Getting DIC

If I am not for myself, then who will be for me?
And if I am only for myself, then what am I?
And if not now, when?”
--Hillel, ~30 BCE

No soup for you!
--The Soup Nazi, Seinfeld
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The second installment of "We Love the Troops" is the court "victory" hailed by the Disabled American Veterans requiring the Department of Defense to remunerate military spouses for wrongly withheld survivors benefits.

In Sharp, et al. vs. United States, the Department of Defense was required to refund an estimated $30 million in military retiree Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) annuities that were wrongly withheld from the widowed spouses' Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC), which is administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Hard to imagine DoD actively screwing widows of Disabled Veterans and chalking it up to a "faulty interpretation of the law." That sounds so Yoo and Addington-like.

As with the previous post about Under Secretary Chu, disabled veterans (in this case, their surviving spouses) are being denied their propers. So if the DoD doesn't screw them when they are alive, they will do so when they are dead. To borrow from Bob Dylan, everybody must get screwed when passing through the government wringer.

Is DoD That desperate for funds that they must deny loyal personnel? People are more important than the acquisition of new weapons systems.

One would think the DoD would be proud and happy to pay these widows as required by law. Instead, the DoD will appeal the ruling. No yellow ribbons for these veterans.

"(U)ntil the court's ruling, to accept DIC, the Department of Defense required an equal cut in SBP, illegally saving the Pentagon millions of dollars in unpaid benefits. An estimated 59,000 military survivors were impacted by the SBP-DIC offset last year.

"The government has projected that the reinstated benefits will exceed $30
million."

"The Defense Department is expected to appeal the ruling."

Doesn't it seem odd that DoD expends $100's of billions to kill insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, but it can't pony up $30 million for rightful benefits for America's soldiers? The DAV thinks it is odd, because they have run two articles on disabled veterans getting the Pentagon shaft in their current November/December issue (despite the fact that this case was settled in Jul 08.)

Fraternal magazine usually wave the flag, but lately they are becoming more disgruntled by the shameless marginalization of their constituents.