For veterans, appalling care

OPINION:

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott recently went on Fox News and said Americans want the truth from our government. He’s absolutely right, and this brings me to a particularly big lie people are being told: that our veterans are given the best-quality care.

If you’ve seen the numerous ads on TV asking people to donate to the various foundations that supply disabled veterans with houses and critical help, you’d believe that U.S. veterans were being well taken care of. What you should ask yourself is why we need nongovernmental organizations to take care of our veterans in the first place.

Being a 100% disabled Marine Vietnam War veteran myself (and an independent voter), I see President Biden and his administration as enemies of the state. Mr. Biden is a pathological liar who would rather give our tax dollars to illegal migrants and foreign countries than give disabled veterans their well-deserved care.

I had an appointment with the occupational therapy department at the VA in Augusta, Georgia, after waiting three months to see anyone. I wanted to be reimbursed for the disability money I paid for a shower and two new comfort-height toilets in my new house.

In 1987, I lost the feeling in my left leg from hip to toes after being sent home from a VA clinic in Florida with a bottle of muscle relaxers. In 1999, the Augusta VA sent me home with a deadly cancer that forced me to have an operation which removed part of one leg, rendering it unable to bend. That’s why I now needed the shower.

It took me an hour to get to the appointment, only to be told within a few minutes that my claim was denied because VA policy doesn’t allow reimbursements. This is a terrible, unjust policy that must be changed.

GREGORY J. TOPLIFF

Aiken, South Carolina