And Another Thing

When President Bush promises a balanced budget by 2012, I doubt he's taking the following into consideration.

DAV magazine reports "Some 176,000 vets of Iraq and Afghanistan have sought compensation from the VA. Experts believe that number could grow to more than 400,000 ("One in Four Iraq and Afghanistan Vets File Disability Claims," Tim Dyhouse, Jan/Feb 2007.)

Over 1.5 million GI's have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 10/07/01. Through August 2006, according to VA statistics, 633,867 of those had left the service, and 28% of them have filed disability claims. VA has granted 58% of the claims (23% are pending, and 9% have been denied; only 77% have been processed, to date.)

The article further reports that as of 11/06, the VA claims backlog stood at 600,000, and quotes the director of the National Veterans Service (NVS), Bill Bradshaw, as saying back in November, "VA can't handle the load they have now."

The monetary cost of supporting disability payments are not being figured into the equation when the administration talks about the dollar cost of these wars. VA disability payments are effective for life. Something to consider.