Editor’s Note: This editorial is part of a series that looks at the challenges of tackling the growing federal debt and the specific programs that drive it. Read the previous installment on Medicare.
Opinion Veterans deserve support. But one benefit program deserves scrutiny.
By the Editorial Board
April 3, 2023 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
But the promises America has made to the women and men who have served in uniform are due for a review. The budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has grown at a dramatic pace since 9/11 — from roughly $45 billion in 2001 to more than $300 billion this year.
Many factors contribute to a sharp rise in veteran spending — the aging of post-9/11 veterans, numerous enhancements made by Congress to existing benefit programs, and a more muscular outreach by the department to alert veterans to the care and benefits on offer. In addition, the veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and other post-9/11 conflicts have higher disability rates compared with all veterans, the result of improved battlefield medicine and a broader understanding of the array of service-connected injuries and disabilities.
If we owe our veterans every support, we also owe them a measure of fiscal responsibility. Today, we offer suggestions about how to carefully prune the department’s kudzu-like spending growth.