Warning about proposed spending cuts affecting veteran's benefits

Washington, March 12- The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) has labeled as "indefensible and callous" a plan by the House Budget Committee to slash $470 billion from domestic spending, including health care for sick and disabled veterans. The draft budget resolution would leave the $1.6 trillion Bush tax cut plan intact and allow huge spending increases on defense and homeland security.

DAV National Commander Edward R. Heath, Sr. expressed the organization's outrage at thespending cuts proposed in a March 12 House Budget Committee hearing, "You are asking to swallow a bitter pill to remedy an illness of your own making, "National Commander Heath said in a letter to Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa). "Cutting already under funded veterans' programs to offset the costs of tax cuts is indefensible and callous."

National Commander Heath cited a Congressional Budget Office report that the President's tax cut plan would cause a $1.8 trillion budget defecit over the next 10 years.

"You will be cutting benefits and services for disabled veterans at a time when we have thousands of our servicemembers in harm's way fighting terrorism around the world and when we are sending thousands more of our sons and daughters to fight a war against Iraq," Commander Heath wrote.

The nearly 1.3 million-member Disabled American Veterans, a non-profit organization founded in 1920 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1932, represents this nation's disabled veterans. It is dedicated to a single purpose: building better lives for our nation's disabled veterans and their families. For more information, visit the organization's Web site, www.dav.org