Shame On US! The Mistreatment Of Widows Of Our Deceased Vets

Left Behind - New York Times
Left Behind
By DAN SHEA
Published: February 13, 2006

"My brother Lt. Col. Kevin Shea was killed by a rocket attack in Falluja on Sept. 14, 2004. He knew the risks when he joined the Marine Corps in 1989. But he also thought that if anything ever happened to him, the United States government would take care of his wife, Amy, and his two children. Sadly, that's not the case. Since Kevin died, Amy has had to deal with not only the grief of losing her husband and her best friend, but also with the difficulties of financially coping with life without him. Like most military spouses, during her time with Kevin, Amy endured multiple moves across the country and long deployments that forced her to put her career on hold. There are federal programs to assist her, but she and other widows of service members have found that these programs do not provide nearly enough."

President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the government all claim to support our troops and honor their scarifice. But deep down, there has been a long-standing tradition of screwing those that survive our wars. The veterans of WWI had to march on Washington and camp out on the "Mall" to get some attention paid to their rights for compensation. Even veterans of the Civil War were denied compensation and benefits. During the time between View Nam and now, the educational benefits program has changed five times, and at least two of those changes were specifically designed to screw the veteran. If we ask any Service Officer of the VFW, DAV, AmVets, Legion, or Ombudsman for the VA we will find NUMBERS UPON NUMBERs of cases where benefits are denied, delayed or obfuscated with so much red tape... not to mention the number of vets turned away because of funding shortages at the VA. More recently, there was the reports of cases in the national news media that some injured soldiers were getting BILLED for the cost of their body armor that was destroyed during the attack that caused their injuries or during the treatment received at the batallion aid stations.

"You see, basically, a widow of a service member killed in the line of duty has two programs (excluding Social Security) to rely on for financial help. The first is a survivors' plan paid by the Department of Defense, which is about 41 percent of the deceased person's monthly salary before taxes. The second program is a dependent's compensation paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs that is $1,033 a month tax free, plus a modest sum added for every dependent child. Sounds fair, right? But here's the problem: under the current law, the payment from the Defense Department to a surviving spouse is reduced dollar for dollar by the Veterans Administration's payment. So while you would think my sister-in-law, as the wife of a lieutenant colonel whose basic monthly salary is $4,431.60, would receive about $2,850 a month (41 percent of $4,431.60, or $1,817, plus $1,033), in fact, all she's getting is $1,817, that is, $784 from the Pentagon and $1033 from Veterans Affairs. Moreover, if Amy, who is 41 years old, remarries before the age of 55, she gets nothing."

This is a profound case of the right hand stealing from the left hand and leaving widows and their children out of promised protection. Recently the Pentagon announced that its beefed up budget would not be spent on recruiting needed replensihments of the readiness force, but on multi-million dollar research programs for high-tech weapons that many claim are overkill and unneeded. We are funding these unneeded weapons on the backs of those that serve faithfully.

"The wife of a low-ranking enlisted soldier, say, a Marine lance corporal, is even worse off. All she gets is the dependent's payment of $1,033, because there is nothing left of her husband's salary after this so-called widow's tax takes its bite."

The enlisted personnel have always taken it on the chin in terms of benefits and compensation. There is a triple standard for our troops... and somebody is always treated as if they were "lower than whale feces on the ocean floor."

"This past Veterans Day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to endorse an amendment proposed by Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, to the defense authorization bill that would have eliminated the widow's tax. The bill then went into conference, where House and Senate members worked out various differences before a final vote by Congress. During that time, the amendment was removed. One can only assume that certain members of the Senate had no intention of backing the amendment but were reluctant to appear unsupportive of our troops on Veterans Day, of all days."

When we call for reform in congress we should also call for rule changes on how laws can be developed, how amendments are handled, on what amendments can be offered and how a bill can be significantly modified in the process. But in this specific case we need to hold the feet of every congress critter to the fire to support the families of our veterans.

"If President Bush really wants to honor the men and women fighting this war — and dying like my brother — then he should call on Congress to eliminate the widow's tax. It's the least he can do."

God only knows that President Bush is accomplished at doing the LEAST he can do.