Letter: Veterans may lose benefits for tobacco-related health care

Tuesday, June 2, 1998 | 11:11 a.m.

In a move sure to be viewed by the veterans' community as outrageous and offensive, Congress has passed a plan to eliminate compensation to veterans for tobacco-related disabilities and use savings to pay for an extension of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. It has been stated that the amount to be transferred from the VA is $10.5 billion.

It is the right of every veteran to expect that his government will fulfill its obligation for his service to the country. One of the rights provided through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs allows compensation of veterans with disabilities resulting from tobacco use that began in military service. To deny even this benefit is unjustifiable, and our members are rightly angry and hurt.

Thousands of American veterans will be unjustly denied the compensation and medical care they require if the current plan is carried out. In those cases, the government will willfully abdicate its moral obligation to provide compensation and medical care to veterans suffering from service-connected illnesses and disabilities incurred or aggravated as a result of their military service.

The VA general counsel has ruled that veterans are entitled to benefits for disabilities resulting from tobacco use during their service to their country. But the Clinton administration and Congress want to suborn their moral and legal obligations in a vain attempt to hand out pork projects.

They have decided to willingly forget the importance of veteran programs, and how small a price it is to pay back for the service a veteran gave to his country in time of war. The Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. calls upon the American public to speak out against these egregious actions undertaken by the Clinton administration and the Congress.

Irving Finver, commander, Department of Arizona-Nevada, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A.