As Numbers Sink In, Concerns Rise Over Trump’s Veterans Affairs Budget.

President Donald Trump is proposing more money for the Department of Veterans Affairs, but veterans groups and lawmakers are lining up against some of the administration’s priorities, especially cuts in payments to disabled veterans who are unable to work and increases for an outside care program that has yet to be formulated. Mr. Trump’s 2018 proposed budget would boost overall VA spending to $186.5 billion, an almost 6% increase. But as advocates and lawmakers of both parties have taken a closer look, they have grown concerned about the administration’s plans to reorder spending within the department. Cuts include plans to round down veterans’ cost-of-living increase payments to the nearest dollar and to cut off some payments for older veterans who can’t work because of injuries, a proposal that has spurred complaints.

Some veterans who have partial disabilities that prevent them from working currently qualify for “individual unemployability” benefits. Those vets can get that benefit even after they hit retirement age and technically can begin drawing Social Security. The Trump budget would end so-called “double dipping” and push aging veterans off that benefit, making them rely on Social Security instead. But advocacy groups say the argument for doing so is flawed. Disabled, nonworking veterans likely haven’t paid into Social Security before reaching retirement age, limiting or foreclosing their ability to collect, they said. “Many have been severely disabled as a result of their military service and unable to work since the day of their discharge,” Amvets, one of the largest veterans advocacy groups, said in a statement. In a statement last week, Charles Schmidt, the commander of the American Legion, said, “The administration’s budget for the VA would effectively lower the earnings of our most vulnerable veterans. This is absolutely unacceptable to us.”

A representative of the Vietnam Veterans of America said his organization fielded calls well past midnight on budget day, last Tuesday, from concerned elderly veterans. Dr. David Shulkin, the VA secretary, defended the proposed cuts when speaking with reporters after a House hearing last week. VA officials said the budget will allow them to hire thousands of new health-care professionals and aggressively reduce veteran homelessness. “I think that people can understand that paying veterans who are above age 80, in some cases, unemployment benefits, isn’t what makes sense to the average American,” he said.

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