Veterans Resources Network Speaks Out!

[Gimpy]

VETERANS RESOURCES NETWORK

Dear Readers,

Below is an article from militaryupdate.com (see their link at the bottom) wherein Rep. Steve Buyer, Chairman of the House Veterans Committee puts the blame for the governments money problems ON THE VETERAN AND MILITARY RETIREE's. ---

Are you service connected? you won't be for long! ---

Are you in the military and injured while on active duty? you will get nothing ! ---

Military Retired, say bye bye to your concurrent pay !---


Rep. Buyer, QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE BELOW: "He said he wouldn't want to assure current veterans with disability ratings that they will be excluded from commission recommendations ." Rep. Buyer blames the VA medical money problems on the Old warriors coming into the system; rather than his own actions, and President Bush's cutting taxes for all their wealthy friends. And running up War debts .


War is needed sometimes, but it is the height of arrogance to think you can win any war easy and have it cost nothing. Instead of paying what's owed, President Bush has his Congressional partners shaft the veterans and current military people. If the President and Congress want to make War, they need to step-up like Men, and say they will honor their obligations to the Military and veterans and raise taxes if needed to pay for the War and other obligations.


SEE complete article below my name.

Also look for two new websites in coming days:

http://www.stevebuyer.net and,

http://www.stevebuyer.info

When these links become active, share them with all your friends.

Rep. Steve Buyer does not deserve the honor of being a congressman, and over the next two years Veterans Resources Network will do everything we can to see he is not re-elected.


Write to Rep. Buyer at:

http://stevebuyer.house.gov//

Washington, DC 2230
Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515

Tel: (202) 225-5037
Fax: 202-225-2267

Fax Rep. Veterans Committee: 202-225-5486

Fax Dem. Veterans Committee: 202-225-2034

Your Editor,

Ray B Davis, Jr. http://www.valaw.org

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ARTICLE and REP. STEVE BUYER -- By Tom Philpott

Published March 13, 2005


Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., is the new chairman of House Veterans Affairs Committee. He says the medical and rehabilitation needs of a new generation of war vets leave him more certain than ever that Congress erred in 1996, when it opened VA health care to any vet willing to pay modest fees. "While some veterans' organizations like to create a theme, that 'a veteran is a veteran, (and) there is no difference,' I disagree," he said.


A decade ago - in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, which saw relatively few U.S. casualties - the Veterans Affairs Department went back to worrying about an aging patient population and underused VA clinics and hospitals, Buyer said. Those concerns, along with wishful thinking about VA billing employer-provided insurance plans for the cost of care, led Congress to open VA sites to vets neither poor nor disabled, he said. Time has shown that as a mistake, Buyer said. Today, VA has $3 billion in "uncollected debt" for health care rendered, which insurance companies haven't paid. "And we find ourselves now in protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and the war on terror all over the world.

So the sense from 1996 that we could open up the VA to protect the bricks and mortar because of a declining population of veterans," Buyer said, has been replaced by "the reality that we have more veterans now that have to come into the system."

Buyer's comments occurred in an interview for this column.
The interview was days after his committee voted to impose an enrollment fee of $230 to $500 a year on 2.4 million vets in priority categories 7 and 8 - those who aren't poor and have no service-connected disability.

In January, Republican leaders removed Rep. Christopher Smith, R- N.J., as committee chairman. They said he was too close to veterans' groups, too supportive of expanding benefits and too dismissive of Bush administration plans to slow VA spending and impose fees on low- priority vets. New chairman Buyer, 46, is a blunt-spoken attorney and Citadel graduate, deployed in the Gulf War as an Army Reserve lawyer.


With oversight responsibility now for the second-largest department in government, Buyer said, he has three short-term priorities: Refocus VA health care on its "core constituency" of service- disabled, indigent and special-needs vets; Develop a "seamless transition" process for vets moving from active duty to VA care. So far, more than 10,000 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as many as 100,000 could have post-traumatic stress disorder, Buyer said. "The VA needs to prepare to receive them"; and Improve VA rehabilitation and vocational training to ensure that even the most severely injured vets return to rewarding lives. "For a lot of years," Buyers said, "it was, 'Here's your check. Good luck in your life. And if you find it in a bottle, we'll try to get you in a program.' I want the system to be far more personal."

