The Military Times reports that veterans’ groups are calling U.S. Rep. Michele  Bachmann’s proposal to freeze military veterans’ health care funding and cut their disability benefits “astonishing” â€œill-advised,” â€œwrong-headed,” and “nothing short of heartless.”

Bachmann’s plan to slash $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget are included in her package of $400 billion in government spending cuts proposed to avoid increasing the $14.3 trillion federal debt ceiling.

Bachmann’s plan is posted on her official Congressional website.

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Bachmann Plan Would Cut Veterans Benefits

By Rick Maze

January 28, 2011

Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits. …

Read the full report at the Military Times

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Veterans Groups Blast Proposed Tea Party Cuts

By Rick Maze

January 28, 2011

A proposal [by Rep. Michele Bachmann] to cut $4.5 billion from Veterans Affairs Department health programs to reduce government spending has earned a quick, sharp rebuke from major veterans groups. …

Read the full report at the Military Times

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2/6/2011 Update

Bachmann Shelves Proposal to Cut Veterans’ Benefits

By Mark Sommerhauser
St. Cloud Times
February 5, 2011

After an outcry from veterans groups, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has backed off her suggestion that Congress consider cutting veterans’ benefits. …

[Bachmann’s proposal to trim the federal deficit by cutting veterans’ benefits] drew criticism from veterans groups such as Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, the Times reported Thursday [link added]. It also triggered phone calls to Bachmann, said her spokeswoman, Becky Rogness.

In a statement Friday on her website, Bachmann wrote she’s removing the veterans’ cuts from consideration.

“The problem of government spending must be solved, but not on the backs of our nation’s war heroes,” Bachmann wrote. …

Rogness said Bachmann’s office didn’t study how a cap on VA health spending would affect the St. Cloud VA center. …

Full story

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Related report on this site

Bachmann Exploits Troops (March 13, 2010)

Rep. Michele Bachmann and her husband Marcus ride atop a military vehicle with “U.S. Army” emblazoned on it, Stillwater Lumberjack Days Parade, July 25, 2010. (Photo credit: Ken Avidor / Dump Bachmann)

Bachmann Draws Troops into Budget Crossfire (April 10, 2011)

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — January 29, 2010

Iraq War on Trial

Anti-war protesters from the Stop the War group wear masks depicting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, right, former President George W. Bush, center, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, left. They posed for photographers Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009 outside the conference center where the Iraq war inquiry is taking place in central London. (Photo credit: Lefteris Pitarakis / AP)

One year ago today, I reported that an unrepentant Tony Blair defended his decision to join the United States in attacking Iraq, invoking the discredited neocon argument before a panel investigating the war that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made the threat of weapons of mass destruction impossible to ignore.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: Two Years Ago — January 29, 2009

Military Suicides Continue to Rise

Kevin Lucey, seen here in 2007, says his ex-Marine son, who killed himself, didn’t get the treatment he needed. (Photo credit: Getty Images)

Two years ago today, on Jan. 29, 2009, I reported that suicide rates among active-duty U.S. military personnel continuing to rise even as the Defense Department dedicated more resources to identifying troubled service members and getting them the help they need. Preliminary figures confirmed at least 125 soldiers killed themselves in 2008, compared with 115 in 2007, 102 in 2006 and 87 in 2005.