Shredding Our Trust in the VA
VA investigators find entire claims and other critical documents in shredding bins at Detroit Regional Office. VA official will only say, "I can't talk about that."
by Larry Scott
Many veterans who have filed disability claims with the Veterans’ Benefits Administration (VBA) of the Department of Veterans’ Affair (VA) will relate horror stories of misdated, misfiled or lost documents all leading to delays in processing or an outright denial of the claim. The mantra for veterans dealing with the VBA has become: “Delay, Deny and Hope that I Die.”
It has been assumed by many veterans, their Service Officers who help file claims and attorneys who specialize in veterans’ law that the VBA operates in such a way as to deliberately stall or hinder the claim process with the goal of frustrating the veteran to the point where they just forget about the claim and go away. This isn't some grand plan to purposely hurt veterans, but rather a combination of ignorance, arrogance, incredibly bad management and non-existent oversight. While this viewpoint has been labeled cynical by some and outright paranoid by others, new information is surfacing that shows the cynics, and even the paranoids, to be correct.
What We Know
The VA’s Office of Inspector General (VAOIG) has been conducting audits, or investigations, of a number of VA Regional Offices (VAROs). There are over 50 VAROs around the country, each set up to handle the claims of veterans in a particular geographical area.
The latest series of VAOIG investigations centers on charges that VARO administrators and employees deliberately falsified “timeliness” statistics sent to the VA’s Central Office (VACO). This would be information that shows when a claim was received and how, with a documented timeline including date/time stamps, it moved through the process.
The first heads have begun to roll in this investigation. During the week of October 6, 2008, four employees at the New York VARO, including the Director, were placed on administrative leave. More accurately, they were removed from their positions awaiting the outcome of the investigation. Sources close to this investigation say that those removed, and others, were found to have been fudging the “timeliness” figures. And, there are allegations that documents, including paperwork essential to the claim process had been destroyed.
Another VARO under investigation is Detroit. On September 5, 2008, VARO employees were called to a meeting with the main topic being their poor performance levels. They were told that the Director had been called to Washington to answer questions regarding the poor performance.
At that meeting, VARO officials announced an “amnesty period” for anyone who had old claims at their desk or stashed in other places around the office, a direct procedural violation. Employees were told to turn in paperwork so they could try to get the “timeliness” numbers up. Officials also stated that a VAOIG team would be coming shortly to inspect the VARO and urged all employees “to be prepared.”
By mid-September the VAOIG team had arrived at the Detroit VARO. What they found staggers the imagination. VAOIG discovered hundreds of claims, documents critical to claims and other valuable information in the shredder bins. Those bins were removed from the shredder area and the documents were screened by upper management.
It is unclear if the VAOIG team actually “seized” any of the documents in the shredder bins. What we do know is that after the VAOIG investigators left the Detroit VARO, management continued to find more critical documents in shredder bins. A meeting was called and the Director told employees that it was known who had thrown out the documents and that they would be fired. The “amnesty period” for turning in mail kept at employee’s desks was extended in the hope of turning up all “lost” claim documentation.
On October 2, 2008, the Detroit VARO Director began a “no record mail” program. This was meant to find all mail in the offices for which there, literally, was no record. Quoting from an employee directly involved in this process: “…discovered in the thousands of pieces of ‘no record mail’ we found original applications, medical evidence for veterans’ claims that had not been included in the decisions, informal claims (that likely could affect original dates of claims), and other relevant identifiable mail items.”
On October 7, 2008, quoting again from the VA employee, “…the Director, Service Center Manager and other top management ransacked our work areas in search of mail that was being stored/stashed at individual’s desks. They sent some individuals home, and the others were told to wait in the break room until the end of their shift. I can’t attest to what they found in the work areas, but individuals were pulled aside and questioned.”
Then, on October 9, 2008, quoting again, “During a training session the Director…stated that other regional offices have already placed numerous supervisors on administrative leave in regards to ‘cheating’ on their numbers, and that with as poor as our station numbers [are]…at least we aren’t cheating on our numbers, or at least not cheating well.”
So, what is being done in the Detroit VARO to put an end to this mess? Not much. The VA employee adds with a noticeable sadness, “…They don’t seem to have any answers yet. They have juggled the supervisory staff around to different departments for some reason, and have been telling us to stand by for further training on our job functions. There are still items of mail at my desk currently that I have been told to hold on station since they don’t know the disposition of these types of mail yet [and]…they keep finding new piles of mail that date back to March of 2008 [and further] that’s had no action taken on it.”
