By now, there is no doubt Barry Soetoro Obama views the U.S. military with contempt.
First, the POS proposed cuts to the health benefits of active and retired military.
Then, in the name of trimming the deficit, the military’s budget will be severely reduced by $1 trillion, although the POS has millions of taxpayers’ dollars for failed green energy projects like Solyndra, and millions to refurbish mosques across the world.
Then, we find that our soldiers overseas are not getting the help on voting they were promised.
Next comes a report of a sharp decline in the number of 2012 military absentee ballots — another indication that our military men and women are not getting help with voting.
Now comes news that the backlog of military veterans’ disability claims has increased a whopping 179% during the nearly 4 years of Obama’s presidency, which suggests either the Veterans Administration under the “leadership” of Obama appointee Gen. Shinseki is incompetent, or worse, is dragging its feet on processing those disability claims.
You should be ashamed of yourself, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gen. Eric Shinseki
Matt Cover reports for CNSNews, Oct. 4, 2012:
The backlog of veterans’ disability claims has jumped by 179% during President Barack Obama’s first term in office, reaching 883,949 outstanding claims, according to Veterans Administration (VA) statistics.
The backlog of claims is at near-record highs, with 65.8% of claims being backlogged for 125 days or more.
The total claims include disability claims by veterans as well as from surviving spouses, children, or parents. As the VA explains, these claims are “based upon the effects of disabilities, diseases, or injuries incurred or aggravated during military service.” And the claims by spouses, children, or parents are based “upon the Veteran’s death due to service-related causes.”
When Obama took office, there were approximately 390,000 outstanding claims, of which only 22% had been pending for more than 180 days.
That number had been falling during the second George W. Bush administration, despite the military being heavily engaged in two wars. At the beginning of Bush’s second term, the VA had about 480,000 outstanding claims, with only 21% backlogged for more than 180 days.
That number fell by almost 100,000 claims by the time Obama took office.
In a speech to the American Legion in August, General Eric Shinseki, secretary of Veterans Affairs, said that the VA was working hard to try to process all the claims, noting that “no one is standing at parade rest.”
“The backlog is real, but no one is standing at parade rest,” he said. “This is a dynamic process, and as we pushed 2.9 million claims out the door, 3.5 million claims came in.”
Shinseki promised that his agency would end the backlog by 2015. [!!!!]
Shinseki said the VA had been carrying a backlog “for decades” and added that recent decisions to grant claims related to Gulf War Syndrome and Agent Orange exposure had increased the backlog. “Three-and-a-half years ago, we were also still grappling with some unresolved issues from past wars — the Gulf War, over 20 years ago, and the Vietnam War, nearly 50 years ago now,” he said. “We didn’t take care of business when we should have decades ago, and some Veterans were dying without benefits.”
However, the backlog problem has more than doubled in the past two years alone. In January 2012, pending claims stood at about 880,000, with 64% backlogged for more than 125 days. That number was up approximately 116,000 over the previous year.
The claims are for veterans with some kind of service-related disability such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or some kind of physical disability caused by injury. Once processed and rated by the VA, veterans receive compensation to help offset the cost of their disability. However, so long as their claims are backlogged, they have no access to compensation.
The VA did not respond to CNSNews.com’s request for comment before this story was posted.
See also these related FOTM posts:
- “Military veterans support Romney by double digits,” Sept. 25, 2012.
- “Military heroes and Romney donors added to POS’s enemies list,” Aug. 21, 2012.
- “Who Needs The Military?,” (Democrats suppress military votes in Ohio), Aug. 2, 2012.
~Eowyn
Thank you Dr. Eowyn for this most informative post, disclosing the disregard for our military by the king and his administration. It is truly disgusting, especially those veterans whose disability claims have been pending so very long whilst receiving no compensation. That is disgraceful. I would suggest the veterans experiencing problems in this regard to go to their federal and state representatives and senators. That will help indeed. I had to help an old friend of mine (God rest his soul since he is deceased), and had a file three inches thick, with useless and duplicative correspondence from the government. I went to my Republican Senator’s office and in three days the problem was solved. Previously I had gone to my Democratic Senator’s office (Harry Reid!) and his assistant lost well-organized files I prepared for him THREE times! Nevertheless, if a veteran has a righteous claim, pursue senators and representatives right away!
And then there’s Shin-sorry… he was always a risk-averse get-along-for-the-advancement kinda guy, what’s he think he’s gonna get for being a good boy– replace Hillary as Scretary of State?
Reblogged this on RD Revilo.
You’ve missed the real story here. In working with perfectly competent and no apparent disabilities military members (an E7 27 year old) in Afghanistan, he relayed a story to me about this. Obama’s administration has purposefully given a lot of training to the troops about “HOW TO CLAIM FOR DISABILITIES”, leaving him the impression if you don’t claim for it, you’re being left behind in getting ‘free money’. Wasn’t that the tactic of Pivens to overload the system to make it go broke? I’ve been around a number of military members or ex military bragging how if they don’t get substantiation from one doctor, they’ll just go to another, to up their “alleged” disability and hence “free money”. Most of these people I’ve seen are perfectly fine, but have been corrupted by this mentality of handouts…!
“You’ve missed the real story here.”
Really? Your arrogance is astounding. You dismiss the 179% increase in backlog of vets disabilities claims based on your anecdotal accounts. In so doing, you’ve also insulted the many HONEST veterans whose disabilities claims are languishing in backlog hell.
Yeah, the folk who assist guys getting out really hype the “disability rating” upon retiring/separating/etc. for more $… but they forget/don’t say/etc. that retirement pay will be deducted by the amount of disability we get so on net it’s meaningless, but there’re be bureaucratic “disability” status when it comes to applying for any other able-bodied public service-type job (cop, FBI, fireman, etc.) that’ll hurt you. Maybe the short-sighted guys who just get out after a couple of years and don’t care about being a cop, fireman, etc. will make out with some free VA disability cash, but it’s not worth it for anyone else unless the were really got broken-up in the service.
Democrats like veterans… who’re dead, so they cost less and can safely vote Democrat.
He’s probably sorry they didn’t all get wiped out when they were deployed, he’s so bloodthirsty it’s sickening.
There are Americans in Pakistan fasting and praying for people whose family members were killed by US drone attacks, especially for little children. Why in the world is he BO that is, still in the WH? If the answer is in the question, then I haven’t figured that one out yet, and could anyone explain how he get’s to have almost raised one billion dollars during his campaign? Feel like my head’s going to explode.