http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=5315Washington, D.C. – Congressman Lane Evans of Illinois, Senior Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on the President’s State of the Union address:
When President Bush delivers his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday he no doubt will claim credit for a great many things. But as so often happens with this Administration, the rhetoric is contradicted by reality – what you see and hear is not always what you get.
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Since fiscal year 2002, which marks the first budget submitted by his Administration, the President has requested an average annual increase of only 3.4 percent in appropriated dollars for VA health care. In fact, for this current fiscal year, the President initially requested an increase in appropriated dollars of only 0.4 percent. Congress has provided an average annual increase of 7.9 percent. Although this average increase of 7.9 percent is over twice as much as the President has requested, it has not been sufficient to meet the needs of the Nation’s veterans. The VA itself testified that it requires a 13 to 14 percent annual increase just to keep up. The President wishes to take full credit for a funding job less than half-done, while his Administration stands by and watches the care gap widen.
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The President denied access to more than 260,000 veterans who sought VA care in fiscal year 2005 and upwards of a half million in the last two years, solely as a cost-cutting measure;
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