(Washington D.C.) – President Trumps Fiscal year 2018 budget plan unfairly attacks elderly disabled Veterans, leaving thousands unsure about their future. This Budget goes against the basic military ethos, “never leave a Comrade behind’.
“Just because there is a new generation of Veterans does not give Politicians the right to attack and forget about the hero’s that have come before us, they have done so much to support my generation of veterans it is time we stand up for them,” said Will Attig Director of the Union veterans Council and Iraqi War Veteran.
On May 23, the Trump Administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs released the first budget request for Fiscal Year 2018, which begins on October 1, 2017. President Trump’s budget proposal calls for terminating Individual Unemployability (IU) benefits to those eligible for Social Security retirement benefits, under the erroneous rationale that this constitutes a duplication of benefits. The Individual Unemployability program supports veterans who cannot find work due to service-connected injuries, many of whom have been unable to contribute to Social Security as a result, of those injuries. This budget proposal would affect nearly every Vietnam-era veteran whose survival depends on the income from Individual Unemployability.
“We must remember that these patriots were just young men and women when they wrote a blank check to our nation, growing old is not an excuse to leave them abandoned facing, poverty and homelessness."
Contact: William Attig
202.637.5233
[email protected]