Buyer also said : He expected a new bipartisan Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, which will conduct its first meeting soon, to review whether Congress went too far on allowing concurrent receipt of military retirement and VA disability payments. Buyer said that as chairman of the House subcommittee on military personnel a few years ago, he "found $25 million" to lift the concurrent receipt ban only for 100 percent combat-disabled retirees. "Little did I realize that my care and concern would be so enveloped" by politics, he said, and the ban quickly lifted to benefit a few hundred thousand retirees, many having no combat-related disability.


He expected the commission to consider whether to change the way that disability ratings were set or to tighten the definition of "service- connected" injuries or ailments. "There is something bothersome in the system where you can have a soldier blow out his knee from a roadside bomb and end up with a disability that's the same as a guy who blew out his knee sliding into home plate at church-league softball on Sunday," Buyer said. "Is that the type of disability system that is just and fair?" He wouldn't want to assure current veterans with disability ratings that they would be excluded from commission recommendations. "I think everything should be on the table," he said.

He wants to offer lump-sum payments to vets with disabilities rated 20 percent or less, as settlement of all future compensation claims. "Part of the problem is there's gamesmanship in the system, whereby (veterans) consistently - over their lifetimes - keep reapplying for their ratings, trying to get bumped up higher and higher," Buyer said.

(What's the matter with this idiot!..............Dosen't he realize that certain "disabilities" worsen and increase in their degree of pain & suffering with old age???....Surely he can't be THAT stupid, or can he???????..........Editorial comment by the Gimpster).......

Veterans' organizations argued that all vets earned the right to VA health care, using what Buyer called inflammatory rhetoric to knock proposals to raise fees on nonpoor, nondisabled vets.

The groups are abandoning values like duty and sacrifice under which vets served, he suggested. Buyer said that's why, during a recent VA budget hearing, he asked representatives of veterans' groups where they took their military oaths. "I asked them to be very careful with the words they select because ... they have an impact all over the country," he said.


He also cautioned them, he said, because "it is upsetting to me when someone refers to veterans as 'whiny.' That's very upsetting to me." Buyer didn't say who referred to vets as "whiny."


Write Military Update,
P.O. Box 231111,
Centreville, VA 20120-1111;
e- mail milupdate@aol.com;
or visit www.militaryupdate.com. http://www.dailypress.com/news/loca...,4851766.story?
coll=dp-news-local-final


###

Veterans Resources Network
http://www.valaw.org
Ray B Davis Jr
P.O. Box 68
East Flat Rock, NC 28726
http://valaw.org http://veteransresources.net


__________________

[Gimpy]

STARS & STRIPES COMMENTS!

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

Disabled veterans protest budget proposal for health care

By Leo Shane III,

Stars and Stripes European edition,

Thursday, March 10, 2005 WASHINGTON

? Hundreds of disabled veterans booed and jeered Republican House members on Tuesday for their budget proposal for veterans' health care, which critics call inadequate to deal with the future needs of current troops. Following testimony before a pair of congressional committees by officials from the Disabled American Veterans, or DAV, the crowd of more than 400 wounded and disabled veterans cheered House members who criticized the president's budget plans and heckled representatives who defended the spending.

The loudest heckling was reserved for House Veterans' Affairs chairman Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., who was criticized by Democrats on the committee and rebuked the crowd at one point by saying "where the river is the shallowest, it makes the most noise."

The proposed 2006 budget includes a 1.1 percent increase for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which officials from the DAV called too little to deal with the large number of servicemembers expected to return from Iraq and Afghanistan with missing limbs, mental illnesses and other service injuries. In addition, the budget would require veterans without combat injuries and who make more than $25,000 a year to pay a $250 enrollment fee to use department health services. James Sursely, national commander of the DAV, which calls itself the voice of service-connected disabled veterans, said he wants to see an additional $3.4 billion added to the budget for veterans' medical care, and see the new fees removed.

But Republicans on the committee have already forwarded their budget proposals to House officials, and they include an enrollment fee and only slight funding increases. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., called Buyer and his supporters hypocrites for scheduling Tuesday's hearing without any intention of considering the veterans' budget concerns. "This budget is an insult to our troops and to you," he told the crowd, who responded with a standing ovation. "This is unconscionable." Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., called promises made by Republicans "frankly a lot of [expletive]," and was quickly censured by Buyer as the crowd roared in approval.

