How to get the SAVE Act passed.

Administratively change the current identification requirements get any Welfare benefits; Section 8 housing, SNAP benefits, food stamps, alcohol, cigarettes, schooling, mortgages, drivers licenses (or any license of any kind) student aid, college admission, financing for any loan or any health care, bank accounts and the like.

Require the same ID the SAVE Act requires to get any government benefit of any kind, and to make any age-limited purchase.

A lot of that can be done without congressional approval through the regulatory process.
Or, in the alternative?  Pass the SAVE Act.

Those opposed to the SAVE Act are, effectively, telling us that if these additional programs required SAVE Act ID, millions more people would be starving, homeless and totally without health care, schooling, loans, bank accounts... you name it.

Which is a crock.

Those needing that ID to get those goodies would walk thru fires and walls to get it, and opponents damned well know it.

There is no excuse for opposing this law, save one: leftist politicians believe the left benefits from illegal voters. Period.

Anything else is horseshit eyewash.

I oppose the expansion of VA benefits bill, HR 6047: the devil is in the details.

Weeellll…. I knew this was going to happen.

I am steadfastly opposed to the latest expansion of veteran’s benefits, aka HR 6047.

Even though it’s a Republican bill, I agree with the democrats who voted in opposition to it in committee.

Why?

Because the devil is in the details.

A lot of veterans were excited over expansion of the VA bill to include personnel who had not set foot in Vietnam to become eligible for Agent Orange benefits if they had, for example, come into contact with it as a part of their job outside Vietnam proper, this is typically called expanding the Agent Orange coverage and benefits to the “Blue Water Navy”

For example, personnel on aircraft carriers where missions were flown over Vietnam.

When aircraft returned, they’d frequently be covered in Agent Orange dust… dust the deck crews would clean off the planes.

The contact would be the same. The cancers would be the same. The birth defects would be the same. Even though they may have never physically set foot in-country.

As a retired Veterans Service Officer who worked to get vets connected to VA benefits, I knew that expansion was necessary. And I was for it, until…

Then, a few years later, along came the Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act of 2025

This act was mainly aimed at increasing, improving educational opportunities and scope of educational opportunities for veterans and their families in areas of assistance, housing benefits, inclusion of trade schools like CDL schools and the like, again a worthwhile expansion which I again supported, until…

And now, we’re confronted with yet ANOTHER expansion of VA benefits, H.R.6047, officially named the Sharri Briley and Eric Edmundson Veterans Benefits Expansion Act, Which expands benefits for “catastrophically” disabled veterans their families and survivors. The bill increases in financial support for benefits that have not been increased “significantly” in decades, including a $10,000 per year increase for those receiving “special military compensation,” again a laudable goal, well deserved and one I could support until…

All three of these efforts, which the sponsors and supporters, including, naturally, the major veteran’s organizations such as the VFW, the Vietnam Veterans of America and the like all support, will set about to brag about their lobbying efforts to make this bill happen.

On the surface, these bills are easy to support. But when the Representatives go home and start bragging about these efforts, there’s one element you can bet they won't be bragging about:

How it’s paid for.

What all THREE of these bills have in common is that these increases will be paid for by veterans and veterans alone.

HR 6047 is funded by eliminating the VA home loan funding fee exemption for disabled veterans with ratings of 70% or below when they use their VA loan benefit for a second or subsequent home purchase. This change is intended to cover the estimated $10 billion cost of increasing benefits for severely disabled veterans and their survivors over the next decade.

The same veterans groups that sold us out on the expansion of Agent Orange benefits bill and The Dole VA Improvement Act are also selling us out on this bill.

Until now, if you had a service-connected disability or any kind, you were exempt from a substantial amount of the VA loan fees. For those veterans without disabilities, those fees were increased to cover the cost of the Agent Orange Expansion Bill, with a sunset clause of 2031.

When the Dole Bill passed, the sunset was extended to 2034.

And now, with this bill, even if you have substantial disabilities equal to 70%, you get no discount at all.

I’m not the brightest bulb on the tree but I am detecting a pattern here.

Now, at the outset, these bills do not impact me in the least.

Yet.

But they WILL impact millions of new veterans trying to get home loans in an increasingly out of control housing market cost, making it even LESS affordable for the veterans we have now and those following along behind us.

If these bills have merit, and it would seem that they do… then why are ONLY VETERANS PAYING FOR IT???

Why are we sending billions to foreign countries like Ukraine and Israel for their militaries… but we have to nickel and dime our veterans here?

As merited as these bills are, I did not support the first two and will not support this one if veterans are forced to bear the burden of the costs of these expansions.

Veterans are veterans. And now, this is becoming a dual class of veteran (until they eliminate any veteran housing benefit altogether to pay for some other bright idea fairy debacle) where there are the haves and have nots.

This is not fair. It is not just. It is not right.

Veterans should not be forced to pay for benefits that should be the responsibility of the entire taxpaying public we died or were injured defending.

