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​GORMAN: End poverty for disabled veterans

The current treatment of injured soldiers is a disgrace

Veterans of the American military are special people. They are protectors of the populace, guardians of American liberty who voluntarily risked their lives in order to preserve and extend the core ideals of our nation. They are individuals who embody the concept of honor while serving as models for bravery and unselfish sacrifice in their service, regardless of achievements or accolades. They are, for these reasons, deserving of protection from the punishing force of the American socioeconomic system, which overwhelmingly favors educational attainment over fairness and morality.

Veterans, however, are hardly receiving the basic protections they deserve from the federal government. This fact is evident in a variety of publicly-accessible reports on veteran poverty — made available through the Department of Veteran Affairs — which reveal a wide range of data and analysis concerning the economic status of veterans. One especially interesting report titled “Veteran Poverty Trends” analyzes statistical data about veteran poverty rates in comparison to those of the general public.

This report contains a shocking fact about the treatment of veterans upon their return from service: disabled veterans under the age of 65 have significantly higher poverty rates than those of non-veterans. In fact, according to a chart earlier in the report, a disabled person between the age of 35 and 54 who is currently living in poverty is significantly more likely to be a veteran than a non-veteran.

Although the report tries to lessen the blow of this fact by indicating that veteran poverty rates in general are lower than the national average, the implication of the statistics for disabled veterans reveals a clear injustice in our government’s treatment of former servicemen. Those who truly sacrificed their body through providing an invaluable service to this nation, those who damaged some aspect of their mind, body or spirit in the field of battle, are more likely to face economic hardship than many other demographics of disabled people in the United States.

Although our nation’s legislators have implemented a system of compensation for veterans who are “at least 10 [percent] disabled,” the continued and increasing poverty rate for these individuals reveals the inefficiency of this system, simultaneously raising important questions about the causes our government deems “worthy” of funding appropriately.

Why are veterans not held in higher esteem by the entity they risked their lives to protect? By virtue of the poverty report, the Department of Veteran Affairs has blatantly acknowledged its failure to do its job and its shocking ineffectiveness in ensuring decent living conditions for a large number of our nation’s servicemen. The Obama administration alleges its commitment to provide adequate treatment to veterans, while the department designated to do so is wholly unequipped to provide these people, especially the disabled, with the treatment they deserve.

Certainly, the Department of Veteran Affairs is not the culprit in the mistreatment of our disabled servicemen; its intentions are noble and impactful, but its capacity for social influence extends directly from the tight pockets of a hopelessly gridlocked Congress, which simply does not place enough emphasis on treating disabled veterans fairly. Currently, the Department of Veteran Affairs has over 360,000 pending claims for veteran pension and disability benefits, primarily due to understaffing and inefficient technology that create an incredibly discouraging network of bureaucracy for veterans. The “backlog” of these claims, or the number of servicemen who have been waiting for more than 125 days for their claims to be filled, is currently over 75,000. And, sadly, a portion of veterans who currently reside in the cruel limbo of the “backlog” are not only disabled, but are inescapably trapped in the chains of poverty, waiting for the federal government to come through on its promise to provide them with monetary aid.

Without a doubt, appropriations toward the Department of Veteran Affairs need to be substantially increased, so the organization can properly staff its locations nationwide and swiftly process the claims of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who are calling out for help, especially those whose mobility and career opportunities are tarnished by the disabilities they incurred fighting for our freedom. Voluntary service cannot be equated with poverty; it is unethical, and it is an insult to some of the most inspiring and most courageous men and women this country has to offer. Veterans have provided the American people with an invaluable service; it is time we return the favor.

Ryan Gorman is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at r.gorman@cavalierdaily.com.

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