The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pays $73.13 every month to the last surviving child of a Civil War veteran still on its payroll. The VA is also still paying for pensions of 16 widows and children of the 1898 Spanish-American War and to 4,038 widows and children of World War I veterans. These expenses are indicative of just how long the country continues to pay for wars after they’ve technically ended. A feature in The Wall Street Journal Friday points out that the V.A. paid a total of $6.7 billion to the parents, spouses, and children of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans over the 2013 fiscal year.
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
