VETERANS: Now You See It …

Veterans’ pension bills are often cleverly booby-trapped—a fact that the battlescarred Congress should realize, but apparently doesn’t. Two weeks ago Texas Democrat Olin E. Teague, chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, presented the House with a beguiling, Administration-backed pension-reform bill that, it was claimed, would save $12 billion over the next 40 years by tightening the rules on federal pensions for needy veterans. After less than 40 minutes of debate, the House gave the bill its overwhelming endorsement and won itself another Purple Heart.

Last week, after a second look at the bill, Republican Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan complained that the alleged saving was a “deception.” Camouflaged in the fine print of the bill was an unmentioned provision loosening up the rules on pensions for widows and orphans. Under present law, the needy relicts of World War I veterans—but not those of other foreign wars—may claim pensions, even if the husband’s death was in no way connected with his military service. The House bill extends the same privilege to widows and children of 205,684 veterans of World War II and Korea. Estimated cost over the next four decades: $22 billion. So, instead of saving the taxpayers $12 billion, the House bill would actually cost them an additional $10 billion.