VA Budget Insufficient

The Veterans for Common Sense, a watchdog group dedicated to health care issues for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, say that the proposed $109B VA budget is not enough. The groups executive director, Pat Sullivan contends that the budget may fall short by as much as 45 percent due to the added costs of treating veterans of the two ongoing operations.

Mr. Sullivan points to VA reports that show increases in veterans seeking medical care. Last year the VA provided care to 480,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans by the end of July and that number is certain to have risen since then. In the past three months the VA reported that an average of 289 additional veterans sought care at their facilities. If this trend continues the VA could see up to 610,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in 2010.

The proposed budget would support 419,000 of these veterans.

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