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Hey Congress - Why Not Call Broken Bodies Pork?
By Thomas D. Segel
April 18, 2002

Is there anything more important to members of Congress than the men and women of our armed forces? When it comes to those who retired from active duty with physical disability, the answer is... just about everything.

If we look back to Congress 112 years ago, the same attitude prevailed. In 1890 that august body passed a law which required one dollar be deducted from the retirement check of each soldier, sailor, or Marine for each dollar of disability compensation the individual received. This law remains on the books today. For more than one hundred years our retired service personnel have been paying for their own disabilities.

For decades military personnel and supporting organizations have been fighting to have the law repealed. They are always given the same answer from Congress in the form of a question. "Where do we find the money?"

The money to correct this legislative misdeed could have been found this year or any year, if bodies broken in the defense of this country were important to Congress. However, finding $450,000 to restore chimneys on Cumberland Island in Georgia took priority.

Congress might have been able to find money for those wheelchair bound retirees, if the important work of funding a $50,000 tattoo removal project for California hadn't taken up its time.

Our national lawmakers could have stopped "concurrent receipt" injustice and restored payments to those with missing limbs at the same time the Appropriations Bill was completed. But, then they might have been forced to give up $249,000 to buy laptop computers for every student at Schurz Elementary School in Nevada.

In the world of politics all of this deplorable tax spending is called pork. To understand just what kind of legislation it is, you must first know these items serve only a specific senator or representative's locale or special interest. This type of funding was never specifically authorized. It was not competitively awarded. It was never requested by the President or any governmental agency... and it was never subjected to a congressional hearing.

"But, they are such little amounts", our elected officials cry out. Yes, they are little amounts which total $20.1 billion for fiscal year 2002. If Congress could have restrained its special interest spending by just 20%, there would have been more than enough money to fund the annual $3.8 billion estimated cost of having the federal government pay for military retirees disability compensation. The more than $20 billion wasted this year would pay those same disability awards for the next five years.

Well these are just people with medical problems, mental health problems, lost limbs and things such has deafness and blindness. We can't find money to correct their plight. After all $273,000 is needed for youth orchestra outreach in Missouri. Then there is the $400,000 needed so to improve sheep profits in Montana. While on the subject, we can't forget the $800,000 Alabama needs to conduct research on oranges. Also, everyone knows Alaska needs its annual tribute, which this year totals $451 million.

Now Congress is said to be considering the partial funding of those who have 60% to 100% disability designations. This is "half a loaf legislation" which to many looks like an effort to pay off or silence those with the most heart breaking claims. Forgotten in this shuffle are the men and women who have disabilities of 50%, 40%, 30%, etc. To our congressional leadership, their pain and suffering have no value. What is really needed now is full repeal of Concurrent Receipt.

"But, where do we find the money", they cry? We suggest it is no further away than their pork barrel.