BCT Editorial – 1/3/05

This page was last updated on January 3, 2005.

Salutes & Boots; Editorial; Beaver County Times; January 3, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Boot: To the Bush administration and Congress for not doing more to help veterans who need assistance from Veterans Affairs. These guys talk a good we-care-about-vets but don’t follow through with the money. The AP reports major spending cutbacks at Van Zandt VA Medical Center in Altoona have forced the outsourcing of orthopedics, dermatology, neurosurgery and other treatments to VA hospitals in Pittsburgh. As a result, veterans may be forced to drive more than two hours for some medical procedures that had been done locally in the past. The problem is that the VA is underfunded, as U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., pointed out, ‘We increased the budget by $2 billion this year, and that still is not enough.’ Our veterans deserve better than this from their government.”

[RWC] Do we spend an appropriate amount on our veterans? I don’t know. The purpose of this critique is to address the allegation that the Bush administration and Congress aren’t doing anything in this area. This “boot” ignores the following points:

· VA funding is now higher than at any point in the past ten years, and it’s going up twice as fast under President Bush as under President Clinton.¹

· Funding for veterans in the first three Bush budgets increased 27%. If President Bush gets what he proposed for the 2005 budget, the total increase will be 37.6%. That’s 37.6% in four years compared to 31.6% during Clinton’s eight years.

· The number of veterans receiving health benefits is going up 25 percent under President Bush’s budgets.¹ No, it’s not because of the Iraq War.

1. Special Report – Political Grapevine; Brit Hume; Fox News Channel; February 23, 2004.