Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

This is happening at a time when the President just signed into law a tax cut that gave 2.3 million of this nation's wealthiest people additonal refunds of 48,000 dollars per million of income, nice deal if you are one of those 2.3 million people, but for the "avergae middle class taxpayer, it has been said we will get less than 100 dollars.

Now comes this "Bi-Partisan" commission that wants to recommend that disabled veterans and their families get "TOO" much money, and it should be offset against their VA Compensation on an average of 12,000 dollars per year for the 240,000 families that will be affected, hardly seems "fair" does it? These are the men and women who became totally disabled in military service to this nation, not welfare bums looking for a free ride.

The letter below is my reponse to the General and the Commission sent after learning of what they have done:

General Scott and fellow Commissioner's, I like many disabled veterans were sitting on pins and needles for the outcome of this vote. I like many of my fellow disabled veterans were sadly disappointed to see that you have chosen to go down this road. What is that old saying "Let a camel get his nose under the tent flap, and you'll never get rid of him"

I am flabbergasted at your decision, but then again I have been flabbergasted by many of my government's decisions over the past few years. The VA refuses to address my usage in the chemical weapons and drug tests at Edgewood Arsenal in June thru August 1974. They have actually resorted to lying, and saying that I was sent home on 10 July 1974 these 2 documents prove I wasn't.

Letters will not copy: sorry if anyone wants to see them e mail me and I can send  testvet@aol.com

As anyone can see I arrived at Edgewood Arsenal at the end of June and inprocessed on 1 July 1974 the other document shows I was returned to my base (Fort Lewis 9th ID) on 22 August 1974.

Yet the VARO office in Columbia, SC maintains that I was taken ill and sent home on 10 July 1974, I have to believe my own lying eyes, I was there, I know I was in Washington, DC the day Nixon resigned August 9th 1974, so I know I was not back at Fort Lewis Washington in July 1974.

Therefore, none of my medical problems that I have that could and should be service connected to the chemical weapons exposures are. I am SC for PTSD that is a result of a vicious assault and robbery in Fort Wainwright Alaska in Feb 1975 where the 7 men left me for dead unconscious in a snowbank at 20 below zero. But the VARO refuses to SC the known presumptive medical conditions for mustard agents despite my possible use or exposure to them by environmental conditions at Edgewood Arsenal thru water or soil contact during my 59 days in the "medical research unit."

This VA Manual lists 13 known conditions I have 6 of them, coincidence, maybe, but highly doubtful.http://www1.va.gov/...  I have emphysema, ED, PTSD, skin abnormalities, COPD, and OCD. People say I am obsessed with the fact that my Chain of Command allowed me to be used in chemical weapons and drug tests that violated the Nuremberg Codes of 1947 and the VA and DOD refuse to accept responsibility for my current medical condition.

I am in receipt of VA compensation at the 100% P&T rate for PTSD not TDIU a 100% award, so obviously I have some issues. I coped for more than 30 years before my world self destructed, the Army helped, I coped until 1982, then the National Guard helped me keep focused, then Desert Storm, alcoholism, being a work alcoholic helped me cope, but then in May 2000 I couldn't cope any longer, I walked away from my job at the US Postal Service due to stress. I still did not seek help from the government, I tried drinking my way thru it, by January 2003, I knew I needed help, and I met a great VA Doctor, DR Pathiraja, he has got me regulated on meds, that help, but nothing makes the dreams or the flashbacks go away. I have been having LSD type flashbacks for more than 32 years, some last mere seconds others minutes, these are not a reliving experience these are hallucinogenic flashbacks, words coming out of peoples mouths, and growing, people's heads on snake bodies, etc. Yes, I was given LSD while in the Army, NO I never took it just because I wanted to, it was slipped to me, in a coke, I ended up in a padded cell in Madigan Army Medical Center from it.

My SSD was awarded in June 2002 due to the seriousness of my heart disease, which the VA doctors treat, and for that I am grateful, I have had 7 heart attacks, a failed triple by pass, 2 stints, and have been told that no further surgery can be done, I am on a medicate until I die regimen. The VA Cardiologist and the power chair review board, decided my heart and COPD combine to make walking to strenuous on my cardiovascular system, so in September 2003 the VA issued me a power chair. So from a layman's viewpoint my condition must not be very good.

