The Republican majority of the House Budget Committee approved a federal budget reducing funding for veterans health care and benefit programs by nearly $25 billion. The proposed budget cut $844 million from the President’s request for veterans’ health care next year. Over a ten-year period the GOP is proposing a cut of $9.7 billion in veterans’ health care—an average of more than $900 million less than the President has proposed per year. For other veterans’ benefits, including cash payments to veterans disabled by military service, the Republican budget calls for a $463 million cut during the next year and a $15 billion cut in spending from current levels during the next ten years. The House Budget Committee is chaired by Congressman Jim Nussle (R-IA).
By a nearly party-line vote of 22-19, Republicans defeated an amendment offered by Democratic Representatives Darlene Hooley, Tammy Baldwin, Dennis Moore, Chet Edwards, Bobby Scott, Lois Capps, and Artur Davis that would have restored the proposed $844 million for veterans health care and added a billion dollars to the VA’s budget for discretionary programs. These cuts are made to a budget that already relies upon $1.1 billion in vaguely defined management efficiencies and $1.4 billion in mostly unpalatable legislative and policy proposals already included in the President’s budget. The amendment would also have restored the Budget Committee’s proposed $463 million in cuts to veterans’ benefits. Only Republican Ginny Brown-Waite, a member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs, crossed party lines to vote for increased funding for veterans.
Judge them by what they do, not what they say.
