A newly released report by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has once again made several suggestions on reducing the national budget, and some of the budget cuts would affect over 240,000 disabled veterans. According to many budget pundits, it appears the cuts will take place starting in 2020. The new CBO report proposes dropping over 240,000 disabled veterans from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Individual Unemployability (IU) compensation program by 2020. The cuts could save $47.6 billion in the next 10 years. The CBO report indicated that eliminating veterans from IU once they reach age 67 would be appropriate and cost-worthy, since those veterans would be eligible for Social Security benefits by that age.
The CBO report also maintains that veterans enrolled in IU currently could remain on IU, but, apply the new mandate for all new recipients who gain IU compensation after December 2019. The CBO report also considers elimination VA compensation for: arteriosclerotic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Crohn’s disease, hemorrhoids, multiple sclerosis (MS), osteoarthritis and uterine fibroids.
Another option consider by CBO is to reduce veterans’ disability compensation by 30% once they reach age 67. The CBO also suggested ending VA payments to veterans with disability ratings of 30% or lower for any condition. Lastly, none of the current CBO suggestions have been approved. However, inside analysts are certain, some, if not all of the CBO suggestions will be implemented as a means of trimming the budget.
Replies
I am going to contact my congressmen in Washington to find out about this status. And I will let this place know about it's status.