Veterans' health bill stumbling block is budget [View all]

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/06/veterans-health-bill-stumbling-block-budget

Veterans' health bill stumbling block is budget
By Derek Wallbank and James Rowley, Bloomberg News
© June 26, 2014

WASHINGTON

House and Senate lawmakers began negotiations Tuesday on the central question holding up legislation to reduce waiting times at U.S. Veterans Affairs hospitals — how to pay for it.

Republicans say they want increased spending to be offset by reductions elsewhere in the budget, while the Democratic- controlled Senate's bill provides emergency funds that don't have to be financed with other cuts. Lawmakers also are having sticker shock following estimates that the measures would cost $35 billion to $44 billion over the next five years.

"War, as everyone here knows, is a very expensive proposition — in terms of human life, human suffering and in financial terms," Senate Veterans Affairs Chairman Bernie Sanders said as the conferees met.

"If we are not prepared to take care of those men and women who went to war, then we shouldn't send them to war in the first place," said Sanders, a Vermont independent. "Taking care of veterans is a cost of war, period."