DOLE-SHALALA REPORT....CLUSTER-F__K IN THE MAKING!

[Gimpy]

WHITE HOUSE DETAILS DOLE-SHALALA COMMISSION REPORT ON VETERANS DISABILITY BENEFITS

-- Gerald T. Manar of the VFW criticized the Dole-Shalala recommendations on disability compensation as hollow and too sketchy to implement.

The White House is now detailing the legislation associated with the Dole-Shalala Commission report.

There is much conflict in the veterans' community about this legislation.

Most veterans advocates believe it is a disaster waiting to happen!

###START###


White House details disability benefit ideas


By Tom Philpott
Special to Stars and Stripes

President Bush’s plan to reform the disability compensation system, which he sent to Congress on Tuesday, includes a four-part payment scheme targeted exclusively at a newer generation of servicemembers and veterans.


The plan is ambitious in scope and somewhat more generous than the current disability system in parts. As proposed by the White House, it would be applied automatically only to future disabled veterans. It would be offered as an alternative to current disability benefits only for veterans separated or retired from service since Oct. 7, 2001, the day of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan.


Former Sen. Robert Dole, an architect of the plan as co-chairman of the President’s Commission on Care of America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, said he is getting “push back” from veterans’ service organizations. Lawmakers will feel it too, he said, but it shouldn’t deter them from giving newly-disabled vets and the current force a better disability package.


“I think we passed the baton to this generation” as being “the greatest,” Dole told the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee on Wednesday. “If they do a little better than we did, that’s OK. These are the grandsons and sons of Vietnam veterans and World War II veterans.” Improving their benefits, he said, “shows we’re making progress” and honoring their sacrifice.

As described by Donna Shalala, Dole’s co-chair and a former cabinet member under President Clinton, the Bush plan would totally restructure how disability compensation levels are set.


The military’s role would be reduced to conducting a thorough physical and, from that, determining if an ill or injured servicemember is unfit for duty. Those found unfit would be retired with a lifetime annuity based on final rank and time in service. Annuities would set at 2.5 percent of basic pay multiplied by years served.


The VA then would award a disability rating based on any service-related injury or ailment found. In addition to the military annuity, veterans would get a three-part VA payment: (1) transition money to help adjust to civilian life; (2) a monthly payment for loss in earnings capacity, the same rationale for current disability pay; (3) a new quality-of-life payment to compensate for limits on day-to-day activities resulting from the disabilities.


The Bush administration rejected a Dole-Shalala recommendation that the VA pay for lost earnings stop when veterans begin to draw social security. (They damn well had better 'reject' this, or every veteran in this country would have been on their ass!--Gimp)


Veterans’ groups strongly opposed a drop in compensation in old age. The White House removed it before sending the package to Capitol Hill.


Less clear is the administration’s position on whether all veterans separated as medically unfit should be eligible for lifetime benefits under Tricare Standard, the military’s fee-for-service health insurance plan. The White House proposal says that anyone who gets a DOD annuity for being medically unfit should be considered “retired” and thus should be eligible for retiree benefits such as base shopping privileges.


But to win eligibility for lifetime health benefits brings “an additional requirement,” said a White House background document. The member’s “unfitness for military service” would have to be “due to a combat-related serious injury” or “would have to meet other criteria” set down in regulations by the secretary of defense. The “other criteria” might be, for example, that a servicemember be rated at least 30 percent disabled. That would match the current threshold for Tricare eligibility among disabled veterans.


To many veteran advocates, the White House motive here is to block most veterans discharged as medically unfit from gaining access to Tricare benefits. White House officials prefer a different spin. They have said the intent is to expand Tricare eligibility to more combat-injured veterans.


At the Senate hearing, Shalala said the commission favored providing Tricare to disabled veterans and their families if the disabling conditions “were acquired in combat, supporting combat or preparing for combat.”


Shalala also said that the new qualify-of-life payment also would be tied only to combat-related injuries. Her statement was in conflict with White House documents, however, as well as briefings that officials gave to military associations and veterans’ groups. [Shalala was more than a little off the mark last month too when she testified to the House Veterans Affairs Committee that the White House would be recommending lifetime Tricare to “everyone who is declared unfit for service for health reasons.”]


