Rep. Filner Calls for a 21st Century Veterans trust fund!

I participated in this call in this morning and I have to say kudos to Rep. Bob Filner for being a realist on what it will take care of our Veterans in the coming decades.

The VAC committees set for tomorrow will lay out the truecosts of taking care of our veterans after war. I will blog more on this soon

Sean

 

 

 

*** Press Call 12:15pm ET Wednesday: 800-862-9098 code: Vets ***
Nobel Laureate Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Dr. Linda Bilmes to Announce New Numbers on the Rising Cost of Veteran Spending Due to Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman and Leading Veterans Advocate to Call for a Veterans' Trust Fund to Meet Exploding Demand

New Data and Proposed Reforms Subject of House Veterans Affairs Committee Hearing Thursday

Washington, DC:  Nobel Laureate Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Dr. Linda Bilmes of Harvard University will join House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA), and the Executive Director of Veterans of Modern Warfare (VMW) Don Overton in a press conference call Wednesday at 12:15pm ET. They will announce new figures and analysis on the impact that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are having on the cost of caring for veterans and will urge Congress to account for this full cost of war. Rep. Filner is calling for fundamental reform to the way Congress funds war spending. The press conference call will be a preview to testimony that Drs. Stiglitz and Bilmes will provide to the House Veterans Affairs Committee in a hearing on Thursday, September 30 at 10:00 am.

On the call, Nobel Laureate Dr. Joseph Stiglitz of Columbia University and Dr. Linda Bilmes of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, authors of The Three Trillion Dollar War, will discuss their latest findings on the impact of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on costs for caring for veterans. Their latest figures far exceed their previous projections.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner will call for the creation of a Veterans' Trust Fund to meet this growing demand. The proposal will require Congress to account for the true costs of war, including the cost of serving injured and disabled veterans, as part of its appropriation for warfare. 
 
 

Date/Time:                12:15 pm ET, Wednesday, September 29
 
Call In Info:              800-862-9098 Code: Vets

Speakers:
· Joseph Stiglitz, professor at Columbia University, former chairman of President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers and winner of the Nobel Prize in economics in 2000. Co-author of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
· Linda Bilmes, Daniel Patrick Moynihan senior lecturer in public policy at Harvard University. Co-author of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
· Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs
· Donald Overton, Executive Director of Veterans of Modern Warfare (VMW)

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