04/09/2024
Dear Congressional Members of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs-
The current state of individual unemployability amongst disabled veteran beneficiaries cannot compete with gentrification in Dane County. HUD Vash waitlists are also an issue. If a veteran cannot make “three-times rent,” then the landlord can legally deny the renewal of their lease.
What next, homelessness? Is this really the alternative? While illegals get let into our country and receive far better treatment than us? This is happening on your watch and am asking you to step up and defend us. Not ignore us like our progressive leadership in Wisconsin.
Halfway through my college education, which helped me stay the course with my appeal and denial by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs compensation and pension division, I received a letter notifying me I could not work and that now, I am unemployable. The constant overwhelming of my disabilities is the result.
Imagine the confusion of ambivalence not knowing where to find rent resources due to inflation. Each day I wake up, I have no purpose other than to low crawl my way through the concertina wire of gentrification and inflation led by the progressive party influence of communism and veteran neglect in America. I believe now is the time to come before Congress and share my story.
In Sun Prairie, which is Congressman Mark Pocan’s district, I must resort to acting by contacting outside delegates, such as contacting representatives of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and Congressman Derrick Van Orden with requesting an opportunity to speak before Congress. I made clear when I requested an opportunity to speak that our voice is not being heard. We are being ignored.
The current state of affairs with rent inflation in Dane County witnessed my rent over the last seven years start out at $1,080, see a slight increase of $50 between 2017-2020, then when the Biden Administration took over, went from $1130 to $1295 from 2020-2022. My insurance rates have also tripled.
I cannot keep up with unpredictability and am told by my Disabled American Veterans (DAV) about the caveats of overworking with the National Poverty Line amount of $15,060. I have no other choice. I must work a part-time job.
I also care for an adult child with special needs. My child is the product of watching a father fight tooth and nail to keep the roof over our heads. Now, I am at risk of losing my unemployability with ambiguous guidelines. Each time I request policies that provide the income guidelines, I am being told by the VA patient advocate to do a Google search and figure it out. Nobody cares. We become drifters on college campuses.
Tell that to my employer who favors those who do not have TDIU limitations. I must work a part-time job to avoid the “three times rent” greed corporate landlords continue to inflate without rhyme or reason. I thought when I went to school, I would be able to enter the field of journalism, which is my major. I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater to prove a point that veterans bring value. I am betwixt and between living a happy and purposeful life under the thumb of IU.
Let’s do the math. My rent is $1,295 per month. According to my lease, we have a “three-times rent” clause. Individual Unemployability with one dependent is $3,877.56. Three times rent equals $3885. My lease renewal notice comes next month. I suspect I will be hit with another $120 per month increase. There is no end to this nonsense in sight and hold our delegates accountable. But that’s not all. FAFSA has put me in a near homeless stake prior to being declared unemployable while attending school. Unpredictability is a stressor and service the VA provides. The system needs reform. Balloon spending is not the answer, which is what we’ve endured with progressive leadership that does not serve veterans in any capacity.
As a veteran who is coming up on his 30th year anniversary from the Operation Uphold Democracy deployment to Haiti, and as an honorably discharged 3rd Battalion 6th Field Artillery command driver of a battalion executive officer who served as a West Point professor, I ask Congress to recognize our efforts and let veterans speak. My story shares the experience of protecting Special Forces commanders and interpreters as a radio operator and M60 gunner during convoy and foot patrols, I find the disaster in Washington deplorable and a slap in the face to those who served.
The current state of individual unemployability stake in the veteran community must pass legislation requiring stipends from corporations who exercise the Mission Act and put a stop to this nonsense on their dime. We live in a country that favors illegals and neglects veterans who need help. For this reason, I have launched the Jaded Patriot Press and plan to organize and assemble public affairs features sharing the day in the life of those of us who live the existential dread the Biden Administration has willfully created. Veterans come first. Plain and simple. As our delegates, we need subsidized rent. We face the reality the VA is not working under the Biden Administration. Under Biden, pronouns come before veteran needs.
I will close with this. When I was living in Appleton, before moving to the Madison-area to receive Cognitive Processing Therapy, and then enroll in the Veterans Integration Academic Leadership Program (VITAL) and write a Madison College honors literature review about the barriers and facilitators for veterans and servicemembers success, Congressman Mike Gallagher would return my calls within 72 hours. Pocan is the polar opposite. For this reason, I seek to establish a direct line contact to address the Pocan issue and ask the progressive party to withdraw from handling veterans affairs and let those who serve lead and restore dignity to veterans in America and in the college classroom.
Communism in the college classroom, which is a barrier I witness, should never be allowed in the presence of veterans. 82,000 POW MIA are still unaccounted for who fought to keep communism out of our country and now the progressives see nothing wrong with cancelling our military heritage. Under Biden, we are drifters exercising our hard-earned benefits who receive slights and attacks for trying to lead intellectual and purposeful lives. No veteran should fear losing their household to neglect from Congress. This is the reality we live in as residents of Dane County.
The progressives have disrespected America enough. We deal with graffiti at our Wisconsin Veterans Museum, doublespeak with “violent protests,” along with being dismissed for opportunities due to being an evangelical white American. Radical ideology is not how we remember our POW MIA. Respecting flag code and raising the income threshold with Individual Unemployability is.
I recommend we raise the threshold to $25,000 and request a discretionary audit of Pocan’s reputation with veterans in Dane County. We can, through my honors literature review, set up a panel and let veterans come before Congress and speak for public comment.
Respectfully submitted,
###OP422