[Vision2020] Budget cuts could slash $1B from vets health care

[Joe Campbell]

Should be: "The fact that Congress can't agree on how to cut ..."

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Joe Campbell <philosopher.joe at gmail.com>wrote:

> No, Paul. You're drinking the conservative cool aid.
>
> Reagan raised the debt as a creative way to cut government programs. The
> story was he crushed the Soviet Union with an arms race. No one said
> anything because that government spending had to do with the military and
> for reasons that escape me conservatives refuse to think of the military as
> part of the government.
>
> By the time Clinton took office we were in debt. To lose the debt, welfare
> and other programs were cut. When Bush II took over he raised the debt
> again, this time by waging 2 different wars. Again, no one said anything
> because this was military spending -- and that's safety not government. So
> more government programs now "must" get cut in order to get out of the
> terrible shape we're in. It's the only "rational" thing to do.
>
> I have a hard time looking at these patterns and thinking these are
> anything other than Republican strategies to cut government by
> circumventing the democratic process -- cutting programs not by voting in
> folks with that kind of mind set but by creating economic crises. The fact
> that Congress can agree on how to cut "big" government might just be an
> indication that there is less government fat than the conservative myths
> suggest.
>
> And I want to be clear that I don't think you're the anti-Christ! (I know
> this comment wasn't directed at me but I want to be clear.) Actually, I've
> always liked you. I just disagree with much of what you say. I'm a little
> tougher on you when it comes to the global warming debate because that is a
> huge issue of importance to future generations, indeed to the human race.
>
> Best, Joe
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:49 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>> **
>>
>> Because the Congressional "super-committee" couldn't agree on budget cuts
>> and we've since defaulted to across-the-board cuts.  That was all part of
>> the deal that was passed when we were trying to shave the smallest amounts
>> off a small piece of the debt during the whole "debt ceiling" fiasco.
>>
>> We did this to ourselves by electing such a contentious Congress.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> On 01/02/2012 10:09 AM, Joe Campbell wrote:
>>
>> Why do we have to cut back on programs? We were fine with the programs.
>> It was the wars that got us in debt, right?
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:50 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Well, that's the problem with across-the-board budget cuts, isn't it?
>> Nobody is going to be pleased.
>>
>> We have to cut budgets, and since nobody in Congress can agree on which
>> way is up, this is our only real solution.
>>
>> We have to cut back on how much we spend, since our spending is out of
>> control.  It's ridiculous.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>> On 01/02/2012 09:31 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
>>
>> Nice, huh?
>>
>>  Courtesy of the January 9, 2012 edition of the Army Times.
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>>  *Budget cuts could slash $1B from vets health care**
>> Lawmakers may reverse on promises not to cut VA*
>>
>> By Rick Maze
>>
>> As veterans groups face the pos sible automatic, across-the-board cuts in
>> federal spending that could begin in 2013, fear of the unknown is strong.
>>
>> The Budget Control Act of 2011 is “imprecise,” says a House staff member
>> who has been trying to advise lawmakers on how the Vet erans Affairs
>> Department would fare if $1.2 trillion in automatic budget cuts are ordered
>> Jan. 2, 2013.
>>
>> Veterans disability, survivor, education and training benefits, and
>> low-income pensions are exempt from the automatic cuts, a process known as
>> sequestra tion. But it is unclear whether veterans health care funds are
>> protected.
>>
>> A 2 percent cut in veterans health care funding appears possi ble under
>> some readings of the law — and its references back to the 1985 Balanced
>> Budget and Emer gency Deficit Control Act, more commonly known as the
>> Gramm-Rudman Act.
>>
>> “We have not heard any specifics, only vague references that earlier
>> pledges not to cut VA health care or benefits may not be honored by
>> Congress,” said David Autry of Disabled American Veter ans. “That is
>> worrisome.” With a health care budget of about $51 billion to serve 6.2
>> mil­lion patients, a sequester could result in a $1 billion cut at a
>> time when the population of Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans seeking
>> treatment for the physical and mental wounds of war is on the rise.
>> Some patients, particularly veterans who do not have serviceconnected
>> disabilities, could be turned away, say representatives of veterans groups
>> who have studied the potential impact.
>>
>> Fear of devastating cuts from sequestration is partly why leaders of the
>> House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs committees were willing in October to
>> propose cuts in veterans benefits.
>>
>> A joint letter signed by Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Richard Burr,
>> R-N.C., and Reps. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., and Bob Filner, D-Calif., the
>> leaders of the committees, acknowledged that a “plausible legal
>> interpretation” of the budget law puts veterans medical funds at risk for
>> cuts.
>>
>> “We would rather make the difficult decisions now so that we may never
>> reach that possibility down the road,” the four lawmakers said in a letter
>> to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction that tried but failed to
>> come up with an overall $1.2 trillion deficit reduction package that would
>> have avoided sequestration.
>>
>> The four were so concerned about harm to the VA health care budget that
>> they were willing to take some controversial actions, including capping
>> annual increases in GI Bill benefits at a level below increases in tuition.
>>
>> Miller, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, said any
>> automatic cuts “would have a negative impact on VA’s health care system and
>> its ability to properly care for our veterans.” He expressed frustration
>> that the White House and VA have not clarified the situation. “I have
>> raised this concern numerous times in the past few months, but I am still
>> waiting to hear,” he said. “It is now incumbent on the administration to
>> clarify this issue immediately for veterans once and for all.” Ryan
>> Gallucci of Veterans of Foreign Wars said there is still time to fight to
>> protect veterans programs. “Since no one seems to know for sure, we have a
>> year to make our case to preserve our earned veterans benefits,” said
>> Gallucci, VFW’s deputy national legislative director.
>>
>> “It’s important for our members to call and write Congress to explain why
>> these programs are important and why our veterans need them to remain
>> intact.” In a Nov. 22 statement to its members, the VFW warns that
>> sequestration could lead to increases in co-payments for medical visits and
>> prescription drugs for veterans, and an increase in the enrollment fee for
>> veterans who sign up for VA treatment but do not have service-connected
>> health issues.
>>
>> Signed by Robert Wallace, executive director of VFW’s Washington office,
>> the statement encourages members to contact lawmakers to press for a full
>> VA exemption to sequestration.
>>
>> “Over the next year, many in Congress as well as thousands of registered
>> lobbyists will be working hard to protect their special interests and
>> programs,” the VFW statement says.
>>
>> “We must all work hard to protect the Department of Veterans Affairs
>> health, benefits and cemetery administrations, as well as all military
>> quality of life programs for the troops, their families and military
>> retirees.”
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>> Seeya later, Moscow.
>>
>>  Tom Hansen
>> Spokane, Washington
>>
>>  "If not us, who?
>> If not now, when?"
>>
>>  - Unknown
>>
>>
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