Now I sit here, wondering if you Ladies and Gentlemen are going to recommend that my families income be offset and why? My wife cannot work as taking care of me is a full time job, she is 53 years old.  She is a lovely lady and she was as surprised as I was when in June 2002 my heart went into Congestive heart failure at age 45, and the Doctors told me to file the SSD and VA paperwork in October 2002. It took the VA that long, from June to get a heart catheritization set up, to get the look at the inside of my heart.

Now we like many other totally disabled veterans and their families, the most extreme cases of disability in the VA system. Must wait to see what your Commission recommends, I am not of the belief that your mission is to see that we get more compensation, or to verify that we are being compensated appropriately, rather since 4 of the commissioners were appointed by Democrats, and 4 by Republicans and five of you by the President himself, that shows an imbalance of 9-4, or as I call it a stacked deck. The mission is to find a way to reduce liability to the federal government, and disabled veterans are a minority voting block, there fore we are vulnerable in more than one way.

I have no illusions that you will grand father those of us who are already receiving these payments and our families budgets are based on these incomes, I am sure that the offsets will take effect across the board and it does not matter, how many of us lose our homes to bankruptcy, get divorced over this, at a time when the government in power is passing tax cuts for millionaire's that see them get an additional 48,000 a year in refunds per millionaire, of which there are 2.3 million.

You are going to recommend that my SSD check be offset against my VA compensation, thus cutting my families income by approximately 1/3, with no hope of me being able to replace it, as I have no way to work and replace the lost income.

There is something wrong with this picture, there are approximately 240,000 totally disabled veterans that receive both SSD and VA compensation, and I resent when your commission refers to it as SSI, SSI is a program for people that have insufficient income that the government uses to bring them up to a minimum living standard of 562.00 a month, no disabled veteran should be in receipt of SSI,  SSDI is the INSURANCE part of Social Security and is paid for separately from regular Social Security payments, such as Medicare payments are.

I gave my health, my future, in service to my nation, I have no regrets, I joined the Army, I volunteered to help develop MOPP suits, new gas masks, antidotes for Chemical Weapons on the battlefield. I regret that my Chain of Command failed to protect myself and the other 7119 volunteers of Edgewood Arsenal and the 2300 veterans of the biological weapons tests at Fort Detrick and now refuse to accept responsibility. That the recruiters for the "volunteer" program were not truthful about the scope of the tests and how safe they were supposed to be.

This study from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) dated March 2003, based on data gathered from the 7120 men of Edgewood Arsenal, shows that the tests were anything but safe. 40% of the men were dead in FY2000 2098, and of the 4022 survivors they were able to locate, it shows that 54% or 2200 men were disabled. In FY 2000 these men would have been 65 or younger for the majority part, considering at the time they were chosen for the experiments, they were the healthiest young men the military had to offer, there is no logical explanation for these high death and disability rates of 74.43%. Even Social Security says the average American male will be disabled at the rate of 3 out of 10, not 7.5 out of ten will be dead and disabled.

So, in closing I find the fact that I have sacrificed so much of my life, becoming disabled totally at age 45, unable to play with my grandchildren, no more deep sea fishing trips, 43 medications a day so I can live a few more years. Nothing but aggravation from the nation I served, and now to face having you all, decide to reduce the compensation, my family receives annually, quite frankly sucks. The worst thing is I am helpless in this matter, my only hope now is that Congress becomes democratic in the mid term election and they are able to vote down most of your recommendations as immoral and just flat wrong.

And as I have seen your commission name does need to be changed to "Veterans Disability Benefits Cuts" there is nothing to the contrary that I have seen that would make anyone think differently.

Michael G Bailey

The only hope these disabled veterans have is that the "new" democratic Congress will not allow this to happen. It is obvious that Republicans do not care about the quality of life that totally disabled veterans have, hopefully Democrats will do better by them. I encourage every one to donate a few extra dollars to help the "Fighting Dems" get elected, us totally disabled veterans need them to protect us. This current Congress won't......