When talking about health care and war veterans, the truth isn’t easy to utter. Nobody wants to be seen as disrespecting military service, so we salute and pretend. The president is doing this with his budgets. And so are the critics of those budgets.

In a speech on Tuesday at the American Legion Conference, Vice President Dick Cheney reiterated the administration’s commitment to “enhance the quality of veterans’ care.” But nervous veterans were still digesting the news that a secret White House budget proposal calls for cutbacks in VA funding in 2008 and thereafter.

After Cheney’s speech, Peter Gaytan, director of the Legion’s veterans affairs and rehabilitation division, said, “We thank Vice President Cheney for speaking to the American Legion and we remind him that the Legion fully supports an adequate Veterans Administration budget to allow all eligible veterans to receive the care they have earned and deserve.”

While it may not sound like it, there is a wide gulf between what the administration thinks it needs to spend and what the Legion thinks it deserves. Reality lies somewhere in the middle.

In 1996, Congress passed a law that made all veterans eligible for VA health care benefits. But it has never faced up to the amount of money that’s needed to meet this commitment.

The result has been long waits for veterans to access the system. For instance, a group of doctors has warned about a decreasing number of physicians expected to care for an increasing number of veterans in the emergency room at the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of patients at the center has doubled, but funding hasn’t.

This is happening nationwide. The hard truth is that the amount of money needed is too much. The VA system is not immune to the spiraling health care costs that have plagued the budgets of governments and private businesses.

We have come to a point where we need to ask some veterans to shoulder more of those costs. Nobody likes saying that, but it’s a reasonable step to take to keep the system viable for those with combat-related afflictions.

The administration has proposed a means-tested system that would increase co-payments and charge a $250 enrollment fee for some veterans. It would apply to those who have not been wounded in combat and who have the means to pay.

While the administration is fooling itself if it thinks the VA can absorb budget cuts in the near future, the increased co-pays and fees have merit. We currently tax the Social Security benefits of seniors above a certain income threshold. Bush’s VA proposal is similar.

Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, say they will fight this plan. They no doubt will, and they’ll probably succeed.

But when the dust settles, who is going to step forward with a realistic plan to cover health care for all veterans without lengthening the waits or busting the budget?