Pensions for Veterans Were Once Viewed as Government Handouts

On July 21, 1930, the United States Veterans Administration was formed. Socialism? My great, great, great, great grandfather received a Revolutionary War pension and my great, great grandfather received a Civil War pension. I suppose they were given handouts. An excerpt from the article:

"The very existence of the V.A.—which began in 1930—marked a change in how Americans perceived the people who fought its wars.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides services for nearly 10 million veterans each year, currently handles health care, benefits and burials for those who have served. But nomination battles and standards of care haven’t always been the most controversial thing about the V.A.—for years, Americans couldn’t decide whether they wanted to support veterans at all.

It would take centuries, and a tragic world war, to convince the United States to form a department that cared for its vets.

Fights over pensions began after the Revolutionary War
Veterans, even those with disabilities, weren’t always perceived as returning heroes. From the beginning, the United States struggled with how to deal with soldiers’ needs after combat was through.

William R.
Though the new nation tried to induce recruits to sign up with assurances of bonuses and pensions, it didn’t keep its promises to America’s first veterans. The Continental Congress pledged money to anyone wounded in the Revolutionary War, but the cash-strapped Articles of Confederation Congress didn’t follow through.

As historian Lester D. Langleynotes, this wasn’t exactly popular among the troops, many of whom had lost their limbs during the war. “The bitterness over the pensions…nearly brought on a military coup,” he writes. Tension about pensions mounted between army men, who felt they had been forgotten, and civilians, who felt that pensions were government giveaways.

The War Pension Act of 1818
After dragging its feet for 35 years after the Revolutionary War concluded in 1783, Congress finally addressed the issue of how to care for America’s veterans with the War Pension Act of 1818. Thanks to a combination of relative prosperity and romantic sentiment toward the now distant revolution, the publicsupported pensions for veterans “ in reduced circumstances.”

However, once it was passed, the number of claims astonished Congress. Almost immediately, benefits were cut and Congress tried to crack down on fraudulent claims."