What We Don’t Know
At this time, we don’t know how many VAROs have been caught up in this investigation or if the VAOIG teams just went out to “sample” some VAROs and hit pay dirt in New York and Detroit.
We also don’t know what VACO is going to do about this. A highly-placed VACO official, when told that this information was going public, gulped, paused, and said, “I can’t talk about that.” And, one of the VAOIG investigators who was at the Detroit VARO will not return phone calls on this matter.
The worst part is, we don’t know if any documents were actually shredded. By its very nature, shredding would eliminate the evidence of what was shredded. We may never know unless a VA employee comes forward and says that they did it or saw it done.
CYA Time
We will have to wait for the VAOIG reports before we can get a handle on how widespread this problem of “timeliness” is. Is this happening at all 50+ VAROs? A number of former VA employees have said that they believe the “timeliness” issue exists in all VAROs. They are of the opinion that there is widespread abuse of documents as they come in to the VARO. No one felt that any VARO Director would actually tell employees to hide or destroy documents, but the general feeling is that this is “winked at” and a standard way of handling the paperwork crunch at the VAROs.
Several former VA employees have postulated about how the VAOIG reports will turn out. They feel that the VA will claim that any hiding or destruction of documents was done at the lowest possible level and without the consent or knowledge of anyone above that person’s grade, then make promises that it will never happen again. A former VA attorney decided that it is impossible for such “widespread abuse to occur” without knowledge of its existence at all levels of the VARO.
We can expect statements of outrage from VA Secretary James Peake. We can expect hearings from the politicians on Capitol Hill. But, what will this really accomplish? Will any of this change the way the VAROs operate? Don’t count on it.
Shredding Our Trust
Although it is not clear at this time whether any documents related to a disability claim were shredded at any VARO, it is safe to assume that they weren’t sitting in a shredder bin waiting to be processed by a claims representative. What has been shredded is veterans’ trust in the VA.
By deliberately hiding vital documents and delaying claims, the VBA has lived up to its reputation and to the slogan so many disgruntled vets hate to say but know is true: “Delay, Deny and Hope that I Die.”
VA executives are fond of touting their agency as “non-adversarial” when it comes to the disability claim process. Prior to his confirmation as VA Secretary, Dr. James Peake promised the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that he would “do the right thing” for veterans. It appears he missed the mark.
The VA’s biggest fear is that the VAOIG investigations will open the doors to, perhaps, tens of thousands of re-filed claims from every veteran, Service Officer and attorney who has had a claim or appeal timed-out because their paperwork was “not received in a timely manner.” While that would add to the huge backlog of claims facing the VBA at this time, it may be the only solution.
The VBA has shredded veterans’ trust in the disability claim process. It’s time for them to re-earn that trust.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
This has happened to many times in the past and it is really doubtful that anyone will be terminated over this, managers will be moved around, Regional Officers will retire with all of their benefits and promises made by the "new guys" to do better and in five or ten years we will discover the same mess and the veterans and their families will continue to suffer under this. Instead of Veterans Affairs it needs to be renamed Veterans Advesary Agency they try real hard NOT to help.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Shredding Our Trust in the VA
Mortgage money remains available, veterans programs
Mortgage money remains available, veterans programs
By Steve Jones - sjones@thesunnews.com
E-Mail
Print
Comments (1)
Recommend (0)
Text Size: tool nameclose
tool goes here
SHALLOTTE, N.C. -- Organizers of a home buyers' fair in Bolivia, N.C., know how some people will react when they hear promotions of the event.
"It sounds crazy," said Brian Smith, president of WB Properties in Calabash, N.C., and chairman of Brunswick Housing Opportunities, the nonprofit sponsoring Saturday's fair.
With the stock market seemingly in a freefall and some experts predicting a deep recession, at least, the thought of gathering Realtors, bankers, credit raters and others to advise people on buying homes seems a pastime for the desperate or the idle rich, if any are left.
