Is VFW Siding With Democrats Against Vets?

It appears that the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) is helping Democrats this election cycle. The same Democrats who have nominated far left-wing candidates who hold the military men and women in disdain are now using a battle over legislation benefiting veterans to hammer Republicans within weeks of the midterm elections.

The hard left of the Democratic Party hates the military, wants to defund the police and opposes the very idea of fighting for our great nation. Many on the left don’t believe in American exceptionalism. The party is lurching to the left.

It is astonishing and outrageous to see the VFW aligning with a more left-wing Democratic Party in its opposition to the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act (TCAVA). That legislation is a sweeping, Republican-backed package designed to improve the lives of millions of U.S. veterans.

The legislation brings together more than 60 proposals, including measures to level up veterans’ healthcare, strengthen mental health services, support military families and expand compensation for combat-injured veterans.

Yet the VFW, one of America’s oldest veterans’ organizations, has launched a campaign to shoot it down, fighting on the same side as Democratic lawmakers against a bill the GOP supports.

The VFW’s objections center on Section 108, which would change how the Department of Veterans Affairs calculates disability compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus. Existing disability ratings would be protected, but some future claimants could receive lower compensation. Rather than supporting the package while seeking changes to Section 108, the VFW has mobilized its powerful lobbying operation to stop the legislation from passing.

The case for Section 108 is rooted in modern medicine. Sleep apnea can now often be controlled with a CPAP machine, which the VA provides free to qualified veterans. Meanwhile, the number of veterans receiving compensation for sleep apnea has climbed sharply. The VA inspector general found that it rose from under 1 million veterans in fiscal 2015 to more than 1.3 million in fiscal 2019. Veterans themselves understand the logic: one survey found that 58% of veterans believe disability ratings should be updated as medicine improves.

The VFW Action Corps, a grassroots network of more than 300,000 members and supporters, provides a nationwide mechanism for pressuring Congress through emails, telephone calls, legislative visits and action alerts. Their campaign has urged supporters to contact lawmakers with messages such as “Honor the Contract,” “No Cuts to Veterans’ Benefits,” and “Vote NO on TCAVA.”

But the VFW is hardly speaking for the entire veterans’ community. In fact, some of America’s biggest veterans organizations are fighting on the opposite side. A coalition of 23 organizations, including the American Legion, Wounded Warrior Project and Military Officers Association of America, has urged congressional leaders to advance TCAVA, arguing that the legislation would deliver long-awaited improvements to veterans’ healthcare, compensation and support services.