More than 5 million veterans, as well as some active-duty service members, will not receive crucial benefits after Nov. 1 if the government shutdown continues for much longer, the secretary of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday.
Eric Shinseki, a retired Army general, told members of Congress on Wednesday that the ongoing government shutdown affects his department's ability to dispense compensation, employment and pension payments, vocational and rehabilitation services, as well as education under the GI Bill.This affects 5.18 million beneficiaries, he told the House Veterans Affairs Committee, including spouses and children who have lost military family members."By and large, our patient population is older, sicker and in need of our support," Shinseki said. "For a large portion of them, our compensation or beneficiary checks are crucial to their ability to have order in their lives."
as a military pension and VA health care recipient i can attest to that, where's the "we care about our vets", the republicans have been claiming, hell where's the love for America and it's people they are depriving right where we always knew it to be in their mouths and once it escapes like halitosis it dispenses in the polluted air their deregulation efforts support.
"The longer we go, then the start-up will just take longer," he said Wednesday. "I will not be able to pay all those beneficiaries who are expecting those checks."Funeral services will also be delayed, Shinseki said, as military cemeteries have transferred to a "modified burial schedule."The VA will continue taking care of families "and burying our honored, but it won't be at the rate we had planned or will like," he said.
this is why they are desperate to blame the Pres. for the shutdown but they forgot they are the ones who first threatened to do it it's on video tape stupid.