I knew after the Agent Orange expansion that they would keep coming back to this convenient well to rip off veterans for benefits the general fund should be paying for. And it saddens me I was right.

BOTH sides of the aisle should know better, not just the democrats who opposed this bill in committee.

Find some other way to pay for it or don’t do it at all, because eventually, you’ll run out of benefits to take away to pay for these new programs.

Major Egan, Why'd you do it? (Originally published here on 24 Dec 08)

(NOTE: I've been posting this for 13 years now... even though it doesn't seem to be that long.

It was a part of why I decided when I retired to stop just talking about veteran issues and to start doing something about it.

Last year (2018-since retired for medical reasons), I became a veteran service officer for the Washington State Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America.  And for that organization, I also became Chair of Veteran Benefits Programs for this state.

If you need help, please contact a Veteran Service Officer through the Clark County Veterans Assistance Office at 1305 Columbia Street, Vancouver, WA 98660 or make an appointment by calling 360.693.7030.

All charitable organizations need actual hands-on help more than they need money.  Giving donations to these groups is important. Actually becoming involved is even more important.

I urge you to find some group that you can help... and get out there and help them.  The pay is practically nothing if you go to work for them.

But the rewards are incalculable.)

I originally posted this 13 years ago today (24 Dec). And it bears repeating.

This story was in the paper... although, unfortunately, not on the Columbian web.

It is the story of a retired Army Major, one Thomas Egan; a veteran of 2 years on the Korean DMZ, a Master's graduate of the University of Oregon; a retired Oregon Army National Guard officer.

He was found dead, apparently frozen to death, next to a bottle of booze, in Eugene, Oregon within the past few days.

Unfortunately, the story speaks for itself. Sometimes, the desire to destroy one's self can overwhelm all other instincts.

I never knew you, Major, but we served together at the same time. I have no idea what happened to you, but I wish I did... and I wish it could have been fixed.

Tomorrow is Christmas. If you know someone who needs help, take the time and the effort to try and get that help to them. Major Egan had help available, but made bad choices when it came to using it.

As I look outside at the foot of snow, I ask myself: "how many Major Egans are there?"

Is there more that could have been done?

Probably not.

But I wish there had been.

Good bye, Major. From all accounts, you served us honorably and well. I never met you, but I won't forget you.

I could have been you.

Soldier’s death resonates 

Homeless veteran froze to death though services were available

By JACK MO
(Eugene) Register-Guard 

EUGENE, Ore — Thomas Egan was a scholar and a decorated soldier. He was also a homeless alcoholic whose life ended last week when he froze to death in Eugene during an unusually long and harsh cold snap. 

His body was found covered in snow near the corner of West First Avenue and Blair Boulevard, a bottle of liquor by his side. 

News of the demise of the longtime Eugene resident troubled many local veterans — especially those who knew that with some effort and some help, the man they called Major Egan could have had a roof over his head. 

“The whole National Guard community is taking this very hard,” said Bud Dickey, a vocational rehabilitation coordinator with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ community reintegration service center in Eugene. 

“It’s very disturbing for all of us, because Major Egan was retired and could have been drawing his (veterans’) benefits,” Dickey said. “He had options that he did not access.” 

Egan collected monthly Social Security checks, but the amount was a pittance compared with the payments he was entitled to as a retired military veteran. When he turned 60 in July, Egan became eligible to receive $909 each month in National Guard retirement income, Dickey said. 

Egan also could have applied for a separate pension check based on unemployability. “That would have gotten him an apartment if he wanted one,” said Jay Rea, a Springfield resident who served under Egan in the National Guard in the late 1980s. “I shed a tear when I heard he died,” Rea said. “It breaks my heart because he was the friendliest guy, and so smart.” A New York native, Egan joined the Army in 1971 after graduating from Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., with a bachelor’s degree in history. 

He was stationed at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea for two years, and was reassigned to the Oregon Army National Guard in 1977. 

Earned master’s degree 

Egan earned his master’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1983, and ultimately attained the rank of major with the National Guard. 

He retired honorably in 1991, following a 20-year military career during which he was awarded several service medals and ribbons. 

Dickey said Egan’s desire to drink made him ineligible for VA housing programs that require sober living. 

Egan had declined to enroll in substance abuse treatment programs offered through the veterans agency, Dickey said. 

According to those who knew him, Egan worked sporadically. He did some landscaping, and most years helped deliver telephone books. 

Sometimes, he found an apartment to stay in for a while. At other times, he lived on the streets. In August, Egan spent two weeks at the Eugene Mission — which is less than one block from the spot where a passer-by discovered his body last week. 

Mission officials said Egan never caused any trouble there, and could have stayed any time. Dickey said Egan has no relatives in Oregon, and tracking down members of his extended family on the East Coast has been challenging. 

Dickey, who served five years with Egan in the National Guard, is helping to direct an effort to have Egan interred at the Roseburg National Cemetery. 

“He will be buried as a veteran in a veterans’ cemetery,” Dickey said. “He was a good soldier, and we’re going to get him the burial he’s due.”