Congress will be the final arbiter of legislation to help wounded warriors or to revise disability compensation. Many veterans groups believe Congress this year will pass only those initiatives that bring immediate support to wounded warriors and their families, leaving until 2008 or beyond the challenge of overhauling disability pay and the VA ratings schedule.


Some of the “push back” Dole said he felt over his commission’s recommendations surfaced in the Senate hearing with lawmakers and veterans groups criticizing any plan that some portion of disability benefits be tied only to combat or combat-related injuries. Under the Bush plan, that could occur with regard to lifetime Tricare benefits.


Gerald T. Manar of the Veterans of Foreign Wars criticized the Dole-Shalala recommendations on disability compensation as “hollow” and too sketchy to implement. By contrast, he praised the 560-page report of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission, which White House officials had no time to review before Bush last August endorsed and promised swift action on the Dole-Shalala recommendations.


The VDBC meanwhile is drawing some quiet criticism of its own on Capitol Hill with some key republican staff members expressing frustration (What a surprise!---Evidently that jerk Congressman, Rep Steven Buyer is unhappy the VDBC came back with many improvements to the current VA benefits system---Gimp) that it endorsed almost every costly idea floated by veterans’ advocates in recent years.

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Personally, I think they should 'shitcan' most of the Dole/Shalala Commissions recommendations.

Then, take MOST (not all) of the Veterans Disability Benefits Commissions recommendations and implement them ASAP!

Folks, you better write your Congressman and Senators about these plans if you value your current benefits!

Gimp

[Gimpy]

Back to the top.

This information should be important to all military veterans and their dependents & care givers.


Gimp

[Doc.2/47]

Thanks much, Gimp. Your info is always timely, interesting, and important.

[Packo]

As always.....thanks Gimpy. You are correct...everybody needs to see this stuff.

Pack

[Gimpy]

Thanks guys.

THE MILITARY SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS ARE RESISTING THE "YOUNG VETS" PRIORITY FROM DOLE-SHALALA --

Sen. Bob Dole says older vets might have to settle for less.----

The DAV says, "Why should a 21-year-old have priority over an 85-year-old veteran?"

It's something I thought I'd never see.

A group of changes in the VA care and disability benefits systems that pit young vets against old vets.

The Dole-Shalala Commission is way off-base with their recommendations.

They want to give more compensation, more benefits and priority to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

What about the Vietnam vets? And Gulf War? Korea? World War II? And all in between?

The Dole-Shalala package that's coming to Congress is just plain wrong. And, they're going to try to push it through by November 11 (Veterans Day).

Gerald T. Manar of the Veterans of Foreign Wars criticized the Dole-Shalala recommendations on disability compensation as “hollow” and too sketchy to implement.

That story can be found here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/
nfOCT07/nf102007-6.htm


The DAV, in their latest magazine, has an excellent piece on this. In an article titled Turning Opportunity into Disappointment, Randy Reese, the DAV's National Service Director, says, "We will oppose the disappointing recommendations every step of the way and support those which truly help veterans."

This is a "must read" article and you can find it here... http://www.dav.org/news/magazine/
documents/magazine_sept_oct_07.pdf


In the news article below we find: Sen. Bob Dole says older vets might have to settle for less. And Dave Gorman of the DAV says, "Why should a 21-year-old have priority over an 85-year-old veteran?"


All veterans must work together to oppose these radical changes which will, in the long run, benefit no one.


For more about the Dole-Shalala Commission, you can use the VA Watchdog search engine...click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/ses
search.php?q=dole+shalala&op=ph

Story below:

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Young, older vets fight for VA funds

BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - It's the fight nobody wanted - older vets competing with wounded troops from Iraq for scarce funding and hospital beds, with Bob Dole as referee.


The battle lines began forming last week at a Senate Veteran Affairs Committee hearing on revamping the overloaded military and Veterans Administration health care and disability payment systems.


"There's been some pushback," Dole said, from World War II, Korea and Vietnam vets to the reforms touted by the presidential commission he headed with former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.


