Advocates, economists push for veteran trust fund to cover ‘real cost’ of war

Some lawmakers stayed in DC this morning for a hearing on the “True Cost of War.” Veterans, their family members, military officials and economists testified before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. Veterans advocates said many wounded vets face hardships in accessing resources, getting proper diagnosis and treatment and securing benefits. And according to Veterans for Common Sense, despite the Obama Administration’s emphasis on a de-escalation of US wars, the number of wounded veterans continues to rise at A constant rate, bringing 9 thousand new patients to VA hospitals each month.

One of those soldiers is Army Sergeant Ryan Major, who was critically wounded in Iraq and whose mother, Lorrie Knight Major to lawmakers her multi-year battle to seek treatment for her son. Major said she was forced to rely on non-profits, such as the group Rebuilding Together, in order to secure proper assistance for her son, like a wheelchair an aid dog and funds to renovate her home.

“Would it have been acceptable to the government for my son to live isolated in a basement because he didn’t have a means of accessing the main areas of the house. Would it have been considered acceptable for him to require sleep medications or someone to be in his room nightly for him to sleep. Is this what the government considers to be the cost of the war?”

Major and others at the hearing called for a veterans trust fund to be established at the time conflict begins, to guarantee adequate funding for soldiers when they return.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University and Nobel prize winner, also testified. He said that studies by the Congressional Budget office and other government agencies support his earlier estimate that the true cost of US conflict in Iraq would be $3 trillion through 2017, a number vastly higher than Bush Administration officials cited in the lead up to the war. He said it is possible to get data to make reasonable estimates, but that was not done before Iraq, which precluded a meaningful debate on what he called “a war of choice.”

“Without good information, there cannot be good decisions, about going to war, about exiting the war, about the conduct of war. But even more is at stake as we face intense budgetary pressures in coming years. We have an implicit contract with our veterans who have served their country so well. But the way the political and budgetary process is in process is conducted today fails to recognize this. Veterans expenditures are subject to the same pay go rules as other expenditures. This puts our commitment to our veterans in jeopardy.”

Stiglitz and public finance professor Linda Bilmes co-authored a book published two years ago predicting the $3 trillion price tag. They point out that war often has social costs that aren’t considered including domestic abuse, divorce, substance abuse and the loss of quality of life due to physical injuries and mental health issues caused by war.