veteran’s benefits, likely caused by battlefield conditions. And yet at the same time, wish to argue in favor of increasing spending our country into bankruptcy in a myriad of other unwise ways. We could seriously dismantle much of what has become of government, hold our elected official’s feet to the principles of the Constitution (which each one swore to uphold and defend). Bottom line? Don’t send Americans into harms way and them deny them medical benefits later.
Report Post »ybnrml
Posted on September 1, 2010 at 12:49amI couldn’t agree with you more. They have been cutting retirement benefits every year. Not just Obama. Although Obama has stated that he thinks all military should provide their own medical, even if they are injured on duty. There is also the issue that the VA is not to diagnose PTSD because they can’t afford to provide the care. My understanding is that the State of Illinois is the only state stepping up to the problem and providing care for PTSD.
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