The increase does not even meet inflation. I don't depend on my VA check for a living but many veterans do. I think it is a disgrace that we are not taking better care of our disabled veterans. Supporting the troops means a lot more than putting a yellow ribbon on your SUV. I hope next years budget does not screw over the veteran the way this years budget has.
Don't ya know the official inflation rate last year was only 2.3%? This is why we didn't have a recession! If we tried to figure out the real cost of living increase over the last year and a half, it would totally destroy the 3-4% GDP growth and people would actually figure out what was going on. Well, don't feel too bad, because average wages aren't even going up that 2.3%. It almost doesn't matter how much the government budgets for veteran pensions, because government spending in itself has an inflationary effect. The more they spend, the less its worth.
The official inflation rate was 2.3%? I know when the government comes out with inflation numbers, they take into account you can buy hamburger instead of steak, but come on, 2.3%? Talk about living in fantasy land.
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/hist1913.cfm Well, looks like they say it was 2.9%. I guess hamburger is out and now we're supposed to eat something like soy protein isolate. Somehow, they say transportation prices went down. They're probably also relying heavily on falling real estate prices, since housing is like 42.5% of the calculation.
Just like switching from steak to hamburger they must have factored in switching from driving to work, to taking your bike or walking.