RGS, If there is one clear thing about republican rule since gaining power under Clinton it is the inability to know what is really going on. I just finished reading, "The Big Con," in which Jonathan Chait itemizes the methods used to keep the electorate in the dark. Amazing stuff. You can argue but a quick search revealed the following items in a few minutes. Call it something other than cuts if you like, but in the end those who did not serve like Bush/Cheney care nada about veterans - they care only about their own, the rich and privileged.
http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/dpc-new.cfm?doc_name=tp-108-1-405
The Bush Administration's budget for veterans' health falls far short of needs. Despite the current crisis in veterans' health care - some 130,000 are waiting six months or more for an appointments at VA hospitals and clinics - President Bush submitted a Fiscal Year 2004 budget request for VA health that is $1.8 billion below the Independent Budget produced by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Despite promises by House Republican leaders to increase the VA budget by $3.4 billion, the House Appropriations Committee provided only a $1.4 billion increase. The Senate Appropriations Committee has added $1.57 billion to the President's request, and Democrats will fight to ensure that this funding - which gets around Republican budget constraints by requiring the President to declare an emergency - is protected and will push to increase funding to levels recommended in the Independent Budget.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/12/bush-wants-cuts-to-veterans-health-care/
“The Bush administration plans to cut funding for veterans’ health care two years from now — even as badly wounded troops returning from Iraq could overwhelm the system. Bush is using the cuts, critics say, to help fulfill his pledge to balance the budget by 2012. … Even though the cost of providing medical care to veterans has been growing rapidly — by more than 10 percent in many years — White House budget documents assume consecutive cutbacks in 2009 and 2010 and a freeze thereafter.”
http://usliberals.about.com/od/theeconomyjobs/a/SenateBudget.htm
Veterans Medical Care – The Senate voted 96 to 4 to add $410 million to fund medical services for US veterans. Bush had proposed raising co-payments and eligibility requirements for benefits.
http://choice.blog.com/1536540/
The number of veterans coming into the VA health care system has been rising by about 5 percent a year as the number of people returning from Iraq with illnesses or injuries keep rising. Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans represent almost 5 percent of the VAÂ’s patient caseload, and many are returning from battle with grievous injuries requiring costly care, such as traumatic brain injuries.
All told, the VA expects to treat about 5.8 million patients next year, including 263,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The White House budget office, however, assumes that the veterans’ medical services budget — up 83 percent since Bush took office and winning a big increase in Bush’s proposed 2008 budget — can absorb a 2 percent cut the following year and remain essentially frozen for three years in a row after that.
“It’s implausible,” U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said of the budget projections.