(DAN SHEA is an Op-Ed Contributor and brother Lt. Col. Kevin Shea who was killed by a rocket attack in Falluja on Sept. 14, 2004)
Op-Ed Contributor
By DAN SHEA
Published: February 13, 2006
Seattle
MY brother Lt. Col. Kevin Shea was killed by a rocket attack in Falluja on Sept. 14, 2004. He knew the risks when he joined the Marine Corps in 1989. But he also thought that if anything ever happened to him, the United States government would take care of his wife, Amy, and his two children. Sadly, that's not the case....
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...You see, basically, a widow of a service member killed in the line of duty has two programs (excluding Social Security) to rely on for financial help. The first is a survivors' plan paid by the Department of Defense, which is about 41 percent of the deceased person's monthly salary before taxes. The second program is a dependent's compensation paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs that is $1,033 a month tax free, plus a modest sum added for every dependent child.
Sounds fair, right?
But here's the problem: under the current law,
the payment from the Defense Department to a surviving spouse is reduced dollar for dollar by the Veterans Administration's payment. So while you would think my sister-in-law, as the wife of a lieutenant colonel whose basic monthly salary is $4,431.60, would receive about $2,850 a month (41 percent of $4,431.60, or $1,817, plus $1,033), in fact, all she's getting is $1,817, that is, $784 from the Pentagon and $1033 from Veterans Affairs. Moreover, if Amy, who is 41 years old, remarries before the age of 55, she gets nothing....
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...This past Veterans Day, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to endorse an amendment proposed by Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, to the defense authorization bill
that would have eliminated the widow's tax. The bill then went into conference, where House and Senate members worked out various differences before a final vote by Congress.
During that time, the amendment was removed. One can only assume that certain members of the Senate had no intention of backing the amendment but were reluctant to appear unsupportive of our troops on Veterans Day, of all days....
(more at link below)
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/opinion/13shea.html?ex=1297486800&en=45e3a6ff5c245a25&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
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