Reading, VA Care End Eyed for 1.3 Million Vets, my first reaction was that this is but one more case of where Veterans get screwed over. It's a normal reaction for many veterans used to lots of rhetoric and very little delivery by the government who made these men and women veterans in the first place. But, that first reaction is wrong. It's very wrong in fact. As is often the case, the "devil is in the details." The "who" we are talking about are a special category of "Group 8 veterans." They are an artificial class of quasi-veterans created under President Clinton's Administration as a social welfare program under the guise of a veteran's program. They don't have a service connected disability and their status as "veterans" in my book is questionable.
Not too long ago, a close friend, who works for the VA, told me that many of her caseload were Vets who had only remote connections to being a Vet (defined I thought by AD & a honorable discharge). I thought perhaps she had simply got it wrong.
“How can that be,” I asked?
“Simple,” she said.
She added, “They are called 'Group 8' and they include men and women in some cases who spend less than one 1 day in a induction center, never saw a day of active duty, and in many cases they developed a drug/alcohol dependency that they got years later."
From the VA they get medical treatment, often a place to sleep when the streets get too cold, and a monthly stipend to permit them to maintain their addictions. It's a sweet deal for these "veterans" and given the support for the military and veterans in general because of the on-going wars, almost a sacred cow.
What I found outrageous is that the group includes those who have discharges of less than honorable including some that we threw out of the military for their inability to adapt to the being a soldier.
I’ve been told Group 8 vets came along as a part of a social program expansion that during Clinton’s reign. Today, 27% of VA vets are “Group 8 vets.” Bush tried to toss these non-vets from coverage and got beaten up by Congress. This program is actually a poorly camouflaged social program using the VA as cover. This doesn’t help real vets. Programs like this rob from the real veterans with actual service connected disabilities. It’s another scandal that sucks money out of the taxpayer’s wallet and is protected in Congress because it is for “Veterans.”
I find it curious that vet groups like the American Legion are protecting Group 8 vets. I think it’s time to end the nutty altruistic madness. The veterans groups who cry about ending Group 8 need to belly up to the bar and and proclaim, whether they support real veterans with service connected disabilities, or those who the government has deigned "vets" for the purpose of social welfare.
Frankly, Group 8 veterans are essentially an insult to every actual veteran with a service connected disability who has to compete with these scumbags for care in the VA. It's time to fix this insult to those that served their country honorably and have a service connected disability.
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