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End unfair offsets

One reason Congress gets such routinely low approval ratings from the American people is that lawmakers often are seen as quick to break their promises.

Two groups within the military community just got a cold, hard validation of that viewpoint.

The House Armed Services Committee’s personnel panel, taking a first crack at writing the 2010 defense authorization bill, has punted two initiatives that would greatly improve the lives of survivors of deceased service members and disabled veterans who were medically retired with fewer than 20 years of service.

These groups have been left out of the push in recent years to allow people eligible for benefits from both the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to receive them in full, with no offsetting cuts in either payment. For some survivors and disability retirees — many of whom are on low fixed incomes — the benefits cuts can run to hundreds of dollars a month.

Earlier this year, the broad federal spending blueprint drawn up by Congress contained a plan to pay for increased survivor benefits. And in his proposed 2010 defense budget, President Barack Obama included a provision to end offsets for medical disability retirees. So why was neither initiative included in the House panel’s draft of the authorization bill?

Lawmakers now say they can’t find the $2 billion a year needed to fund the increased benefits. That’s hard to swallow; this represents less than 1 percent of the proposed $667 billion defense budget.

The affected 57,000 survivors and 110,000 disability retirees, whose hopes that relief was at hand were sky high, deserve far more than a dismissive shrug.

Lawmakers must keep the promises that were made to them.