If you go What | Fall Homebuyer's Fair Where | Brunswick Housing Opportunities, 3972 Old Ocean Highway, Bolivia, N.C. When | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday
But the heavy, falling foot of Wall Street has yet to plant itself squarely on Main Street, some say. There's plenty of mortgage money for people whose finances are solid and help from the organization to prepare others for home ownership.
"We have had no problem lending to anyone who qualifies incomewise and creditwise," said Doug Pratt, a mortgage banker with First Citizens Bank in Brunswick County.
In fact, with average sales prices down about $70,000 in the last year or so and interest rates hovering around 6 percent, Pratt said a family with an income of $38,000, little or no credit debt and about $9,000 for a down payment could buy an average-priced home - now about $233,000 in Brunswick - for a payment around $1,500 a month.
Need to hear it again?
"Life as we know it has not changed just because some big corporations have made some big mistakes over the years," said Gary Staley, a mortgage banker in Brunswick County for Charleston's First Federal Savings and Loan. "There's still money around."
Staley said there are still 100 percent loans available from the Veterans Administration, 97 percent loans through the Federal Housing Authority and 95 percent loans from a bank.
First Federal, Staley said, has launched an advertising campaign to spread the word about the availability of credit to those who qualify.
The reason that regional banks such as First Citizens and First Federal have money to lend, Staley and Pratt said, is that they didn't buy toxic securities as did larger banks, and they didn't lower their loan standards in the bubble days.
Smith and Grady Watkins, president of the Brunswick County Association of Realtors, said buyers-in-waiting from markets hit much harder by the housing bubble than Brunswick County are telling them that homes in those markets are beginning to move. That is translating to a small, but hopeful pickup in sales for at least some Brunswick Realtors and developers.
Smith, whose company is the developer of Crow Creek in Brunswick County, said his company sold six existing homes and two condominiums in the last couple of weeks. He's cautiously optimistic that a new, upward trend has begun.
Nationally, pending home sales showed an unexpected 7.4 percent uptick in September.
All the news is not good.
Brunswick County led in the number of foreclosures among 14 N.C. counties that recorded more mortgage failures through August this year than all of 2007. There are a lot of unsold homes waiting for buyers, meaning at least some of those who thrived in construction work during the boom days are likely scraping by now.
One Brunswick County builder said he is keeping his company going by concentrating on renovations. Watkins, who owns a construction company, said he has continued building new homes only.
Pratt said the Federal Home Loan Bank in Atlanta notified regional banks early this week that it no longer had the funds to offer $10,000-down payment assistance grants to help lower-income families. At the same time, though, Pratt said the N.C. Housing Finance Agency, a creation of state government, will still give $7,000-down payment assistance to low-income families who can qualify for a home loan.
Those who are struggling but want to buy a home can get help on the path from Brunswick Housing Opportunities, which works with clients for a one-time $20 file maintenance fee to get their credit to the point that banks will welcome them.
"Are we in a financial crisis? Of course, it's all over the news," said Resea Willis, the agency's executive director and the sparkplug behind Brunswick County's organized efforts to build affordable housing. "Are there still loans available for first-time homebuyers? Yes."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you go
What | Fall Homebuyer's Fair
Where | Brunswick Housing Opportunities, 3972 Old Ocean Highway, Bolivia, N.C.
When | 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday
Contact STEVE JONES at 910-754-9855.
DEATH MARCH
DEATH MARCH
By JEFF WILKINSON - jwilkinson@thestate.com
HONOR FLIGHT HEROES
WWII soldier recalls time as a prisoner of war
It was Jan. 5, 1945, and Pvt. Thomas E. Grove watched in horror as the massive German Panther tank slowly raised its long 88-mm cannon toward him.
Grove was manning a 30-caliber machine gun in the second-story window of a brick house in Bonnerue, Belgium. It was the third house he had retreated to during the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s last-ditch push against the Allied invasion.
He braced himself for the shot.
“Death was inevitable for me,” said Grove, now of West Columbia. “Shooting that tank with a 30 would be like throwing rubber balls at it. I thought, ‘This is it.’”
Grove, 83, is one of about 100 veterans who will be on the inaugural Honor Flight to the nation’s capital Nov. 15 to visit the National World War II Memorial.
The first flight is full. But local organizers hope to raise $300,000 to charter a total of six flights to take 600 veterans to Washington for free over the next year or so.
Grove is lucky to be going.
