Paul J. Tobin (far right) joins Sanders (at podium) and other leaders to oppose cuts to disabled veterans’ benefits.
The cuts are part of a year-end deal on deficits.
“The idea of balancing the budget by reducing service-disabled veterans’ compensation is deplorable. Veterans are injured when they’re young and the proposed reduction in compensation over the lifetime of our most severely disabled veterans will cost each one more than $165,000. We will continue the fight to ensure that service-connected veterans are duly compensated for the sacrifices that they and their families have made in defense of the country,” said Tobin.
“We must do deficit reduction, but not by cutting programs for people who lost arms, legs and eyes defending our country. We must not balance the budget on the backs of men and women who already sacrificed for us in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Sanders.
A change in how annual cost-of-living adjustments are calculated could mean that veterans who started receiving VA disability benefits at age 30 would have their benefits reduced by $1,425 at age 45, $2,341 at age 55 and $3,231 at age 65, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
In a recent letter to House and Senate leaders, VetsFirst and 17 other military and veterans’ service organizations informed congressional leaders about the devastating impact adopting the chained consumer price index (CPI) to determine the cost-of-living adjustment for benefits would have on veterans. The chained CPI would lead to lower cost-of-living adjustments because it is based on the assumption that if something your normally buy becomes more expensive that you will simply switch to something cheaper instead.
Further Reading: Veterans Benefits Shouldn’t Be Compromised by Deficit Reduction