over 1 million United States veterans were hurt by the herbicide/chemical weapon Agent Orange that has also caused a ton of birth defects in Vietnamese kids. Acute peripheral neuropathy, soft tissue sarcoma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma are just a few of the conditions troops who were either enlisted or chosen to serve came home with. The Washington Post reports that a quarter of the 1 million soldiers receiving disability checks, or 270,000 Vietnam War veterans, will in two months get compensation for diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s and different types of leukemia. In the next ten years, the United States working class can have to cover a lot to support this. About forty two billion dollars could be spent on it.
Agent Orange causes every little thing from diabetes to erectile dysfunction
According to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, diabetes is the most common Agent Orange-related medical complication Vietnam veterans face. Other conditions, such as erectile dysfunction, that would otherwise be attributed to age are being tied to Agent Orange, so veterans are being compensated. Former Wyoming Republican senator and current chairman of President Obama’s deficit commission, Alan Simpson, has said such compensation flies within the face of commitments to control federal spending.
“The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,” he said.
Taxpayers are simply paying for “presumptive conditions” if you ask Sen. Daniel K. Alkaka (D-Hawaii). He is on the veteran’s Affairs Committee. The Post found an email stating Alkaka’s plans to be in a hearing on “what changes Congress and also the VA may need for making to existing law and policy,” around September 23.
VA spending is not right
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs might end up paying too much for Vietnam veterans with diabetes, says the Associated Press. Independent calculations based on VA records show that only $850 million a year is needed to help those with diabetes. Unfortunately, the VA’s numbers are much higher than that. A $42 billion increase in the next ten years is a huge leap from the $34 billion a year the VA already spends on disability benefits for American veterans.
Then there’s the ‘Credible evidence for association’
Victoria Anne Cassano, the Veterans’ Health Administration Director of Radiation and Physical Exposures, points to a 1991 federal law on Agent Orange that states that a positive link between afflictions and the chemical agent exists “if the credible evidence for the association is equal to or outweighs the credible evidence against the association.”
It isn’t hard to prove that. The Post reports this. Cassano says, “Does it make you take a deep breath? Does it give you pause? Yes. However you still do what you think is the right thing to do.”
Additional reading
U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs
publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/diseases.asp
Washington Post
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/31/AR2010083106819.html
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange
The children of Agent Orange, 2008 (WARNING: Disturbing content)
youtube.com/watch?v=9zay0zcC0K4
