[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 27480]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TAXING THE DISABLED VETERAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, November 11, Veterans' Day, more than 
130,000 of our troops are in Iraq and at risk, thousands more in 
Afghanistan and elsewhere and around the world; and here at home we 
have 25.3 million veterans, 376,000 in my State.
  What are we doing in celebration of Veterans' Day? Well, 
unfortunately, the Congress has done little. In fact, I would say this 
is the most antiveteran Congress under the most antiveteran 
administration in recent history.
  Mr. Speaker, 150,000 veterans have waited 6 months or longer for 
basic health care appointments; 14,000 veterans have been waiting 15 
months or longer for their expedited disability claims; 560,000 
disabled veterans are subject to the disabled veterans tax. Yes, that 
is right. They are taxed because they are disabled veterans. It is a 
special tax levied on them.
  The President refused to spend $275 million in emergency money, but 
they have figured out a way to cut down the waiting list for health 
care. We can thank President Bush for that. His administration actually 
cut off 164,000 veterans from eligibility for health care this year, 
those who do not have service-connected disabilities but make as little 
as $25,000 a year. He did find a way to reduce the waiting list by 
eliminating the eligibility of yet another group of veterans. Not the 
first time this administration has done that, not the last.
  They proposed to double the drug copayment for veterans from $7 to 
$15. That was the President's and the Republican majority's proposal in 
this House. Luckily, it has not gone forward.
  Finally, the House majority Republicans in their budget resolution 
cut $14 billion over the next 10 years from veterans programs.
  Now, to focus particularly on the disabled veterans tax, it is odd in 
a Congress that can borrow money, which is what we are doing because we 
are running deficits, that can borrow money to give each millionaire an 
average tax cut of $93,000, that can borrow money to relieve the 
horrible burden from people who invest for a living, do not work for 
wages, but invest for a living, of paying taxes on the dividends on 
their dividend-paying stocks. Not too many of these vets that are 
disqualified have dividend-paying stocks. In fact, most Americans do 
not have dividend-paying stocks. But that investor class, they are 
going to get exempted from paying that horrible burden. The 
millionaires, $93,000. We are going to borrow the money to give them 
that benefit. But somehow we cannot repeal a tax on disabled veterans 
which says that they will be offset dollar for dollar their veterans 
disability benefit which they earned against their military retirement 
pay. These are people who gave a career, a lifetime in service for 
their country, and somehow we cannot do that.
  Now, there is a bill pending that would actually repeal the entire 
tax. We tried to do this last year. The President threatened to veto 
the bill. He said we cannot simply afford to take care of those 
veterans. We can afford as much or more per year to exempt people who 
earn dividends on stock. We can afford as much or more per year to give 
millionaires an average of $93,000 each in tax relief, but somehow we 
cannot afford that for our disabled veterans.
  In fact, for the lifetime of these veterans, it would cost $40 
billion. Now, that is still a lot of money here. That is almost half as 
much money as the Congress borrowed just the other day to send to Iraq. 
That is a lot of money. But somehow the President says we cannot afford 
$40 billion to deliver on our promises to these veterans for their 
lifetime for their disabilities.
  There are, in fact, in the House 373 cosponsors of the bill. Then 
what is the problem? That is almost the entire House of Representatives 
on the bill. Well, the Republican leadership is the problem. They will 
not let the bill come up. And, of course, the President is a problem 
because he is threatening to veto the bill because we cannot afford to 
take care of these disabled veterans.
  Now, there is a way to bring a bill to the floor when the Republican 
leaders refuse to bring a bill to do away with the disability tax on 
veterans. It is called a discharge petition. Need 218 people to sign 
it. Force the bill to the floor of the House over the objections of the 
Republican leadership. 203 people have signed it. Only two of those are 
Republicans. There are 158 Republicans who put their name on this bill, 
go home and tell their disabled veterans they want to help them, but 
they will not sign the discharge petition. They will not force the bill 
to the floor of the House.
  Now, that would be a wonderful gift for our veterans for Veterans' 
Day if just another 15 Republicans who are cosponsors of the bill, 
claiming credit for it, have the guts to come down here and sign the 
petition, which is right behind me, to recognize our veterans properly 
for their service to our Nation. Now that would be a real Veterans' Day 
celebration.

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