"We front-loaded the recommendations" to focus on troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, said Dole, the former Senate Republican leader and presidential nominee.


"There's always the fear that somebody will lose something" when change comes, said Dole, a longtime advocate of VA reform who was severely wounded as a World War II Army lieutenant in Italy.


The fear for older vets is that the younger generation would go to the head of the line in the VA, where waits for appointments at regional offices can stretch to 177 days.

Another concern was with the recommendation for "quality of life" compensation that could lead to younger vets getting more money for disability payments.


"What we see is people trying to create a two-tier system, one for veterans of the global war on terror and one for everybody else," said Dave Gorman, executive director of the 1.5 million-member Disabled American Veterans.


Gorman, who lost both legs as an Army private in Vietnam, posed the question that Congress will have to answer as it decides on VA funding: "Why should a 21-year-old have priority over an 85-year-old veteran?"(No shit!----Gimp)


Younger vets are also upset at the possibility of facing off against vets of wars past for money and hospital space.


"We shouldn't be fighting each other for priority," said Paul Rieckhoff, head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.


Rieckhoff called for boosting the proposed VA budget, now about $80 billion, to accommodate all the generations.


But the 84-year-old Dole suggested that older vets might have to settle for less.


"I never thought I got enough money," Dole said, and if younger vets "do a little better than we did, that's okay. That's good, it shows we're making progress." (What a jerk!----Gimp)


###END###

Gimp

[reconeil]

Gimpy,

All very interesting, even though pretty-much same-o, same-o old news that should truly surprise NO ONE. Democrats have made long careers out of making Republican Politicians look bad OVER & ABOUT EVERYTHING,...and vis-a-versa. That's how all get or retain their lofty positions.

Such unfortunately is and has always been great for Ruling Elite (of whatever staunch BENT), and quite sad for The American People (Veterans inclusive & of whatever BENT).

Regardless, and what I picked-up from the controversy and/or what find typically biased, unfair and disgustingly hinky FOR ALL VETERANS, is that so-called U.S. Leaders(?) & U.S. Representatives(?) would even think of dispensing American Taxpayer Monies for: "Service Connected Disabilities" PREFERENTIALLY by "Last Rank", "Years of Service" and/or longevity.

Does a Disabled Peacetime (Whenever-the-hell-that-was?) 10 month Serving Pvt. or Combat Disabled Pvt. deserve LESS Medical Care & Compensation...than Longtime Serving Admirals or Generals having suffered severe injuries from a golf cart accident, at some foreign Golf Course or Club House?

I certainly don't believe so, nor that blood, sweat & tears & Service to Country should ever be valued & measured chronologically.

Neil

[bob]

Getting worse and worse. Time for a a good fasioned R E V O L U T I O N.

[Gimpy]

LATEST UPDATE!


SENATE VETERANS' COMMITTEE CHAIR BALKS AT DOLE-SHALALA LEGISLATION -- Sen. Akaka to President Bush: "We have deep misgivings about the provisions of your bill that would provide a basis for drastic changes to VA's disability compensation system."


Hats off to Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for his stance against the legislation stemming from the Dole-Shalala Commission's report.

The legislation from the White House would radically change the veterans' disability system forever and is unfair to all vets, young and old.

If you read only one part of Akaka's letter to President Bush, read this: "We have deep misgivings about the provisions of your bill that would provide a basis for drastic changes to VA's disability compensation system. As you know, these provisions would abrogate Congressional authority, and would give the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the authority to comprehensively rewrite VA's compensation system. "

For more about opposition to this legislation, especially for the service organizations...click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/07/
nf07/nfOCT07/nf102207-1.htm

###START###

PRESS RELEASE

October 22, 2007

AKAKA URGES BUSH TO ORGANIZE GOP SUPPORT FOR VETERANS' CARE LEGISLATION

Dole-Shalala Proposals Similar to Existing Legislation, Say Committee's Majority Members


WASHINGTON, D.C - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and the Committee's Majority members, sent a letter to President George W. Bush.