The shell from the Panther tank burst through the wall below him, wounding or killing most of Grove’s platoon and peppering him with debris.
He and the survivors retreated to an inner room. Outside, there was a cacophony of small-arms fire, artillery blasts and German voices. Grove and the rest of the men from Company D, 345th Regiment, 87th U.S. Infantry Division, were surrounded.
“All hell had broken loose,” Grove said. “There was fire everywhere. Artillery dropping everywhere — ours, theirs — to the side, the back. All over the place.”
Soon, German infantrymen stormed the house.
“They burst in, told us in English to put our hands above our heads. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, I’m a prisoner of war.’”
CAPTURED
Grove’s path began as so many others when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
He was a senior in high school when he heard the news Dec. 7, 1941, listening with his parents and four brothers and sisters at home in Hollidaysburg, Pa.
“I was 16 years old and mad and angry and floored,” he said.
Grove joined the Army on his 18th birthday, Jan. 16, 1943.
“We were going to win the war, a bunch of kids,” he said.
Grove was trained as a machine gunner and saw action in Alaska in the Aleutian Islands before being attached to the 87th Division, making final preparations to go to Europe at Fort Jackson.
The division shipped to France in October 1944, four months after D-Day, and was a spearhead in Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army counterattack against the “bulge” in the Allied lines caused by the German offensive.
Grove fought constantly until his capture in January 1945.
Combat “was terrible and miserable, and I hated it,” he said. “And I hated the Germans.”
His hate would grow.
German soldiers stripped many of the U.S. soldiers of their shoes “and marched us for days through the snow. It was a death march.”
“If anyone fell out of line, the Germans would shoot them or beat them mercilessly with their rifles,” Grove said. “That will get you back in line quick.”
In addition to the cold and the beatings, the rations were bleak — mostly frozen turnips dug from fields along the side of the road.
After marching more than 120 miles, the prisoners arrived at Stalag 12-A in Limburg, Germany, near Frankfurt — a factory-like building used as a holding facility.
“Our bed was an armload of straw on a cobblestone floor.”
After a few weeks, the 86 men were loaded into boxcars designed to hold 40.
“It was a space the size of a one-car garage, just not as wide,” he said. “You couldn’t sit or stretch out. It was too miserable to verbalize.”
Men defecated in their helmets and urinated on the floor.
“Or just went in your pants,” Grove said. “And we all were sick and had diarrhea. That was the most hellish spot in my captivity.”
After a few days — Grove can’t remember how many — the train arrived in Bad Orb, Germany, and Stalag 9-B.
The men were unloaded into wooden barracks, ringed by barbed wire and guard towers.
“Then they pretty much left us alone,” he said. “Our bodies were so weakened we could hardly move.”
Grove estimates his weight dropped from about 155 pounds to less than 100.
“Our ration was a little piece of black German bread and one cup of watery soup a day. It was supposed to be potato soup, but we never saw a potato. All we thought of was food. Not women or anything like that. Just food.”
The lone memento Grove has from his captivity is a small black notebook with three pages. Each page describes fantasy meals.
“I would have eaten out of a garbage can,” Grove said.
Then, on Easter 1945, the men heard artillery fire in the distance. The next day, the regular German soldiers disappeared. The day after that, the remaining guards, old German men mostly, brought in extra rations. Then, they too disappeared.
Soon, the prisoners heard the rattle and roar of tanks — U.S. tanks, breaking into the prison.
“We kissed those tanks like they were beautiful blonde girls.”
RETURN
Grove returned to the United States and became a traveling salesman, “doing all those things a traveling salesman was supposed to do — and more,” Grove said. “We tried to forget about the war, but the war never left us.”
Two years later, in 1947, Grove had a conversion, remembering the words of a chaplain who accompanied the troops that liberated his prison camp.
“He said, ‘You all made a lot of promises (to God), and he expects you to keep them,’” Grove said. “I had lived it up like fury. But when I came to my senses, I came to know the Lord.”
Grove went to Bible college in Rhode Island and spent his working life as a hospital chaplain in Kansas City and Pittsburgh.
He married his wife, Kay, in 1968, after his first wife, Dorothy, died from cancer in 1965.
They moved to Columbia in 1989 so Grove could take clinical pastoral training at then-Richland Memorial Hospital.
