| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
16 Mar 2007 05:41:33 PM |
| Object: |
Republicans demonstrate how they...ahem... "support our troops" |
From a New York Times editorial, 3/14/07:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/14/opinion/14wed3.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
When Warriors Come Limping Home
Shameful details continue to emerge on the neglectful care extended to
soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army’s inspector general reports that more than nine out of 10
disabled veterans have been kept waiting for benefit evaluations
beyond the 40-day limit set by the Pentagon.
Some have waited up to a year and a half for benefits.
A study of 650 soldiers at 32 Army bases portrayed a system
overwhelmed by the dual wars.
And the number of cases needing evaluation has leapt to 15,000 in 2005
from 9,000 in 2001.
The system is stymied by a lack of trained personnel, modern computer
systems and even wheelchair access for some of the returning wounded.
The story isn’t much better at the Veterans Affairs Department,
responsible for shepherding wounded soldiers after service.
With a backlog of 600,000 claims, the agency took four to six months
to process veterans’ initial paperwork and more than 20 months for
appealed decisions, according to a survey by Congress’s Government
Accountability Office.
That study predicts that the veterans department will be swamped by
638,000 new claims in the next five years, adding up to $150 billion
in costs.
Congressional critics are properly calling for the hiring of hundreds
more workers to process the claims.
Others urge a new policy that would automatically accept veterans’
claims for disability benefits, with spot-checks to weed out weak
claims.
This seems both sensible and humane because more than four out of five
claims are eventually approved under the currently overwhelmed system.
It seems like every day another member of the Army brass is out
because of this scandal.
That’s not nearly enough.
President Bush has a clear responsibility to fix this shamefully
broken system.
____________________________________________
Aren't those Republicans wonderful?
Harry
.
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