In their proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff, the Republicans included significant cuts to social services, Medicare, Medicaid and many other programs.
The largest cuts in benefits would impact young, permanently disabled veterans who were seriously wounded in combat. According to the Social Security Administration, permanently disabled veterans who started receiving VA disability benefits at age 30 would see their benefits cut by more than $1,300 a year at age 45; $1,800 a year at age 55; and $2,260 a year at age 65.
Senator Bernie Sanders:
It is morally and economically unacceptable that anyone in Congress would propose more tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires and large corporations while at the same time proposing significant cuts for disabled veterans,” Sanders said. “This is not what the American people want and it is not what must happen.
The Republicans, under George Bush, sent hundreds of thousands of young American men and women to Iraq and Afghanistan, presumably to protect our country and our system of government, to protect the lives and pursuit of happiness of middle-class Americans like you and me, as well as billionaires like Adelson, Trump and Buffett.
Thousands of those soldiers never returned alive. Tens of thousands came back with serious physical and emotional injuries.
And now, to thank those that lost their health, their ability to lead normal lives and make a normal living, like you and I and the billionaires, they are proposing that we cut their benefits when they turn 45, 55 or 65.
20 or 30 years from now, when the Iraq war will be long forgotten, like the Korean war is now, that young man who lost both his legs in Afghanistan when he was 19, will still be alive, struggling to just make it out of bed every day. It will be just as hard for him to put on his prostheses. He will need just as much, if not more, medical attention then. It will be just as difficult for him then to make a living in a normal job as it is now. And while it will be long forgotten by the rest of the country, he will think daily about that infamous day deep in his past when a mine blew up his Humvee and ruined his life.
Be we want to reduce his meager benefits so that BP, Exxon, Halliburton and Boeing can have a tax cut in 2013?
Immoral!
As a Disabled Veteran, I had no idea. I appreciate you bringing this to light. I will be researching this and most likely drafting a letter to congress and sharing with those who would also do the same. Do you have a specific source for this information?
Here is one by Senator Bernie Sanders: http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=32c41977-b05c-439e-823f-ec6f1c61b51c
So lets get this right..The ONLY person in congress you quote, that can tell us the so called “TRUTH” is Bernie Sanders the SOCIALIST by his own admission??OK then….
My objective is not to do an exhaustive study of opinions of members of congress. My objective is to draw attention to an issue that is largely covered up and most people do not know about.
My opinion is stated in the title: I think it is immoral to take back from what we owe those who we sent into battle into an illegitimate war – who came back damaged and broken.
There is nothing wrong if a person that backs me up on that opinion is a socialist, and one that I respect to boot. I am not sure what TRUTH you are referring to. Sanders gives his own opinion. The facts can easily be looked up to determine truth or falsehood of those facts.
Is socialism the new communism?