Quote of the Day

"This Department, and the nearly one-quarter million men and women serving in it, give daily expression of a commitment that our nation made generations ago: To serve the needs and the interests of our military veterans — and to do so in a spirit of compassion, sensitivity, respect, and, above all, gratitude. The price of freedom is visible here." - Dick Cheney (07/21/05)

How does Chimpy reward the expression of commitment?

But critics in the veterans' organizations say the budget would effectively cut health care spending because about $2.4 billion of the total would not come from congressional appropriations but from fees and other charges collected from third parties and from veterans themselves.

Under the budget, some veterans would have to pay $250 a year to use the VA health care system; their co-payments for a 30-day supply of a prescription drug would also more than double, from $7 to $15. The proposed changes would affect only the veterans with no service-related health problems whose relative high income places them in the two lowest priority classifications.

VA officials estimate that the new "user fee" would produce about $268 million a year and that the higher pharmacy co-payment would add about $135 million a year in revenue. They also project that these higher costs will prompt about 200,000 of the affected veterans to drop out of the system and get their health care elsewhere.

link: