[Task & Purpose] Veterans groups are venting their frustration over a Washington Post editorial that calls on Congress to more closely scrutinize veterans’ disability benefits claims as a way to cut costs.The April 3 editorial suggests that one reason the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget has rocketed from $45 billion in 2001 to more than $300 billion in 2023 is that the post-9/11 wars have higher disability rates when compared with all veterans due to "improved battlefield medicine and a broader understanding of the array of service-connected injuries and disabilities."
In other words, many veterans who were wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere suffer from lifelong injuries and other ailments that would have killed them in previous wars.
Noticeably absent from the editorial was any mention of how 20 years of war — the longest period of sustained conflict in U.S. history — may have contributed to the increase in the number of disabled veterans.
But the real problem, according to the editorial, is that the VA has not significantly revised its disability ratings system since 1945, when most veterans worked jobs that required physical labor, whereas most jobs in today’s information and service economy require a different set of skills.
Noting that "disability payments based on those ratings go to veterans tax-free and continue, with some exceptions, for the entirety of a veteran’s life," the editorial argues that Congress needs to modernize the disability ratings system. It also cites a December 2022 report from the Congressional Budget Office — which has also been widely criticized by veterans — that suggested phasing out veterans’ disability benefits as they earn higher salaries.
"The Congressional Budget Office estimates limiting payments for veterans who earn more than $170,000 a year would save $253 billion over the next decade," the editorial says. "Congress could alternatively tax the benefits, or some portion of them, particularly for new recipients with high incomes."
