Former Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin recently co-authored an op-ed stating that veterans’ disability compensation payments must be curtailed, and proposed a method for cutting them. If endorsed by Congress, his proposed changes — which purport to incentivize health, reduce costs, and solve the problem of rising compensation costs — would result in fewer payments to veterans for injuries and illnesses.
There is no evidence that these reforms would repair VA’s processes or reduce the appeals backlogs. The Shulkin proposal is also divorced from the wartime policies that gave birth to the large cohorts of injured veterans. Moreover, he relies on a myth that VA disability compensation costs are a greater burden on the taxpayer than the national debt. Veterans should not be the first place we look for savings for taxpayers. It is disappointing that the previous secretary, who was dismissed from the department, is so eager to reduce veterans’ benefits, which they earned through military service.
Setting aside his true motive and endgame, Shulkin’s proposals are merely iterations of past proposals. It’s interesting that he should bring them up now, as he did not improve the processes in question when he had the opportunity. As during his tenure, Shulkin fails to appreciate that the bureaucracy is the problem. VA leaders have received many proposals to bring in automated processes, and while these have received attention from independent reviewers, VA executives have long avoided the difficulty of testing these modern approaches against the legacy of bureaucratic practices.
The changes would require a consistent engagement with congressional committees and a great deal of public accountability. Instead of such bold leadership, we have witnessed veteran service failures and employee spending scandals, which have sadly come to characterize the VA in the public mind.
Rather than rework old ideas about cutting benefits, let’s focus on actions that the new Congress and leadership can take to improve VA for veterans.
First, let’s empower veterans to make long-term economic choices about their benefits. Let them use the GI Bill to start small businesses and pursue specialized careers and to thrive independently. There are numerous proposals that would help achieve this end.
Second, let’s reconnect the war costs to the full human cost. Clearly, war is expensive and bad for human health. As such, we should connect wartime budgeting with medical assumptions. Congress finally did right by our Vietnam veterans when it opened up areas of presumption surrounding Agent Orange. The conversations around disability compensation should continue within the framework of total war costs.
Third, let’s require VA to be fully accountable for how it spends taxpayers’ money in discretionary budgets.
Americans have a strong reverence for military service. They don’t want to see our government betray our social and legal obligations to our veterans. And they quickly see that the “budgetary pressure” arguments are phony, especially when these are pushed by private sector consultants.
President George Washington wrote in 1781 to the first governor of Connecticut, Jonathan Trumbull: “Permit me sir to add, that policy alone in our present circumstances, seems to demand that every satisfaction which can be reasonably requested, should be given to those Veteran Troops who through almost every distress have been so long and so faithfully serving the states”.
Washington’s intent is relevant today, especially as a new Congress has recently reconvened and a relatively new VA secretary continues to grapple with real challenges.
Mike Zacchea is a combat-wounded Marine veteran and chairman of the U.S. Veterans Chamber of Commerce. Christopher Neiweem is an Iraq War veteran and vice president of Next Veterans.
