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Strong Voting Block Targets Officials Who Fail Military Test
By Thomas D. Segel
May 23, 2002

Hey Senator Pork! Hey Representative Special Interests! Your days of feeding at the public banquet table could be coming to an end. At least that is the plan of a unified Veterans Voting Block.

Seeing special interest legislation and pork barrel spending abound, while at the same time there is a lack of accomplishment on key issues of the active duty, retired military and veterans has caused a new advocacy group to be formed to champion specific, long requested legislation.

The growth of personal computers and the Internet has allowed the establishment of The Military Retirees Grass Roots Group, The Uniformed Services Disabled Retirees, The Military Health Care Reclamation Group, Veterans of the Vietnam War, Gulf War Veterans, Womenvets, The Veterans of Modern Wars Together, and many similarly related organizations. They are made up of thousands of individuals across the United States who are determined to end political discrimination against the military community. These are also the same people who make up the Veterans Voting Block and will target political office holders who either support of fail to endorse specific military retiree, active duty and veteran issues.

According to retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles Revie of Las Cruces, New Mexico, "Over the years, we have treated our military shoddily. Between wars we allow our military to deteriorate in all areas...pay, equipment, training, preparedness, facilities. When our foreign policy and diplomacy fail, we call upon our neglected military to reestablish order or otherwise impose our will."

As a member of the Veterans Voting Block Board of Directors, Revie is part of the vanguard which will make these facts known to the general public. "We never seem to learn from the past", he says. "We thank our military, not with those services and benefits the government has promised, but with monuments and testimonials. We take away those promises."

What promises were taken away? A change of the law in 1956 took away the earned health care from every career member of the armed forces. It also took away hisor her right to receive treatment at a military medical facility, making care for the retiree or a family member only available if time, space and funding permitted.

With the changes in civilian health care under a convoluted Tricare treatment program many active duty and retired personnel found doctors had become unwilling to accept them as patients.

Four rounds of Department of Defense initiated Base Realignment and Closure in recent years have severely restricted both the availability and access to medical treatment facilities by military retirees throughout the entire country.

The demand of all retired military personnel is for health care to be restored to the original promised level.

Veterans also have issues with the government and its continued denying of responsibility by engaging in broken promises. The Veterans Administration health facilities are habitually understaffed and under funded. This hurts both the administration of claims and medical services. In addition, non-emergency access to local health care services is very restricted by the VA, often causing veterans delays in treatment and travel over great distances to reach an authorized facility. Correcting these problem areas is a major concern.

For the disabled military retiree the issue of Concurrent Receipt holds the priority position. Passed into law in 1892 and reaffirmed again in 1944, this legislation requires a disabled individual to give up one dollar of retired pay for each dollar of disability compensation he or she receives.

This law does not impact any other federal salaries or annuities....only the disabled military retiree. There is some pending legislation to grant partial relief to those retirees with 60% to 100% disability. However, it only restores a small portion of their retired pay...and it only impacts 65,000 of the estimated 500,000 military retirees who have been certified by the VA as disabled. The objective of all disabled retirees is 100% restoration of their retirement pay. for ALL disability ratings

The federal government promised all military personnel who signed up and paid premiums into the Survivor Benefit Program that in the event of the members death his surviving spouse would receive 55% of his retired pay. Then the government changed the rules and a widow, who reaches age 62 finds her percentage of retired pay lowered from 55% to 35%. And even though all premiums were paid, based on the 55% amount, unused Moines are never returned.

Both the active duty and retired military personnel want all payments restored to the 55% level they were originally promised.

Those retirees and career active duty personal who have faced the issue of divorce want some fairness legislated into the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act. As the USFSPA is written, a non military former spouse is entitled to payments directly from the service members retirement pay...and they will be continued, even after he or she remarries. Other federally mandated payments are discontinued if the individual remarries, but can be restored if that remarriage fails.

The USFSPA legislation also treats VA compensation as "property" and can have that disability payment included in the settlement.

Another part of the same legislation gives the former spouse rights to all pay increases a member received during a twenty to thirty year career...even if the divorce took place years before those pay increases were received. Further, the former spouse is entitled to the retirement pay even before the military member has earned retirement.

Military personnel and veterans all want fair treatment and equity written into a reform of this legislation.

One other item is included in the six main issues the Veterans Voting Block has identified as mandatory for a candidate or office holder to receive its support. They want an item of legislation called the Feres Doctrine eliminated.

The Feres doctrine bars a service member and family from initiating lawsuits against the government for medical malpractice. Similarly, a veteran can not bring suit against the government for medical malpractice related to care provided by VA facilities.

These are the key points the Veterans Voting Block has brought to the table. They are all the result of broken government promises and this group of warriors and former warriors want fairness put in place of failed words.

They are not limiting or targeting any specific party. However, as a huge body of votes, they plan to identify those officials who support their cause and those who have proven their support false by legislative action. Can this make a difference? Well, they believe that with their combined strength, plus the votes they can rally to their side from family members, friends and sympathetic supporters, close elections can be won or lost by the direction of their vote.

Can any of this become a reality? Those members of the House and Senate who don't think it is possible should remember these are the people who have defeated much stronger enemies than the crowd which regularly dips into the Washington pork barrel.