HAPPY SUPER BOWL To You All

There has been some better news on the unemployment front and some hopeful programs starting or continuing. On Sunday all of America (or at least most of it) will stop and watch one event. And then the disagreements will start again. TREA wishes all of you good luck and a good game.

1) “Doc Fix” Problem Grows More Expensive - We have been warning about the legally mandated cuts in Medicare (and TRICARE) payments to doctors for several years, an issue that is described by the shorthand term “doc fix.” The problem grew in prominence last year when Congress passed measures that only stopped the cuts for a few months at a time before they needed to act again.

The last temporary measure they passed blocked the cuts through February 29 of this year, so now the time is at hand to come up with another “fix” of some sort. However, the cost to permanently stop the cuts has ballooned just since last November. That’s when the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated the cost to repeal the cuts would be $290 billion. This week they came out with a new estimate that said the cost to repeal now would be $316 billion. The fact is the cost to fix the problem will increase each year that Congress refuses to permanently repeal the cuts. They are supposedly working on it now, but with the current climate in Congress, in addition to this being an election year, we’re not betting they’ll do anything more than come up with another temporary “fix.” TREA strongly opposes any cutback in reimbursement fees because TRICARE/TRICARE For Life payments to doctors are directly tied to Medicare rates and many doctors have said they will stop taking new Medicare/TRICARE/TFL patients if their payments are reduced.
The big issue they have to solve is how to pay to fix the program. $316 billion is a lot of money, even in Washington, and since raising taxes to pay for anything is so controversial they have to find money elsewhere. On Tuesday of this week the CBO said it estimates that the troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan will save the government $838 billion over ten years and there are at least three proposals going around about how to use those funds. President Obama wants it for infrastructure projects while some Democrats want it to pay for the payroll tax cuts. However, last fall other Democrats were pushing to use the funds to pay to fix the Medicare doctor reimbursement cutbacks. At the time Republicans rejected that idea as just a political gimmick, but now prominent Republicans have endorsed the idea as a way to finally fix the problem without raising taxes or cutting programs.

TREA is watching this closely but in the meantime, we urge you to call your Senators and Representative and tell them that fixing the Medicare cuts is urgent.

2) U.S. Chamber of Commerce Continues Veterans’ Hiring Push (Today in Indianapolis During Super Bowl Weekend) - Since March 2011 the U.S. Chamber of Chambers has worked on its “Hiring Our Heroes” to keep its pledge of holding 100 veterans job fairs that connect 100,000 with employers in one year. So far they have held 82 in the project “Hiring Our Heroes.” Over 84,000 veterans and military spouses have attended at least one of the fairs. Over 7,300 veterans and military spouses and 60 wounded warriors have found employment through the program. Today they are holding one in Indianapolis during Super Bowl weekend. Happily they do not plan to stop after they reach their March 2012 goal. Below please find a partial list of the “Hiring Our Heroes” Job Fairs that are presently scheduled for the rest of the year. New fairs are added regularly so if you are interested please go to:

http://www.uschamber.com/veterans

Here you can get up to date information and register for the program and notices. Here are the next few fairs with times and venues.

February 9, 2012
Hiring Our Heroes - Atlanta, GA
11:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Turner Field (Home of the Atlanta Braves)
755 Hank Aaron Drive
Atlanta, GA 30315

February 10, 2012
Hiring Our Heroes - Fayetteville, NC
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Crown Center
1960 Coliseum Drive
Fayetteville, NC 28306

February 13, 2012
Hiring Our Heroes - Charlotte (Concord), NC
9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Embassy Suites
5400 John Q. Hammons Drive NW
Concord, NC

And here are the places where hiring fairs will be throughout the year:

Hiring Fairs:

Bakersfield, CA
February 16

Richmond, VA
February 21

Washington, DC
February 23

Lawton, OK
February 23

Tampa Bay, FL
February 23

Seattle, WA
February 24

Dallas, TX
March 1

Philadelphia, PA
March 2

Colorado Springs, CO
March 2

Columbia, SC
March 6

Pittsburgh, PA
March 9

Springfield, MO
March 15

Smyrna, GA
March 16

Nashville, TN
March 17

Columbus, OH
March 20

Fort Carson, CO - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
March 21

Eau Claire, WI
March 27

Chicago, IL
March 28

Fort Hood, TX
March 28

New York City, NY
March 28

Fort Mitchell, KY
March 28

Philadelphia, PA
March 29

Louisville, KY
March 29

Biloxi, MS
April 1

El Paso, TX
April 3

Grand Rapids, MI
April 6

Dearborn/Detroit, MI
April 11

Houston, TX
April 13

Albany, NY
April 17

St. Louis, MO
April 19

Mobile, AL
April 19

Fort Belvoir, VA - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
April 24

Birmingham, AL
April 24

Buffalo, NY
May 2

Montgomery, AL
May 3

Jackson, MS
May 8

New Orleans, LA
May 11

Jacksonville, FL
May 15

Orlando, FL
May 18

Fort Bragg, NC - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
May 23

Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, MD
May 24

Miami, FL
May 25

Warwick, RI
May 25

Atlanta,GA
May 29

Raleigh, NC
June 1

Puerto Rico
June 1

Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC
June 5

Omaha, NE
June 12

Kansas City, MO
June 15

Oklahoma City, OK
June 19

New York City, NY
June 21

Redmond, OR
June 26

Fort Carson, CO - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
August 1

Fort Belvoir, VA - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
August 29