In 1998, the couple took a trip to Bonnerue, visiting the house where Grove was captured and the prison where he was held.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Kay Grove said. “It really helped him.”
Today, a scrap of wallpaper from the Bonnerue house, a splintered board from the prison and other mementoes of the trip are framed and on the wall of Grove’s study. They are talismans that pushed back the nightmares he suffered for decades.
“That trip, 1998,” he said, “is when the war ended for me.”
Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.
Group issues report critical of Alaska National Guard
Group issues report critical of Alaska National Guard
by Channel 2 News staff
Sunday, October 12, 2008
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A report by a nonpartisan veterans' group is criticizing the on-going deployments of the Alaska National Guard to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A report released by the Washington-based Veterans for America says the Guard has been deployed without having proper programs in place to care for the returning troops, and is blaming the issue on "inadequate leadership."
The group is critical of the lack of access to health care for soldiers.
As of 2007, 80 percent of the Alaska National Guard had been deployed overseas since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
VFA Report
by VFA on Oct 1, 2008
The post-deployment challenges facing Alaska’s Army National Guard are more daunting and widespread than any seen by Veterans for America (VFA).
VFA’s National Guard Program just completed a week in the state reviewing the needs of Alaska’s citizen-Soldiers and the resources in place to meet them. The needs of Alaska’s Guard members and their families far outstrip the available help.
Many of the Alaska’s Guard members have been deployed, and redeployed, despite the shortage of care and treatment available upon their return. With more than one-quarter of Alaska’s Guard members living 60 miles or more from a Veterans Affairs facility, many rarely if ever get treatment they need. Travel to Anchorage alone can cost more than $1,500 for each Guard member - an upfront cost too burdensome for many to shoulder, even if they are eventually reimbursed. With the economy worsening, the costs to Guard families for their own healthcare will mount and even fewer will receive treatment.
We owe our citizen-Soldiers better than this.
VFA looks forward to continuing our work with the leaders in Alaska, and in Washington, D.C., to ensure that the members of the Alaska National Guard and their families receive the support their sacrifice merits.
Read our findings
*For more information or interviews, please contact Adrienne Willis, Director of Communications at 202-557-7509 or by email at awillis@veteransforamerica.org
Veterans tout Obama as top pick for president
Veterans tout Obama as top pick for president
Winchester — Three veterans of the U.S. military say Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the best candidate to become president.
Army Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy, Sgt. Maj. John Estrada of the Marine Corps, and Navy Rear Admiral James A. Barnett Jr., each of whom are retired, took turns Saturday explaining why Obama is the preferred candidate over the Republican Party’s own military veteran, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Talking before a crowd of about 75 in the Stimpson Auditorium at Shenandoah University’s Halpin-Harrison Hall, the trio spoke about how Obama is a more practical choice and someone more willing to develop international partnerships that will protect the nation.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy speaks in support of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during a Veterans for Obama gathering Saturday at Shenandoah University. Seated behind her is fellow Obama supporter John Estrada, a retired sergeant major with the Marine Corps.
(Photo by Jeff Taylor)
Kennedy said she views national defense as the combination of several pieces, including the nation’s economy.
She said the United States is experiencing “the Katrina of all economic messes,” putting increased financial pressure on the nation’s businesses.
Obama, Kennedy said, wants to help companies thrive in the United States rather than assisting them as they outsource jobs to other nations.
“If we elect Senator Obama, we are getting a leader with a basic integrity,” she said. “He’s able to deal with all levels of a problem.”
In addition to having a solution to the war in Iraq, Kennedy said, Obama has plans to help the economy, provide quality education for children, and correct problems in foreign policy.
She said the practices of the Bush administration have forced the need for change.
“The biggest mistake is four more years [of the same policies],” Kennedy said.
Estrada said the Bush administration is starting to go along with some of the suggestions made by Obama and others about drawing down the number of troops in Iraq.
“Iraq is not going to be won militarily; militarily, you are not going to win that sort of conflict,” Estrada said. “You have to come to some sort of political dialogue of reconciliation. I think that will happen when the Iraqi government has taken full responsibility, and we are helping them do that by leaving.”
Attendees asked how the United States could increase enlistment numbers during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Estrada, who was the first African American to hold the rank of sergeant major of the Marines, said the solution is not trying to fight every battle by military, but instead working out some decisions diplomatically.
