There are some interesting suggestions in the Congressional Budget Office’s ideas for paring operating expenses, in particular, the Veteran’s Administration. Reading one of them late last night was pretty alarming – it discusses adding a “means test” or income threshold to veterans receiving disability payments.

The Congressional Budget Office wants to start means-testing your VA disability payments. pic.twitter.com/M29LV3cUZk

— BKactual (@BravoKiloActual) March 21, 2023

Both hubs and I were, like, HO-LEE-SMOKES and we weren’t the only ones.

On the CBO’s page for “OPTIONS FOR REDUCING THE DEFICIT, 2023 TO 2032–VOLUME I: LARGER REDUCTIONS” with a sub-title of “Reduce Spending on Other Mandatory Programs” they go to town on VA expenditures as one of their budget reduction option calculations. Yes, it’s all in the name of budget science, but in this day and age, with this administration?

CBO periodically issues a compendium of policy options (called Options for Reducing the Deficit) covering a broad range of issues, as well as separate reports that include options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas. This option appears in one of those publications. The options are derived from many sources and reflect a range of possibilities. For each option, CBO presents an estimate of its effects on the budget but makes no recommendations. Inclusion or exclusion of any particular option does not imply an endorsement or rejection by CBO.

What they’ve come up with – what these accounting types have brainstormed – is pretty upsetting for veterans, especially disabled ones.

Now that I think of it, I’m tapping my chin here, trying to do the math, wondering how on earth the VA budget ballooned, to begin with.

Anybody got a clue?

Take their means testing. I realize it’s bean-counting, but what they’ve said is that they’re going to use gross household income to determine where a disabled vet receiving VA payments lands. He continues getting his stipend, the amount is reduced, or they don’t get them at all, because the total amount of income for the household – not the veteran’s income – exceeds what this new rule would have determined to be a reasonable threshold.

…”Under this option, VA would means-test all current and prospective recipients of VA disability compensation beginning in January 2024; after that date, veterans would receive full payments only if their gross household income in the prior calendar year was less than an inflation-indexed threshold for that year. Disability benefits would be phased out at a constant rate for veterans with income above the threshold: For every additional two dollars of gross household income, disability compensation would decrease by one dollar. Under that phaseout, veterans whose gross household income was $170,000 or higher in calendar year 2023 and who would have received the average annual payment would no longer receive any disability compensation from VA in calendar year 2024. There would be no adjustment in the income threshold for household size. The current eligibility requirements and benefits would not change for the surviving family members of a veteran or service member.

The income threshold below which veterans would receive full benefits in 2024 would be set at $125,000. That threshold corresponds to the 70th percentile of total household income for the entire country in 2019, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, with adjustments for inflation to reach the threshold value applicable to 2024 benefits.

Were this rule to be adopted, you could conceivably have a disabled veteran missing a limb whose wife is a, say, bank executive and he would lose his disability because of her salary. If you live, say. in California or New York state, $170K a year for a household is middle class, and now you might lose that extra you earned with your service? That they owe you for the scars on your knees or in your head?

YGTBFKM

So far today, the vast majority of veterans, active duty and their families I’ve spoken to have said, “WHUT?!”

Or worse.

As the old saying goes, “But WAIT! There’s more!”

And there is. Lordy. There’s a plan to wrap VA benefits into Social Security when a disabled veteran hits 67 – of course, that’s with a 30% reduction in his VA disability when he’s eligible to draw full SS.

Neat, huh? Tell you what – that’s a whale of a recruiting tool, and not much of one for retention in the active duty ranks we have now, either.

In addition, should any of this ever see the light of day as REGULATION/LEGISLATION, you’re going to have vets who would be functioning, prospering, meaningful members of society sitting on their butts. Not paying those extra taxes for the work they want and can do. Not being entrepreneurs. And sure as hay-yull not encouraging any youngster they know to lay their lives on the line for a country that can’t keep a single damn promise to take care of them if they get hurt.

My girlfriend, whose husband is a retired Army helo pilot and survivor of – I think – at least 3 helicopter crashes that have left him in agony has been on the phone with two Congressional offices today, asking for updates and info on this. We are trying to clarify if any of these would need Congressional approval as part of the budget process to become law or if these are things that can be arbitrarily adopted by the administration to throttle VA costs.

We are lighting up phones and emails, as well as doing our Paul Revere rides to friends, fellow vets and organizations.

Again, as of this moment, it is all bean-counting conjecture and abacus-cracking for giggles. But we are living in different times, my friends, with mendacious, malevolent clowns ruling us. They need to know that we’ve seen these proposals and will not stand for them to be entertained seriously for a single moment.

Even a couple years ago, this insanity would have been a hoot and a holler.

This volunteer military is not disposable.

Now, it’s deadly serious.