Naperville, IL
October 24

Camp Lejeune, NC - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
October 31

Fort Carson, CO - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
November 28

Fort Belvoir, VA - Wounded Warrior Hiring Event
December 12

This is a wonderful program that whether you have a job or not you should look into. TREA will continue to report on it.

3) Obama to Announce Veterans Job Corps (From the Washington Post:) - President Obama will announce details today, Friday February 3, 2012 for a $1 billion “Veterans Job Corps” that the White House says will put up to 20,000 veterans to work over the next five years on projects to preserve and restore national parks and other federal, state and local lands.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki on Thursday described the program as “a bold new effort” to lower the high unemployment rate for post-Sept. 11 military veterans, which stood at 13.1 percent in December. The government estimates that 250,000 post-Sept. 11 veterans are unemployed.

Obama proposed the corps in his State of the Union address last month, describing it as “enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our nation.” The Veterans Job Corps will involve projects such as repairing trails, roads, levees and recreational facilities, according to the White House. Other work could include providing visitor programs, restoring habitat, protecting cultural resources, eradicating invasive species and cutting brush to reduce the risk of forest fires

At an appearance Friday at an Arlington County firehouse, Obama is also expected to announce that the budget to be released this month includes $5 billion in funding proposed in the American Jobs Act to spur police and firefighter hiring in 2012. Preferences for the grants will go to communities that hire post-9/11 veterans. Obama said in his address last month that his administration will “help our communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that America is as strong as those who defend her.”

The White House also is announcing an expansion of entrepreneur training for service members leaving the military.

TREA will keep you posted on this initiative.

4) House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Lowering the Rate of Unemployment for the National Guard - On Thursday, February 2, 2012 the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, chaired by Representative Marlin A. Stutzman (R-IN), held an oversight hearing regarding the unemployment rate of members of the National Guard. TREA was represented at the hearing by Deputy Legislative Director Mike Saunders.

Currently, the unemployment rate for veterans as a whole is about 5 percent higher than the national average, and it is even higher for Guardsmen. The actual number varies from state to state. For members of the National Guard aged 18-24, the unemployment rate approaches 40 percent nationally, well above the rate for their age cohort as a whole. Among female veterans, the numbers are even higher.

Ted Daywalt, CEO and President of VetJobs.com, a website that connects veterans with veteran-friendly employers (available at www.vetjobs.com), said that on Monday he receive twenty requests from South Carolina National Guardsmen for employment services, since they had just been terminated.

He suggested that they were terminated because the Friday before the Governor of South Carolina had announced that South Carolina’s Guard units would be deploying to Afghanistan. If National Guardsmen are terminated by their employer prior to deployment, then the Uniform Servicemember Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA) does not apply.
It is loopholes like this that TREA suspects will be used more and more often as the National Guard and Reserve take on more of an “Operational Reserve” role in the years to come. We will be vigilant, and we will seek to enhance USERRA protections so these types of abuses do not go unchallenged.

Regarding female veterans, Mr. Daywalt said that, under questioning from Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA) that not all employers look kindly upon women with young children, or young women of child-bearing age and that he tries to direct them towards employers with robust child-care services and flexible work schedules of the type that raising and family often demands.

Mr. Daywalt also suggested that this might be part of the reason female Guard members have a higher unemployment rate than Guard members as a whole: employers know that extra sacrifices will have to be made for them, and they are unwilling (or unable) to make those sacrifices.
One last interesting note from the hearing was the suggestion that the healthcare costs of active Guard members and their families be borne by their respective states, instead of employers. Currently, employers have to pay healthcare premiums for deployed Guard members, and health insurance companies are allowed to pocket those premiums while not providing any healthcare.

If Guard members have their healthcare costs subsidized by their respective state, then 35% of the cost of hiring them is eliminated. This can only have a positive effect on the national rate of unemployment among the National Guard. TREA will be looking in to this proposal to see if it merits possible legislation on Capitol Hill during this session.

5) Proposal to Cut Federal Workers Would Avoid More Defense Cuts - Yesterday Senate Republicans unveiled a plan that they say would avoid or delay the automatic cuts in defense spending that are scheduled for January 2013. Their plan would cut the federal civilian workforce by five percent and freeze the pay of federal civilian employees for two and one-half years.

