Change.org Petition: Stop Congress from reducing Veterans’ Disability and Compensation payments

Stop Congress from reducing Veterans’ Disability and Compensation payments

Concerned Citizen started this petition, and it now has 7,889 signatures

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The Congressional Budget Office recently published a proposal to reduce veterans benefits for the purpose of lowering the deficit. Now, it’s no secret that the government has to find a way to balance the budget, but why is that the burden of the Men and Women who have sacrificed body and mind in the service of their country?         The proposal put forth would negatively impact the lives of veterans as there are multiple ways in which they could potentially lose compensation. The first way would be to “Means-Test VA Disability Compensation for Veterans With Higher Income”. This would include disqualifying veterans disability and compensation payments based off of their income bracket. At a certain income level, deductions would be made to the veteran’s compensation payments. At the max income level, payments would cease all together. Now, it shouldn’t have to be explained that service related disabilities don’t cease to exist once a veteran starts making a certain amount of money. For Example: Jim is on VA disability because an IED exploded when he was deployed to Iraq costing him his leg. Jim decided to go back to college and get a job in the tech industry because he is now limited to office work. Now that Jim is making decent money, he will no longer qualify for his VA compensation payments. Limbs don’t grow back, and many wounds (both physical and mental) never heal. So, why should veterans lose out on compensation because they have found ways to be successful despite their disability? Resilience should not result in financial punishment.              Other options in these proposals include “Veterans who start receiving disability compensation payments in 2024 or later would have those payments reduced by 30 percent at age 67.” Basically, disability payments would be reduced when the veteran meets retirement age and starts to receive social security payments. As stated earlier, some wounds never heal. Veterans paid for their disability payments with their minds and bodies during their service to this country. They also paid into the social security program while in the military and civilian sector. Not only are they entitled to full benefits in BOTH respects, the United States has a moral obligation to pay that debt.                     It has also been proposed that the VA stop payments to Veterans with a disability percentage of less than 30%. Why is it fair for the VA to acknowledge service related disabilities but decline payment due to an arbitrary number?             There are many other proposed cuts to VA disability and compensation that are not listed here, but the message remains the same. In a time of excessive government spending including foreign aid, why should Veterans be the ones to lose funding? It’s no question that the government has to do something to reduce the deficit, but that should involve cutting needless spending rather than monetarily punishing veterans. We cannot give exorbitant amounts of financial aid to foreign countries while simultaneously cutting aid to the Men and Women that protected and defended the United States. We cannot continue offering proposals to reduce compensation that veterans DESERVE, NEED, and COUNT ON. We will NOT stand for this!   Proposals from the CBO can be found  here: https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/58631 https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/58653 https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/58654 https://www.cbo.gov/budget-options/58655

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