The Novak Zone: Interview With Anthony Principi
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is time now to enter "The Novak Zone."</s>ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to "The Novak Zone." I'm Robert Novak at the headquarters of the Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C., just down the street from the White House. Our guest is the secretary of veterans affairs, Anthony Principi. Mr. Secretary, do I get the impression that with the budget crunch going on and the problems with spending, the treatment of our nation's veterans is in a crisis?</s>ANTHONY J. PRINCIPI, SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: The treatment of our veterans is in a crisis, in part because of the budget situation, but I think it predates that. Back in 1996, Congress opened the door to all 25 million veterans. Historically, we cared for the military disabled, the poor who had few other options for health care, and those who needed the specialized services of the VA spinal cord injury. When Congress opened the door to 25 million, we've grown from 2.8 million veterans being treated in the VA, today we have 6.9 million veterans who are currently enrolled.</s>NOVAK: That's just since 1996?</s>PRINCIPI: That's just since 1996. At the same time, there's a provision of law that says, Mr. Secretary, you're only authorized to provide care to the extent resources are made available to you in appropriation acts, and direct that I make an annual enrollment decision. This year I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my tenure, and that is to say the lowest priority -- Congress established eight priority groups. The lowest priority are those with no military-related disabilities whatsoever and have higher incomes. I would have to suspend them being enrolled in the system for the balance of this year.</s>NOVAK: In other words, if I am a veteran who has a nonrelated disability -- I am a veteran -- and I make over -- is it over $35,000 a year?</s>PRINCIPI: That's on average. It's geographic.</s>O'BRIEN: And I do make over $35,000 a year. I would be ineligible?</s>PRINCIPI: You would be ineligible to enroll. If you were enrolled prior to this time, then you could continue to receive your care. We have about 1.4 million veterans who are in that low category who are currently enrolled in the system.</s>NOVAK: What has been the reaction from the veterans and from the veterans organizations to what you describe as the very difficult step you took?</s>PRINCIPI: Well, I think they understand the difficulty of my decision, and that the politically easy decision for me would have been to enroll everybody and have them go on waiting lists, and if they are ill, they may not get the care they need. And that's morally irresponsible to me. I won't do that. They recognize that it's a funding issue as well, and that I made the decision based upon the resources that were available, so they've appealed to Congress to appropriate more dollars to care for more veterans.</s>NOVAK: Will that happen?</s>PRINCIPI: I think we'll -- our budget going to the Hill this year is the largest increase ever requested by a president, $2 billion above the request that he made last year, which was another record increase. So I think our request is a very good one. It's not going to be all of the money that we'll need to provide care, but I think that, coupled with some management changes and policy changes, we should be able to enroll more veterans next year, you know, assuming that Congress provides us with adequate resources.</s>NOVAK: Let me ask you a philosophical question, if I could. What is the obligation that the country owes to a veteran who is not a combat veteran, who was not shot up in a war, did not have a -- any kind of a mental illness or physical illness. He just is getting old. Gets a little bit sick. He put in a couple of years. Should there be a special obligation of the government to take care of that person?</s>PRINCIPI: Well, I would like to think that we could care for as many veterans as possible, but perhaps I'm from the old school. I believe that we have to -- we should serve our nation in uniform, and if, but for the grace of God, we are not wounded, and we have a good income after we come home, I'm not sure that there is an implied obligation to provide lifetime health care. But clearly, any man or woman who is disabled in the service of their countries and those who are poor or need the spinal cord injury treatment system that we have established, and we need to provide care for them.</s>NOVAK: I have a vivid memory of covering the New Hampshire primary in 2000, and every time Senator McCain spoke, there would be veterans coming in with veteran's caps on and sometimes medals, saying that they -- the government had double-crossed them. They had made a promise and weren't fulfilling them. Is there any of that? Is there any promises that have been made that are not being fulfilled?</s>PRINCIPI: I don't believe so. I think our nation is the most generous nation on earth in caring for our nation's veterans. Our budget is the second-largest budget in the entire federal government, twice the defense budget of Great Britain. We care deeply about our veterans. And we're not perfect, but we, with a $64, soon to be a $63 billion, $64 billion budget, we are really providing an awful lot of health care and disability compensation and pensions for widows of deceased service members. Again, I would like to do as much as we can for as many of our nation's veterans, but if we have to prioritize, and the priority needs to be the service-disabled.</s>NOVAK: And now the big question for Secretary Principi. Mr. Secretary, the Defense Department for years denied that Agent Orange had caused any lasting physical damage to our veterans in -- from Vietnam. You have made a change, in that you have looked into that. What is your conclusion on the Agent Orange controversy?</s>PRINCIPI: There's no question in my mind that the dioxin in Agent Orange has caused illnesses in veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. I was -- rode the rivers of Vietnam and the Mekong Delta. I was in areas sprayed with Agent Orange. And I believe that certain cancers are related to Agent Orange and that we need to compensate those veterans for that exposure. I think we have learned, Bob, that the relatively modern technological battleground poses more dangers than bullet wounds and saber cuts and cannon shell, that sometimes environmental hazards in the battlefield, you know, ionizing radiation when occupation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atmospheric atomic tests when we had soldiers, you know, scrubbing ships down and the sailors scrubbing ships down in the Bikini Atoll, and mustard gas and Agent Orange. They do cause illness that lay dormant for 10, 20 years. But the V.A. needs to be there to provide them with compensation when they're...</s>NOVAK: And you are doing something about that now?</s>PRINCIPI: Yes, we are absolutely doing something.</s>NOVAK: Secretary Anthony Principi, thank you very much.</s>PRINCIPI: Thank you, sir.</s>NOVAK: And thank you for being in "The Novak Zone."