They also stated the plan would delay cuts in domestic programs that are scheduled to take effect at the same time. Many believe this is an effort to gain Democratic support for their idea.

According to Senator Jon Kyle of Arizona, there would be no layoffs or firings. Rather, when federal employees retire or quit their jobs two out of three of those positions would not be filled.

Democratic reaction to the plan was not available as we go to press.

6) Perpetuating the Erroneous “Ticking Bomb” View of Veterans - Here is an Article from the VA warning about the tendency to write about veterans as dangerous and unstable. As many of you remember the view of the media after the Vietnam was indeed that veterans were walking time bombs. Not only was this attitude in the newspaper reporting it occurred in TV shows and movies. This attitude can make it extremely hard for veterans to find good employment. TREA is watching the media to help to correct such assumptions and attitudes. We ask that if you see similar articles that you inform us about them as well as responding to them yourself. Thank you.

January 27, 2012 by Alex Horton
Department of Veterans Affairs “VAantage Point"

A few weeks ago, we warned against an increasingly prevalent narrative in news: That war Veterans are violent, unstable, and dangerous. I explained why that simply isn’t the case, and how those aspersions can hurt Vets and deepen the divide between us and civilians.

Thursday, the national media moved a step closer to establishing this unfortunate characterization as conventional wisdom in the newsroom. USA Today, a national newspaper second to only the Wall Street Journal in distribution, published a story with a headline brimming with violent imagery:

Police Get Help With Vets Who Are Ticking Bombs

In an age where millions of people get news from sources like Twitter, or simply glance at newspaper leads during morning coffee, headlines often inform readers what they need to know. In this case, it’s that police officers need reinforcement in a growing battle with “ticking bomb” Veterans. It doesn’t matter that the program might be useful in helping law enforcement recognize issues facing some folks after returning from combat. The headline paints the story of Veterans—any Vet, really—as a ticking bomb, primed to explode.

USA TODAY publishes stories on Veterans issues all the time—and typically they’re balanced and informative. On the same day this article ran, they published a story on the status of homeless Veterans. We could be talking about that story, but unfortunately, we have to refute that Vets are violent, unstable psychos.

From the article:

“We just can’t use the blazing-guns approach anymore when dealing with disturbed individuals who are highly trained in all kinds of tactical operations, including guerrilla warfare,” said Dennis Cusick, executive director of the Upper Midwest Community Policing Institute. “That goes beyond the experience of SWAT teams.”

That brings up important questions: Who are the disturbed individuals and how prevalent are they? Is this threat common enough to justify such a response? USA TODAY continues:

There is no data that specifically tracks police confrontations with suspects currently or formerly associated with the military.

This is an issue. After noting the perceived problem, the reporter acknowledges that data on the topic is sparse—or non-existent.

But an Army report issued this year found that violent felonies in the service were up 1% while non-violent felonies increased 11% between 2010 and 2011.

During that time, however, crime in much of the nation declined.
While understanding the relation to crime dropping “in much of the nation,” the significance of a one percent increase in service-related violent felonies in the last year seems unclear.

Ultimately, the story hinges on bizarre statistical framing. The reporter acknowledges that the kind of data used to make a claim about military-wide increases in violent crime does not exist. Instead, we are presented with a minor uptick in violence—which may or may not be indicative a large or even growing problem.

USA TODAY continues by highlighting the story of a single incident in Fayetteville, North Carolina in which a Veteran exchanged gunfire with local police. Coupled with two recent news reports out of Washington State and Los Angeles, a shallow conclusion could be that this represents the trend of “ticking bomb” Veterans. But isolated cases do not a trend make. And while it’s easy to make that presumptive connection, it’s irresponsible to do so without hard evidence.

Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities (Police) Chiefs Association, said the type of training proposed by the Justice Department represents “one piece of the challenge” in dealing with an increasing number of mentally ill suspects.

Again, we have the assertion of “an increasing number of mentally ill” Veteran suspects, but no empirical data to back that up. (And now others have begun to take note. Ron Capps, a contributor to TIME’s Battleland, called the headline “absurd.”)

The ticking bomb metaphor, as inflammatory and unacceptable as it was, is a perfect term for this perception of an “increasing number of mentally ill suspects.” The melodramatic language conveys a surprising and violent event. A bomb is bad enough, but a ticking bomb? You never know when a ticking bomb will go off; that’s what’s so heinous, so destructive about it. You may not even now there’s a bomb at all. The only thing you do know is that it will explode at some point. The reader of this story, then—given a story so devoid of context and facts and appropriate measurements and statistics—is left to conclude all Veterans are walking powder kegs. They have always ticked, and it’s only a matter of time before an explosion.

If Veterans are ticking bombs, we at least owe it to them to provide non-anecdotal evidence before making such an accusation. And in this case, USA TODAY failed to do that.

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