[Gimpy]

Let's set the record straight, ok?

This a feud that took on new intensity in July over an issue that pits pensions for Filipino veterans of the US military who fought with Americans in World War II against additional pension dollars for a group of elderly American wartime veterans made homebound by non-service connected disabilities. The republicans in Congress (mainly the House of Representatives and that jerk Steven Buyer) have jumped on the propaganda bandwagon to try and make it look like the democrats are taking away a long-standing benefit from deserving American veterans. This is just simply NOT the case.


The majority of these veterans with non-service connected disabilities who are now eligible are not even aware that a one year old court decision has granted them this additional benefit that the VA has long held they didn't deserve in the first place! And, the vast majority of them would NOT even be eligible for the "maximum" amout of $2,200 a month anyway!


Last July, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a Department of Veterans Affairs decision that had denied Special Monthly Pension (SMP) to Robert A. Hartness, an 86-year-old World War II veteran now legally blind from age-related macular degeneration. The VA had argued that to qualify for SMP at the housebound rate, an elderly wartime veteran has to have at least one condition rated 100-percent disabling. Hartness, who conceded he still cuts his own lawn, was rated 70-percent disabled. The U.S. Court of Appeals granted the award, overturning a previous denial from the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals.


The VA said the court’s ruling would make 20,000 more veterans eligible for higher SMP at a cost of $965 million over 10 years if ALL these veterans applied for it. Many of the "eligible veterans" have not even heard about this court ruling and have not even applied for the SMP at the housebound rate, and the VA sure as hell isn't making any effort to tell them about it either!


So the democrats, following the long standing past tradition of their republican counterparts in siding with the VA decisions, amended HR 760 to support VA’s original position on SMP eligibility, which freed up money to help the aging Filipino veterans.


Like I said before, it would do some folks around here well to thoroughly investigate just WTF they're posting before attempting to rail against the democrats with bull$hit propaganda from radical partisan sources!


The Gimpster