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Home Loans Tied to G.I. Bill

By VVAW

The Veterans Administration has initiated another fine program to "serve" veterans. This one will hold up VA home loans based on overpayments of education benefits. Basically it says that if you were overpaid GI Bill benefits—due to VA or your VA counselor's or school counselor's oversight, or due to the fact that you knew and spent the money figuring that the government owed you that much, or because you failed to complete some courses, or because you never received notification from the VA—any of these mean you can't get a VA home loan until arrangements are made to pay back the VA.

This brilliant idea came from Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin whom you may remember as the jogging hair-transplant and who originated the Proxmire Golden Fleece Award (which costs thousands of bucks) for his greater personal glory and to spread his name throughout the media.

Streaming at the ears, Proxmire "exposed" the huge overpayment to Vietnam-era vets by the VA as a massive waste of money. Viciously retaliating, he pushed through the ruling that vets who never paid back the VA shouldn't get home loans. The outstanding feature of this circus sideshow was that, at the time of the hearings, the VA had recorded 95% payment on overpaid education benefits, the highest pay-back percentage of any federal agency. The kicker on the loan stoppage was that vets previous to 1955 were exempt from the program, making the whole thing set up for selective enforcement against Vietnam-era Vets!

The VA has been pressured into informing all GI Bill recipients of this program by mail. The VA also has assured everyone that those who want to clear their debts should 1) go back to school or, 2) ask for a waiver or, 3) make arrangements for paying back the money.

So if your home loan recently fell through and your family is finding it hard to adjust to motel life, check with the VA; you may be the recipient of one more of the "Golden Shaft" awards!