WaPo Targets Vets: From Heroes To Hustlers?

In the fog of the sixth day of a government shutdown, where VA claims processing grinds on 62,000 files weekly, The Washington Post drops an “exclusive” that feels less like journalism and more like a scripted outrage machine.

Their October 6 investigation—headlined in screaming caps, “How some veterans exploit $193 billion VA program, due to lax controls”—accuses those who dodged IEDs in Fallujah of “swamping” the system with “dubious” claims for “mundane” ailments like jock itch and toenail fungus, exploiting America’s “sacred commitment” to the line-of-duty harmed.

It’s a narrative that turns heroes into hustlers, ignoring the toxic legacies of wars the Post itself has chronicled.

As a veteran rights attorney who’s helped countless disabled veterans for more than a decade—from burn pit survivors battling invisible wounds to TBI warriors lost in appeal labyrinths—I’ve seen the true scandal: Not the 0.001% of fraudsters, but a bureaucracy that too often denies the 99.9% who earned every cent.

Clickbait With a Side of Stigma

That Washington Post paywall splash?

Pure clickbait gold: A garish collage of greedy hands clawing at dollar bills beneath a waving flag, paired with a sidebar peddling $40 “unmatched political and international news” (after the first year—cancel anytime, they say).

But the real exploitation?

Hiding behind that veil to stigmatize the scarred, disabled veterans who served our country—reducing their hard-won benefits to a scam narrative for pay.

Like any system, abuses exist, and the Post rightly spotlights the worst offenders in this pro-claimant framework. But for every fraudster, there are countless instances of the system wronging veterans, delaying or denying justice for decades, even lifetimes.

The Post not only skips balanced context but risks branding millions of deserving disabled vets as hustlers in homes and workplaces—one slanted portrait equating service-scarred lives with scams.

Missing Context

The newspaper’s lede is a masterclass in selective fury: Billions for eczema (556,000 claims) and hemorrhoids (332,000) versus “far fewer” for penetrating brain injuries (10,900 eligible since 2000) or limb losses (<1,700 from Afghanistan and Iraq).

But where’s the full frame?

Those “minor” conditions often trace to burn pits—open-air infernos on bases that choked 3.5 million troops with dioxins, silica, and carcinogens.

Allergic rhinitis (680,000 claims, up 22-fold since 2006) isn’t just hay fever; when ratable, it’s a chronic sinus hell from inhaled toxins, presumptive under the PACT Act that Post reporters seemingly once championed. This condition often leads to terrible sinusitis, sleep apnea, and other problems.

Irritable bowel syndrome (up 400% since 2013)?

That’s gut-wrenching inflammation from swallowed particulates, not a spa perk, a key disability reported by those exposed to burn pit dioxins in the Middle East.

The Post mentions the PACT Act in passing, but buries how it finally validated decades of denials for these very exposures—surges they now seemingly decry as “skyrocketing” waste.

Craig Whitlock, whose Afghanistan Papers gutted Pentagon deceptions, and Lisa Rein, who exposed for-profit sharks preying on claimants, know this terrain.

They’ve amplified veteran voices, many advocates like myself have helped, such as Sgt. Maria Lopez (name changed, a composite example based on real people), an Iraq vet whose eczema from a chemical exposure makes it hard to use her hands at work. Or Lt. James Brent (name changed, a composite example based on real people), a combat veteran whose chronic IBS makes it hard to work a full-time job in a suitable occupation.

Examples involving veterans with similar disabilities to those composites listed above are everywhere.

Veterans with these disabilities aren’t “exploiters”—they’re enforcers of a promise: “Service-connected” means something during their military service caused or aggravated the condition, from long-term autoimmune disorders to black-lung mornings.

Do you think veterans with oozing eczema wounds enjoy their daily battles with sensitivity and scarring?

Would any vet with IBS’s explosive unpredictability give back that disability in a heartbeat?

No—these aren’t perks; they’re painful reminders of sacrifice, documented in medical records and vocational assessments that prove real work barriers.

Yet the Post contrasts disability data without meaningful context.

Timing Is Suspect

And why zero in on veterans now, when fraud across all federal benefits totals $236 billion yearly in improper payments?

VA’s detected scams—under $100 million, or less than 0.05% of its $193 billion budget, with just 10 prosecutions annually—dwarf in comparison to Medicare’s $20-60 billion rip-offs (3-7% fraud rate, 500+ cases yearly) or Medicaid’s $30-50 billion (5-8%, 400+ prosecutions). Even SSDI sees $1-2 billion in fraud (0.5-1%), with 200-300 busts. SNAP and unemployment? $1-10 billion each, at 1-10%.

VA’s “honor system” keeps fraud microscopic because most claims are legitimate—yet it’s the sacred cow the Post milks for headlines. In a shutdown, starving real action, this fixation smells like easy outrage: Politically untouchable cuts elsewhere, but vets?

Low-hanging fruit for bipartisan finger-wagging.

Data Skewing For Low-Information Readers

Worse, the piece dusts off a 1989 GAO study claiming 19% of claims were for “ordinary diseases” like hemorrhoids, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s, and uterine fibroids—alleging “no evidence” of service ties.

That’s 36 years stale.

Today’s science—fueled by PACT Act data and studies in JAMA and Environmental Health—links them to toxins: Heart disease 2x higher in Gulf War vets from oil fires; Crohn’s via microbiome chaos from deployments; uterine fibroids (63.5 cases per 10,000 servicewomen) tied to endocrine disruptors in fuels and pits. All five examples are now service-connectable, presumptive or via nexus.

Citing GAO without this evolution isn’t reporting; it’s relic-mongering to fuel shutdown-era austerity.

The Post nods to VA officials, saying “most claims are legitimate,” but tucks it after the bait-and-switch.

Their ethics demand “fairness through completeness”—so why the cartoonish illustration of cash-grabbing hands under a flag?

Or the fixation on 70 fraud prosecutions (tens of millions lost) versus Medicare’s $60 billion scam?

If the Post audited Halliburton’s Iraq billions, we’d have wall-to-wall coverage. But stigmatize vets amid delays that could cost lives? That’s not democracy dying in darkness—it’s gratitude flickering out.

The real fix isn’t slashing a $193 billion program that’s 1.4% of the wars’ $14 trillion tab.

It’s bipartisan upgrades: proper training for VA contract examiners, practical screening tests for unverifiables like migraines (1.1 million claims, up 23-fold), and full funding to clear the 635,000 backlog.

Lawmakers: Pass clean CR now, then tweak 1945 rules for 2025 realities—remote work, modern meds—without punishing presumptives.

To the Post: Retract the ridicule, or own the half-light you’re casting.

America owes its guardians gratitude, not gotchas.