Veterans Day offers Americans a time to salute those who have defended our cherished freedoms. As we do so on Saturday, we should also ponder whether our government is doing all it should to thank our veterans for their good work and sacrifice.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who will assume a senior position on the Veterans Affairs Committee in January, believes the government is coming up short. Primarily, she says, the Bush administration has failed to account for higher costs associated with caring for veterans as they come home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“This administration is still sending budgets to care for veterans based on data from 2002, before we went into Iraq,” Murray said. Problems with post-traumatic stress disorder, and the number of veterans clinics needed in rural communities aren’t being budgeted realistically, she said.
Indeed, a September report from the Government Accountability Office found that the Department of Veterans Affairs based its projected health-care costs in 2005 and 2006 on prewar data. Congress hasn’t held the VA accountable enough for such sloppiness, Murray said. When Democrats take control of Congress in January, she vows that will change.
“I talk with a lot of these people who are coming back from Iraq for the second time and can’t get a job,” Murray said. “We’ve got to find out why and provide transition assistance. But we haven’t even had a chance to have hearings to find out where we’re coming up short.”
Access to VA medical care has been a growing issue in Northwest Washington. Veterans here must go to the VA hospital in Seattle or a contracted clinic in Shoreline for care, a very long drive for many. Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen of Everett have been pushing for a new clinic in north Puget Sound – probably to be located in Mount Vernon or Bellingham – and are hopeful that it will soon be approved. Then they’ll fight to get it into the 2008 budget.
Medical advances in the field have saved soldiers’ lives, Larsen noted, but the government needs to help them meet the physical and mental challenges they’ll face for the rest of their lives.
“We’re keeping people alive that would have died in Vietnam,” Larsen said, but many of them come home with severe injuries, including lost limbs. “We can get their quality of life back up, but the technology to do that is expensive. … If we want these folks who are returning to have a decent quality of life, we need to invest in that.”
That’s the least we should be doing for those who have given so much of themselves. It’s also the most sincere way to thank them.
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