(NEW YORK) MintPress — While President Obama awaits the fate of his landmark health care reform at the hands of the Supreme Court, he can find some relief in the latest unemployment news. According to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the jobless rate in the U.S. could drop to as low as 6 percent by the first half of 2013, a bigger decrease than most economists currently project.
The unemployment rate held at a three-year low of 8.3 percent last month after falling by 0.8 percentage point in the year ended January, according to figures from the Department of Labor (DOL).
But not everybody is applauding the data. The Iraq and Afghan Veterans Association (IAVA), which has a range of advocacy, awareness and assistance programs for vets of those two wars,
has just released new information of its own. Results of a survey show the unemployment rate among IAVA members is nearly 17%, much higher than the national average, and about 5 percentage points higher than the 11.6% reported for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in 2011.
Those 5 percentage points could represent as many as 100,000 unemployed vets,” explains IAVA Executive Director and Founder on the group’s website.
“For over a decade, our vets have been leading the way overseas. It’s about time we welcome them back with jobs so they can lead the way at home,” he insists. “Because really, if we can’t support the folks we ask to fight and die for our country, then it’s about time for a national gut-check.”
That’s just one of many reasons the IAVA has sent a nonpartisan group of members, 26 vets from around the country, to Washington, D.C. this week for its “Storm The Hill” campaign to address members of Congress.
Holding Washington accountable
This is, in fact, the seventh year in a row that the IAVA has traveled to the capitol to ask lawmakers to step up to the plate on veterans’ affairs. The majority of members do not think Congress (75%) or the President (61%) listens to new vets enough.
Among other findings: Two-thirds of the membership do not think troops and veterans are getting the care they need for mental health injuries, including combat-related stress or military sexual trauma.
“Beyond all the data and number crunching, one thing rings clear and true,” argues Rieckhoff. Government hasn’t made the investment in the new veterans’ community they’ve said they would. This needs to end — and it needs to end now.”
VA not doing its job
The IAVA maintains that even the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is falling behind on its commitments. “It consistently struggles to connect with and understand this new generation of veterans,” contends Rieckhoff.
Based on the survey, 61% are signed up for VA health care. But less than half (49%) think the VA is doing a good job of reaching out to troops and veterans regarding their mental health injuries and care. Worse, nearly 69% can’t name the Secretary of the VA, Eric Shinseki.
It didn’t help that Secretary Shinseki turned down the IAVA’s request to meet with him. “The one meeting we couldn’t get was at the VA,” acknowledges Rieckhoff. “In fact, we haven’t been able to get a meeting in more than 1,000 days, which seems very odd considering all of the issues facing veterans that we would like to discuss.”
Forging ahead
The IAVA is making progress on other fronts. On Tuesday, its members helped legislators introduce the GI Bill Consumer Awareness Act of 2012, sponsored by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash) as well as Senator Daniel Akaka (D- Hawaii) and Senator Mark Begich (D-Alaska).
The bill proposes to create a consumer report card for every school covered by the post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits to disclose information about their policies on transferring credits to other schools, their average student loan debt, their course or degree completion rate, and how many graduates find jobs in their chosen fields. Murray said it is a response to “stories of frustration, confusion and even manipulation.”
“We have seen that in certain instances, our servicemembers and veterans have been misled just to boost enrollment of students with this very lucrative benefit,” she said, referring mostly to some for-profit schools that use recruiters or sales people to sign up students.
“The GI Bill Consumer Awareness Act will give vets a head start, so they can apply to the school that’s right for them and take full advantage of the benefits they’ve earned,” said the IAVA’s Rieckhoff.
In addition to the bill, IAVA members are pushing for suicide prevention initiatives, increased focus on PTSD, TBI and other invisible injuries, and better care and support for women warriors.
Source: MintPress