Army Sgt. Tyler Hall, a 24-year-old Alaskan who lost part of his left leg in an improvised explovsive device blast in August, said he attended Tuesday's hearing to learn more about the legislative process and see how he can help other soldiers like himself. "The number of disabled vets is growing, so this affects us quite a bit," he said. "You almost automatically go into the VA hospitals, so we need to make sure the care is there.

#### END ####


__________________

[phuloi]

While we`ve battled way too long and hard for the in-roads accomplished in assuring concurrent receipt, to allow some numbskulled lawyer/politician to reverse the trend would surely be a travesty that I can`t see happening.I`ll never give up the fight.

As for some of the other issues:

I have no problem at all with category 7&8 veterans asked to absorb the cost of a modest ($300-500) annual copay for their health insurance.Every trip to the VA I see these dudes drive up in their BMWs,sporting Italian leather kicks and complaining about the two bucks they need to shell out for $200 worth of meds at the pharmacy.I don`t remember ever signing anything,or any recruiter ever telling me that if I pulled my 3 year hitch in the Army that I would get a free ride for eternity.

I also agree that opening the doors of VA hospitals and clinics to all was an error in judgement.These facilities are needed by,and should be reserved for first and formost,disabled veterans,secondly,veterans in need,and so on down the line.

"With oversight responsibility now for the second-largest department in government, Buyer said, he has three short-term priorities: Refocus VA health care on its "core constituency" of service- disabled, indigent and special-needs vets; Develop a "seamless transition" process for vets moving from active duty to VA care. So far, more than 10,000 have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as many as 100,000 could have post-traumatic stress disorder, Buyer said. "The VA needs to prepare to receive them"; and Improve VA rehabilitation and vocational training to ensure that even the most severely injured vets return to rewarding lives. "For a lot of years," Buyers said, "it was, 'Here's your check. Good luck in your life. And if you find it in a bottle, we'll try to get you in a program.' I want the system to be far more personal."

So....What`s wrong with this?

I have no beef with OFFERING (Key word) someone with a 20% or lower disability a lump sum settlement.They don`t have to accept it.

I must have missed something here,Gimp,cause I can`t find where I`m going to lose my disability compensation or my health care.I also went looking for factual information,to no avail,to back up what you said about VA deducting the amount of my Social Security Disability from my check.If this ever comes to fruition,I`ll discontinue my donations to the RNC and jump into your hip pocket.

[Gimpy]

Just made sure both my "hip pockets" are empty for ya Griz so's you won't have any trouble "jumping in, OK?

I think you better start "reading" things a little "closer" there Griz my friend so you may get a better grip on what is going on here...and it AIN'T the "sky is falling---the sky is falling".

But YOUR disability compensation just may be if this guy Buyer and Bush are around much longer to figure out a way to do it!


"Buyer said that as chairman of the House subcommittee on military personnel a few years ago, he "found $25 million" to lift the concurrent receipt ban only for 100 percent combat-disabled retirees. "Little did I realize that my care and concern would be so enveloped" by politics, he said, and the ban quickly lifted to benefit a few hundred thousand retirees, many having no combat-related disability. (so what if it ain't "combat related"...it was damn sure "service-related" or they wouldn't be getting it, would they...The Gimp)

He expected the commission to consider whether to change the way that disability ratings were set or to tighten the definition of "service- connected" injuries or ailments . (What the hell do you think he means by this if it ain't RE-defining "service-related disabilty"????----Gimp )

He said "he wouldn't want to assure current veterans with disability ratings that they would be excluded from commission recommendations". "I think everything should be on the table,"

(Hmmmmmmmmm, wonder who he's talkin about? Kinda sounded like "current veterans with disability ratings ", didn't it? Aren't YOU in that category??--------Gimp)


Are you even aware that the Bush budget slashes $9 million from Medical and Prosthetic Research funds while the DAV and the VFW have clearly stated that at least an increase of $58 million is needed? Especially since the numbers of single, double and triple amputees returning from Iraq is far greater in percentage of the more than 10,000 wounded so far than in any conflict this nation has ever sent it's young troops?


Wonder if republican represetative Buyer has got the guts to tell that face to face to Army Sgt. Tyler Hall, the 24-year-old Alaskan who lost part of his left leg in an improvised explovsive device blast this past August and who sat in the gallery of that Veterans Affairs Committee meeting?

