Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Tax Cuts Trump Supporting the Troops
W and his Bush League minions mouth talking points about "supporting the troops" when they're talking about sending them into harm's way. However, Republicans really don't want to put their money where Bush's mouth is:
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A Political Debate On Stress DisorderCutting veterans' benefits so that Paris Hilton can get another tax cut - how very Republican.
As Claims Rise, VA Takes Stock
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 27, 2005; Page A01
The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the past five years, the number of veterans receiving compensation for the disorder commonly called PTSD has grown nearly seven times as fast as the number receiving benefits for disabilities in general, according to a report this year by the inspector general of the Department of Veterans Affairs. A total of 215,871 veterans received PTSD benefit payments last year at a cost of $4.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 1999 -- a jump of more than 150 percent.
