The Good, the Bad, and the Sneaky of President Bush's VA Budget

On paper, President Bush's proposal for the 2007 VA budget looks pretty good. It's a big number, $80.6-billion, and as the President is fond of pointing out, that's a $35-billion increase since he took office. Some of us around here think the President shouldn't be so proud of increasing the budget for an agency that takes care of Veterans, since he is, after all, responsible for creating a whole lot more of them (Veterans, that is), but that's a different conversation.

In fairness, there are a couple positive developments worth noting. In a speech today before members of the American Legion, the President touched on a few, including several new and expanded initiatives to assist the families of killed and wounded Troops. But when President Bush claims that he's doing everything he can to make sure this nation's Veterans receive top-quality care and services, it's simply not true.

For example, $3-billion of the President's proposed VA budget would actually be coming straight out of our Veterans' pockets, in the form of a new $250 enrollment fee charged to some Vets and increased prescription co-payments.

And when the President says, "We're making sure that our men and women returning from combat are the first in line for treatment," it's pretty hard to believe, considering that nearly 20 percent of Guard and Reserve Troops have no health coverage at all when off active duty. TriCare, the health insurance program that theoretically covers these men and women, is unaffordable for many.

Every major Veterans' group, from IAVA to Disabled American Veterans, has been highly critical of the President's proposal. Luckily, many members of Congress have been as well, including Rep. Steve Buyer, a Republican from Indiana who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee and is usually one of the President's most loyal supporters.

In his speech today, the President joked about the Revolutionary War Veterans who, furious over unpaid wages, drove the first Congress out of Philadelphia in 1783. Bush claimed to have taken that lesson of history to heart. We'll see.