What would Ronnie do?
More than 970,000 veterans from those wars [Iraq and Afghanistan] have filed disability claims, taking the total enrolled in the VA system to 8.57m by the end of 2012. At the same time, the healthcare system is dealing with the fact that many of the 6m veterans from the Vietnam era are now reaching the age when they start to require a lot of medical services. In 2010, the administration expanded coverage to exposure from Agent Orange, the chemical used during the war in Vietnam, prompting another surge of claimants. The result has been a constant struggle to meet new demands, despite big spending increases. The budget for the VA has risen from $73.1bn in 2006 to $153.8bn this year. However, the number of outpatient visits at its facilities has increased from 46.5m in 2002 to 83.6m in 2012.I've been a veteran for 36 years so hearing the VA getting slammed isn't something new to my ears. Sending a couple of million men needlessly to Bush's war in Iraq and sandbagging and dragging out the mission in Afghanistan didn't help. That fact is 11 years old.
You can lay blame for the failure of our country to live up to its obligation to veterans, but don't pretend that this situation is news or that most of the same people who are now complaining, aren't the same people who made it worse. At least you have to give Barack Obama a little credit. After all, he's not pretending to be something he's not, while doing the opposite.
You can complain all you want about the VA, but it's not news. This veteran has known that for a while.
