Veterans deserve the best from VA

First the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were underestimated. The administration sought $87 billion in supplemental funding and said it wouldn’t need more. That wasn’t even close.

Then the health-care costs for veterans of those wars were based on outdated assumptions. The administration requested a $1 billion increase for the 2006 Veterans Affairs budget. Dissenting politicians, such as U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said the VA needed more like $2.6 billion. Smith’s claim cost him the chairmanship of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, but last month VA Secretary Jim Nicholson conceded that he and Murray were right.

Whether these funding missteps have been inadvertent or the result of an administration that wants to play down the costs of war, they are troubling. Unlike the Vietnam War, where troops often received an ugly response when returning home, Americans have embraced today’s troops and want them to be taken care of in combat and afterwards. The public has figured out that the wars will be long and expensive, and they are willing to help those making great sacrifices.

The government should quit its funding tap dance, but it looks as if that habit is hard to break.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported in June that the VA launched a new policy for reviewing the cases of veterans seeking 100 percent disability or treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Approval of such cases would require two reviews, rather than one. Denials would only take one review. The VA dropped the policy when it was publicized, but it points to the nickel and diming at an agency that is seemingly reluctant to ask for a realistic budget.

The Sun-Times also reported on the wide disparity among states in the average disability payout for veterans – from $12,004 in New Mexico to $6,961 for Ohio in 1994. (The average payout in Idaho was $8,278; in Washington, $8,315.) The VA admits that it has never done an analysis of this disparity and responded by deleting that and other revealing data from its annual report.

Veterans deserve an honest assessment of their needs, not political games that cover up the bad news.