He said giving troops more time at home on leave also will help them be more willing to serve.
Kennedy, who was the first woman to reach the rank of three-star lieutenant general in the Army, agreed that more needs to be done to support the troops.
Barnett said Obama has advocated national service while wanting to properly support the military and their families at home.
Obama wants to do that even though he is not a veteran himself, Barnett said, but the veteran in the campaign, McCain, has offered little in support of veterans and the military.
“When you are excited about that culture, creating that culture where people want to serve, I think [it] will draw people in,” he said.
Kennedy said recent disrespect shown by the U.S. toward other nations must be corrected. Measured responses are needed, not quick reaction that causes more problems than it solves.
Barnett said Obama can solve those problems.
“I have been really impressed about how he relates to people and understands the whole [system of the military],” he said. “It’s not how he relates to admirals and generals — that’s not really what the military is. It is really sergeants and corporals and petty officers, and he has a real rapport there that I think is important in decision making.
“The second thing is, he has already established a record of caring for military families in a way that seems to be way beyond his years and experience. It shows that he actually gets it — that there is actually a connection between military readiness and how you treat those in the military,” Barnett said.
How existing military members view the two candidates and how they would treat them and their families also is telling, Barnett said.
He said good treatment of the troops is part of military readiness, increasing retention, recruiting, and morale.
“There’s a connection there that John McCain could not understand because he wouldn’t have voted that way over the past few years,” Barnett said. “I was very pleased to find out Barack Obama has an 80 percent approval rating from disabled veterans because of the way he votes. I was shocked to find out that John McCain only has about a 20 percent approval rating.”
Veterans for Obama held similar sessions on national security Saturday in Roanoke and Staunton.
On Sunday, additional sessions were held at the Quantico Marine Corps base and Virginia Beach.
— Contact Drew Houff at
dhouff@winchesterstar.com
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
“There’s a connection there that John McCain could not understand because he wouldn’t have voted that way over the past few years,” Barnett said. “I was very pleased to find out Barack Obama has an 80 percent approval rating from disabled veterans because of the way he votes. I was shocked to find out that John McCain only has about a 20 percent approval rating.”
this is from a Navy Admiral that has looked at Senator McCains voting record on veterans issue's, is this how Senator McCain supports the troops?
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Obama offers to employ McCain
Obama offers to employ McCain
Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R) and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (L) shake hands after the Town Hall Presidential Debate at Belmont University's Curb Event Center October 7, 2008 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Tonight's debate is the second presidential debate of three, the only one being held in the town hall style with questions coming from audience members.
By Tim Shipman in Ohio
Sunday October 12 2008
Barack Obama would like to offer John McCain a job if he becomes president, in what his allies say is an attempt to end the bitter partisan rancour that engulfed the White House race last week.
Both rivals are working to calm the increasingly incendiary atmosphere on the campaign trail, which erupted with lurid claims about Mr Obama's links with the former terrorist Bill Ayres and a lynch mob atmosphere at McCain rallies.
Democratic officials say that forming a partnership with Mr McCain would cement Mr Obama's bipartisan credentials and help rehabilitate his rival, who by his own admission "took the gloves off" last week, as polls showed Mr Obama on course for a landslide victory.
One well-connected Democrat, said: "I think we'll see Barack Obama reach out to McCain and say: let's work together."
Mr McCain will not be offered a cabinet job, but may be asked to spearhead a bipartisan overhaul of veterans' affairs, an issue close to the Republican senator's heart.
Meanwhile Mr McCain is concerned about damage to his reputation as an honest patriot. A Republican strategist, who used to work for him, said: "John knows that his reputation as a decent man is on the line but he's got devils on each shoulder telling him to hit harder."
That sentiment appeared to be behind Mr McCain's decision on Friday night to tell supporters they should be more "respectful" and insisting that his Democratic rival is "a decent family man".
He dismissed one woman's claim that Mr Obama is "an Arab" and added: "He's a person that you don't have to be scared [of] as president."
At a rally in Wilmington, Ohio, on Thursday night members of the crowd yelled "terrorist" and "liar" as Mr McCain's running mate Sarah Palin questioned Mr Obama's account of his time working on an education project in the mid 1990s with Mr Ayres, whose Weather Underground group bombed the Pentagon in the early 1970s.
One of those shouting was housewife Courtney Jenkins, 33, a mother of four.