-------------------------------------------------

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:


We take this opportunity to address the proposed "America's Wounded Warriors Act." While we have not officially received the bill, we have seen what we understand is the final version, which is based on the work of the Commission on Care for America's Wounded Service Members (the Dole-Shalala Commission). We appreciate your work on this issue which is so important to veterans and their families.


As you have noted, we share the common goal of improving the lives of servicemembers and their families. Just last week, the Committee held a hearing at which the Dole-Shalala Commission's findings were examined, along with the work of other entities that have been working on these issues. Congress is already acting on the very same solutions as the Commission, particularly on matters of health care.


For example, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs has moved to improve both TBI and mental health care. Provisions comparable to the Commission's recommendations on health care have already been integrated into the National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 1585) through the Dignified Treatment of Wounded Warriors Act (H.R.1538), and are addressed in the proposed "Veterans Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Act of 2007" (S. 1233), and the proposed "Mental Health Improvements Act of 2007" (S. 2162).


We are pleased to note that your draft bill includes an expedited initial evaluation for PTSD to combat veterans. In section 204 of S. 1233 and section 1709 of H.R. 1585, the Committee has moved to require VA to provide a preliminary mental health evaluation to any recently discharged combat veteran not later than thirty days after a request for such an evaluation. While VA has made significant efforts to provide veterans with mental health evaluations in a timely manner, there is much room for improvement. VA has made progress in reaching out to servicemembers in need of mental health care services, and should continue to work diligently to provide those services in a timely way.


Similarly, your draft legislation seeks to ensure that evaluation for PTSD is afforded to veterans regardless of existing restrictions on enrollment. Section 201 of the Committee-reported bill, S. 1233, and section 1708 of H.R. 1585, extend the period during which veterans of combat have eligibility for VA health care, without regard to other criteria, from two to five years. We believe that this extension is necessary to ensure combat veterans receive health care during their transition to civilian life. With this extension, physical and mental health disorders which may take years to manifest and treat, including PTSD, will be better addressed. We are pleased that the Administration supports this change in law.


Finally, we are gratified that the Commission recognized the importance of services for veterans' family members. The Committee is presently considering a comprehensive mental health bill, S. 2162, which, among other things, would clarify and expand VA's existing authority to provide services to the family members of a veteran, when such services are deemed to be in the interest of the veteran. This legislation would establish authority to provide to families the full range of VA care, including mental health services. We share the Administration's interest in improving resources and services available to the families of America's veterans.


We have deep misgivings about the provisions of your bill that would provide a basis for drastic changes to VA's disability compensation system. As you know, these provisions would abrogate Congressional authority, and would give the Secretary of Veterans Affairs the authority to comprehensively rewrite VA's compensation system. Further, it would inappropriately require the Secretary to accomplish this monumental task over the span of mere months. Based on testimony at the Committee's recent hearing, especially from the Chairman of the Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, we do not believe this time line is realistic.


In addition, as you have not yet sent a nomination to Congress for a successor to Secretary Nicholson, we are understandably concerned that a task of this magnitude and importance should not be undertaken during a time when there is no permanent leadership at VA. In that regard, we urge you to expedite the process of selecting a nominee, and send that nomination to Congress. When a nomination is received by our Committee, we will fulfill our Constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on the nomination.


Mr. President, in closing, we urge you to work with the Republican leadership in the Senate to ensure prompt passage of the health-related legislation discussed above which addresses matters recommended by the Dole-Shalala Commission.

---END---

We owe a debt of gratitude to Senator Akaka for his honesty and his position on the issues he has raised.

Everyone should write or e-mail their Senators and Congressmen to voice their support for Senator Akakas' position on this issue.

Gimp

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Dear Mr President,
It seems that I can no longer vote for Republicans. I cannot afford it. Sending more troops to war while cutting their benefits and post combat readjustment is one of the most petty things I have ever heard of. I now pray every day that you will not destroy our great nation before you get out. I am not very hopeful that we will survive.

[Packo]

It's about time you got here Doc. Getting those last fishin' days in?

Great seeing this Hawaiian Senator getting involved and actually reading the legislation. Most of the stuff is good....they just need to look at what he is saying. Will contact my "representitives", and I use that term loosly, and let them know.

Pack