"I don't want anyone stealing money out of my retirement pay. It's unethical. It's unconscionable to do this. I want every cent due to me."

NOTE from Larry Scott, VA Watchdog dot Org ... Although the following article accurately depicts the anger and frustration of those veterans still caught in the concurrent receipt offset nightmare, it isn't up-to-date regarding the latest legislation.  That is listed below with links so you can read and track the latest bills.

H.R. 811: Retired Pay Restoration Act   Introduced Feb 3, 2009

H.R. 303: Retired Pay Restoration Act   Introduced Jan 8, 2009

S. 546: Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2009   Introduced Mar 9, 2009

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Veteran wages battle for benefits

BY BOB KALINOWSKI
STAFF WRITER

LARKSVILLE — U.S. Army veteran Thomas Paliscak served his country for 21 years and suffers from the effects of Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War.

Since retiring from the military, the Larksville man has waged another battle at home for full retirement and disability benefits.

The 79-year-old is fed up and is making a public plea.

Paliscak is among several hundred thousand American veterans with a war-related disability who contest their retirement and disability pay.

Under a Civil War-era provision, every dollar Paliscak’s disability compensation increases, a dollar is taken from his military retirement pay. That means disabled veterans likes Paliscak who receive a military pension for their service receive no extra compensation for service-related injuries.

The disability portion is tax-exempt, but the net difference still is not even close to what disabled veterans are owed, Paliscak said.

“I’m not being compensated for my disability. A hell of a lot of us should be receiving a disability payment as a separate check,” Paliscak said. “It’s like robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

After his military career, Paliscak worked as an English teacher at West Side Vocational Technical School in Pringle until 1993, when a doctor ordered him to “cease and desist” from working because of his condition. The Agent Orange poisoning burns his skin inside and out, mars his body with blotches, and causes severe itching, among other problems, he said.

“My face will be so damn itchy at times, I’ll want to scratch my face off,” he said.

Paliscak has been writing to politicians around the country for years asking them to reverse what he calls a “scam” and a “nauseating charade.”

“I don’t want anyone stealing money out of my retirement pay. It’s unethical. It’s unconscionable to do this. I want every cent due to me,” Paliscak said.

In 2000, U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke, answered one of Paliscak’s letters, calling the issue a “gross inequity” and has continued the correspondence about the issue since then.

Current U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, has called the problem “a disgrace” and “an injustice.” Reid in 2007 sponsored “The Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2007,” which he called “important legislation to allow veterans eligible for both disability compensation and retirement pay to collect both at the same time — also known as ‘concurrent receipt.’”

The bill remains in committee.

Meanwhile, veterans like Paliscak are growing impatient.

U.S. Sen. Robert Casey, D-Scranton, said he is a co-sponsor of Reid’s bill and is supporting its full passage.

“People who should be getting the full benefits of their service are not receiving that. It’s not just a question of fundamental or basic fairness, it’s about keeping a promise. We tell people if you serve your country, we’ll take care of you. When we don’t meet that promise, it undermines the credibility of our government,” Casey said Friday.

Casey added: “Like a lot of significant and urgent priorities in the Congress, consensus about an issue is one thing, but getting legislation passed can sometimes take longer. One of the impediments people in Washington will point to is fiscal realities. I don’t buy that. When you consider the promise we made and the sacrifice put forth by fighting men and women, and you also put on the table the resources of our government, we could get this done.”

As for when there would be some movement, Casey said he couldn’t be sure.

“I can’t promise this is going to get done soon. If I did say that, I’m not sure it would be true. I can promise we are going to continue to work on it and continue to make it a priority. We even have some Republican help on this, which isn’t always the case around here,” Casey said.

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KEYWORDS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, concurrent receipt