"Obama's not good for America," she said. "I truly think it would be a travesty if he won. If he's in charge, I'll be concerned about where our tax dollars are going.
"He could send it to terrorists for all we know. It truly would be frightening. He's pro-communist."
© Telegraph
- Tim Shipman in Ohio
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I don't know where Mr Shipman got his idea that Senator McCain
Mr McCain will not be offered a cabinet job, but may be asked to spearhead a bipartisan overhaul of veterans' affairs, an issue close to the Republican senator's heart.Senator McCain has spent his Senate career voting against veterans legislative issue's, he actively worked against the recent 2st Century G.I. Bill authored by Senator Jim Webb, he has a 20% voting record FOR veterans issue's which shows him to be at the bottom of the Senate record on issue's supporting the "troops". I as one disabled veteran would not want Senator McNasty anywhere near reworking veterans issues.Sphere: Related Content
Brenner: Social Security off limits to most creditors
Brenner: Social Security off limits to most creditors
Lynn Brenner | Family Finance
October 12, 2008
As of the 2007 tax filing, I owe the government some money. If I elect to start to receive my Social Security benefit, will I get the check, or will the Internal Revenue Service take it to pay down my debt?
The IRS is one of the few creditors that can seize part of your Social Security benefit. Your benefit can also be garnished to cover unpaid child support and alimony, but that's about it. Not to worry, though. You're not even close to that calamity.
First, a general word of reassurance. Social Security is protected from virtually all creditors, including credit card issuers, mortgage lenders, auto loan companies and collection agencies.
Lynn Brenner Bio | E-mail | Recent columns
In fact, it's illegal for creditors even to threaten that they may seize your Social Security benefits, says John Ventura, a bankruptcy attorney and the author of "Stop Debt Collectors" (2008, Credit.com), an extremely useful little book that offers a wealth of practical advice and provides sample letters to send to debt collectors, including one stating that your Social Security income is legally protected.
Unpaid taxes are in a special category. The IRS has the option of levying up to 15 percent of a monthly Social Security benefit until your back taxes are paid. But that's a last resort and it doesn't happen without plenty of warning and a formal legal process. The Social Security Administration garnishes benefits in response to a court order, says Jane Zanca, an agency spokeswoman: "We have to be notified that there's an appropriate levy."
Your 2007 tax bill is only a few months overdue. You've probably received a notice about it, says Dianne Besunder, an IRS spokeswoman. You should call the IRS at the telephone number on that notice and arrange to make monthly installment payments. Taxpayers who owe less than $25,000 can set up an installment agreement through an online application at irs.gov.
The Sept. 14 column, which explained a little-known strategy for taking Social Security benefits, drew an unusually high volume of questions from readers. I'll address them in future columns.
Meantime, here's a footnote to that column:
As I explained, if you're divorced, currently unmarried and at least 62 years old, and your marriage lasted at least 10 years, you can collect a benefit based on your ex-spouse's earnings even if he or she is not yet collecting Social Security. (When you apply for the spousal benefit, your ex must at least be eligible to receive Social Security - be at least 62 years old.)
But you must have reached your full retirement age to restrict your application to your spousal benefit alone; then at age 70, you can switch from your spousal benefit to a benefit based on your own work record.
Here's an example: At 62, Jenny Smith can file for a spousal benefit based on her ex-husband Fred's work record. Since she hasn't yet reached her full retirement age, at the same time she'll automatically be considered to be applying for her own benefit - the one based on her work record. The result: She'll receive the larger of the two.
But Jenny wants to postpone taking her own benefit until she's 70 because the delay will increase that benefit by 32 percent. (Your benefit is 8 percent bigger for each year you delay taking it after your full retirement age.) So she waits until she is 66 - her full retirement age - to apply for her spousal benefit. She can now exclude her own work record from her application. The result: She'll collect her spousal benefit until she turns 70. Then she can apply for, and switch to, her own benefit.
Send questions to Family Finance, Business Desk, Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or e-mail to Bfamfin@aol.com. Include your age, income and a list of major assets. Letters and e-mails can't be answered personally.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
These same rules apply to veteran compensation checks as well as SSD payments they can and will take 15% to collect federal debts, back taxes, money owed to federal agencies and they can take 15% of both checks if you receive both SSD and VA Comp