Ya suppose Sgt. Hall just might get a little upset about that? Naw---surely not!

As for the other "stuff"...............I've already posted the locations of web sites (at the CBO) where you can SEE for yourself the things they're recommending to try and "cut back". All you gotta do is go there !

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by Gimpy Just made sure both my "hip pockets" are empty for ya Griz so's you won't have any trouble "jumping in, OK?

I think you better start "reading" things a little "closer" there Griz my friend so you may get a better grip on what is going on here...and it AIN'T the "sky is falling---the sky is falling".

But YOU'RE disability compensation just may be if this guy Buyer and Bush are around much longer to figure out a way to do it!


"Buyer said that as chairman of the House subcommittee on military personnel a few years ago, he "found $25 million" to lift the concurrent receipt ban only for 100 percent combat-disabled retirees. "Little did I realize that my care and concern would be so enveloped" by politics, he said, and the ban quickly lifted to benefit a few hundred thousand retirees, many having no combat-related disability. (so what if it ain't "combat related"...it was damn sure "service-related" or they wouldn't be getting it, would they...The Gimp)

He expected the commission to consider whether to change the way that disability ratings were set or to tighten the definition of "service- connected" injuries or ailments . (What the hell do you think he means by this if it ain't RE-defining "service-related disabilty"????----Gimp )

He said "he wouldn't want to assure current veterans with disability ratings that they would be excluded from commission recommendations". "I think everything should be on the table,"

(Hmmmmmmmmm, wonder who he's talkin about? Kinda sounded like "current veterans with disability ratings ", didn't it? Aren't YOU in that category??--------Gimp)


Are you even aware that the Bush budget slashes $9 million from Medical and Prosthetic Research funds while the DAV and the VFW have clearly stated that at least an increase of $58 million is needed? Especially since the numbers of single, double and triple amputees returning from Iraq is far greater in percentage of the more than 10,000 wounded so far than in any conflict this nation has ever sent it's young troops?


Wonder if republican represetative Buyer has got the guts to tell that face to face to Army Sgt. Tyler Hall, the 24-year-old Alaskan who lost part of his left leg in an improvised explovsive device blast this past August and who sat in the gallery of that Veterans Affairs Committee meeting?

Ya suppose Sgt. Hall just might get a little upset about that? Naw---surely not!

As for the other "stuff"...............I've already posted the locations of web sites (at the CBO) where you can SEE for yourself the things they're recommending to try and "cut back". All you gotta do is go there !

Gimp and Griz:

"I think everything should be on the table,"
That pretty much says it all right there. What he's saying is: All the benefits people have worked for so long to get defined are going to be redefined--but now the people who think like me are going to do the redefining.
There's much more in play than just this. Its a constant attack on the gains of the last half century in terms of benefits for veterans and workers--witness the new bankruptcy law that tightens restrictions on the middle class with NO restrictions on the people causeing the problem: credit card companies. Do they think we don't know that all their uncollected debt is a direct tax writeoff?
Look how much harder it is for the average person to get healthcare and how much the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed in the last few years--think thats accidental? And guess what: now youre going to have a much harder time suing your doctor, regardless of your political affiliation, thanks to "Tort Reform"
Part of the strategy is to Rename as well as Redefine :example: the new bankruptcy bill being named (partially) "Consumer Protection Bill." Hahahahah--there wasn't one scrap of consumer protection, it should have been named the "Bush Major Contributor Protection Bill"
Thanks, Gimp for bringing this up. It's all this stuff thats hidden on page 19 thats important, thats what theyre slipping by
Just out of curiosity--is Buyer a veteran?
Stay good, Gimp, I sleep better at night knowing youre watching this stuff
James

[Gimpy]

Thanks James.

I could not have said it any better than you did.

Yeah, he's a 'veteran'..............can you believe that $hit?

He graduated from The Citadel with a law degree, served three years in the Judge Advocate General Corps and then went into the Army reserves. He was called back to active duty in 1990 for the Gulf War (Desert Storm) as a Operational Law Judge Advocate and served at some prisinor of war camp in Kuwait and was then promoted to Colonel in the Army Reserves.

In my book, he should be ashamed to call himself a "veteran" with the despicable nonsense he's proposing for the veterans of this country. He's just another mindless, propaganda robot of the Bush administration and their continued rape and destruction of veterans rights & benefits!