Do Republicans Support Our Veterans?

The Democratic Party believes that the best defense is a good offense. I've heard numerous comments from the liberal side of the aisle regarding conservatives ignoring the problem of homeless veterans, cutting spending for veterans programs and generally not supporting our veterans. Is this true? I’ve looked into the problem of homeless veterans and the Veterans Administration ('VA') funding in general. The following is a fact-based review of what I’ve found.

The number of homeless veterans is almost 200,000. This constitutes about 23% of the total homeless population. The fact that there are a large number of homeless veterans does not mean the government, Republican or Democrat, is not working to alleviate the situation. The Veterans Administration has a dedicated and funded program that focuses exclusively on helping homeless veterans. In fact, the VA program is far and away the largest program helping homeless veterans.

There are also many local organizations dedicated to helping the homeless. At the direction of the Bush Administration the VA maintains a directory of faith-based community initiates and works to coordinate help for homeless veterans with these groups. The Bush Administration has increased grants to local governments to be used toward medical care, job training and rehabilitative services to the chronically homeless. The VA has also provided partnership grants to organizations that focus specifically on assisting homeless veterans (different than the FBCI – no funding is supplied to faith-based groups). The Bush Administration has also stepped up efforts by the Social Security Administration to increase the enrollment of homeless people that are eligible for social security benefits to maximize the distribution of benefits to veterans.

The Democratic Party talking points on veterans issues are a constant drumbeat of criticism that the Bush Administration is “cutting” benefits to veterans and cutting spending in support of veterans. This is a lie. During the 8 years of the Clinton Administration funding to the VA was increased by 31.7 percent. In the first 4 years of the Bush Administration funding to the VA was increased 37.6%. The Democrats always decry “cuts” when in fact the growth is just not as much as they want.

It is true that demand for services is increasing faster than funding. A key reason is that many more veterans are receiving benefits as veterans are attracted to the expanding network of VA clinics with its generous prescription drug benefit. The Bush Administration proposed charging an annual fee of $250 for otherwise 100% tax funded health care for veterans, a move that was criticized by the Democrats. But the nominal charge does deal with the reality of the cost pressures and is significantly less than the market cost of perhaps this much per month. The Bush Administration also proposed increasing co-pays for prescriptions from $7 to $15. An attractive rate vis a vis the market.

The Bush Administration’s proposed budget for the VA for fiscal year 2007 is $80.6B, an increase of $8.8B. Embedded in this number is an increase in spending on veterans health care services by 11% to $34.3B. I read through the commentary regarding this budget on the Democrat’s official Senate web site, including the link below. It makes my head hurt.

http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=fs-109-2-42

I think what the Democrats are saying is that the Bush budget does not fully take into account certain demand for services and certain operational costs increases, and overestimates certain efficiencies, and therefore the Bush budget is in fact only increasing VA health care spending by 4.7%. Huh? If you’re spending 11% more you’re spending 11% more (and I didn’t need to get a college degree in business to figure this out).

Whose math is "fuzzy"? I guess this is the standard Democratic Party illogic that if the Republicans increase spending by a dollar, but the Democrats think we need to spend $1.50, then the Republicans are cutting spending by $0.50.

Facts are friendly. It is clear that the Republicans are taking their typically balanced and realistic approach to providing for our veterans.