The VA Backlog Keeps Getting Worse

Like most politicians trolling for votes, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney rarely miss an opportunity to praise America’s veterans, particularly the troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Here’s Romney on May 2: “We are united as one nation in our gratitude to our country’s heroes.” And Obama on Memorial Day: “As long as I’m president, we will make sure you and your loved ones will receive the benefits you’ve earned and the respect you deserve. America will be there for you.”

That’s not the way it’s worked for Hector Esparza. A former Army sergeant, Esparza was a gunner escorting convoys to Baghdad during the bloodiest days of the Iraq war. In 2004 he suffered a brain injury when a rocket blew up his Humvee. Now home in Killeen, Tex., he’s unable to work due to debilitating headaches and post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs designated him only 60 percent disabled, which means he and his wife and 6-year-old daughter live on $1,200 a month from the VA. Since 2009, Esparza has been trying to qualify for full disability. In April he received a letter from the agency: With so many claims piling up, it could take another six months before anyone reviews his case. “I was pretty confident that I was going to be taken care of and my family was going to be taken care of,” he says. “I feel lied to and disappointed because I don’t see that happening.”