Episode Transcript
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J Basser (00:00):
Exposed Bed
Productions Weekly Show.
My name is John Stacy.
They call me Jay Bassler.
I hail from the beautiful stateof Kentucky.
Today is the 15th day of May2025.
Today we've got a treat for you.
We've got the one and only.
Alex Graham he's otherwiseknown as Asnod A-S-K-N-O-D.
(00:21):
He's got his Asnogcom website,asnogorg.
You can go look at it if youwant a good laugh.
Just research some of his stuff.
Alex is going to talk a littlebit about special monthly
compensation today, along with afew other things.
How are you doing, alex?
Alex Graham (00:36):
I'm doing good, I
can't complain.
Like I was telling you, I'vegot this laryngitis.
I've had for approximately twoand a half months maybe,
according to my wife.
I didn't realize it was thatlong, but can't tell whether
it's acid reflux or post-nasaldrip because there's every
flower underneath the sun isblooming out there in front of
(00:59):
my house.
You can't go out there withoutgetting hit by bumblebees.
It's like a target-richenvironment for them.
But mostly what I wanted to talkabout, as I see it come up on
all the Reddit boards forveterans' claims information and
(01:22):
I get a lot of guys that cometo me from that Reddit board,
bulletin board or whatever youcall that, asking me questions
about SMCT, because that, ofcourse, is the gold standard for
all these guys that wentthrough the World War III in
(01:44):
Afghanistan and Iraq.
A lot of probably as many asthere were in Vietnam came down
with some pretty wild and reallytraumatic brain injuries, but
more so with IEDs.
Not as though they cornered themarket on IEDs, we just didn't
have that terminology for itback in 1968.
(02:06):
We called them mines.
J Basser (02:09):
Well similar to mines.
Alex Graham (02:13):
I've never had the
misfortune to drive over one,
but I've had a lot moreexcitement in my career flying
with drunken pilots and so on.
J Basser (02:27):
Flying drunk, flying
with drunken pilots and so on.
Alex Graham (02:28):
flying drunk, I
lost my first cousin's boy to
IED in Afghanistan so anyway,with the advent of the decision
last year of Alaska versusMcDonough, it unhinged that 30%
(02:50):
ruling.
It takes away the hospitalrequirement.
Essentially, congress createdit and then the VA promptly
misunderstood it, misquoted itand created the regulation
incorrectly and against the law,forcing you to actually be
basically the same as R2.
(03:10):
And it was never designed to bethat way.
As most people know, r2,virtually and that's what we're
going to talk about tonightuallythe only way to approach
getting to R1, let alone R2,which obviously they're
synonymous with each other,closely associated is to obtain
(03:38):
two rates between L and N, basedon two separate disabilities.
And if one of them, of course,as we all know, as I've taught
you a million times, if one ofthose two disabilities are
entitlements to special monthlycompensation as aid and
(03:59):
attendants under 3.350 B3, thenyou qualify for O.
And when you qualify for O, ifone of them is aid and
attendance under B3, then youautomatically catapult up to R1.
R2, of course, is just adistinction of needing to be
(04:21):
institutionalized.
The beauty of SMCT is itrelaxes that standard.
Now, all of a sudden, you onlyneed one L for aid and
attendance and actually have arating, even a zero.
I've gotten some guys who'vegot a zero rate for TBI, because
the VA invariably combines thetwo together and essentially you
(04:48):
do, you want them to do that.
But more importantly, they'llcome by, you'll get 70 for PTSD.
And all of a sudden you got 70for TBI and you're thinking to
yourself, wow, I'm gonna get to100 on one of these suckers.
And they put both of themtogether and still call it 70
because they they say, well, wecan't tell which one's which.
Most VA or most veterans getpretty wound up about that.
(05:12):
They go, they're screwing me,they're defeating my ability to
get to 100% for one rating thatdoesn't make any difference.
Last week and this is no kiddingI had a gal.
She had that Lyme disease andit got her really bad with grand
(05:34):
mal, seizures, vertigo, patinaseizures, and they gave her 100%
for the Lyme disease for acouple three years.
And all of a sudden the guycome knocking on the door, said
we got to reduce that 100%because you don't have Lyme
disease anymore.
We're proposing to reduce youfrom 100 to zero for that.
(05:55):
Well, I can have some seriouscomplications If you're on SMCS,
as she was.
It means she's floating backdown into bare minimum for TDIU.
So she contacted me and she says"'Holy shit, batman, what do I
do'.
And I said "'Well, you knowwhat I was taught in Vietnam?
(06:19):
"'is when they're attacking you, you don't huddle.
"'and pray to Jesus, you startattacking back.
So that's exactly what I did.
She had filed and asked for aidand attendance within a year of
that, excuse me.
So I filed an appeal up to theboard and I said I want aid and
(06:41):
attendance and I was denied forit here, and I want it strictly
for these grand mal and petitemal seizures which are only
rated at 20%, john, whichdoesn't sound like it's even
enough to you know.
It's like tinnitus times two orsomething or a bum knee for 20%
(07:03):
.
But the other thing I threw inthere was she needed it because
she had these killer headachesevery day, bad migraines that
lasted two or three hours Everyday.
She's got a two-year-old son.
She just fired her husband,kicked him out the door.
He's just a dead weight like ananchor on her, sitting around
(07:25):
eating Cheetos and watching TVand waiting for her to get her
VA check every month.
So she sent him packing and Iasked for an extra scheduler on
top of her 50% for the headaches, because she needed it, and she
damn sure needed it if you werethinking about trying to get
(07:46):
the SMCL, or so I thought.
But if you do read the physicallanguage of 3.
What is it?
Let's see which one is it 38USC 1114, uh l, it says.
(08:08):
You know it talks about loss ofuse of hand and foot, loss of
use of both feet, blind, needingaid and attendance.
But it the way the aid andattendance wording is phrased.
It says essentially uh, fordisabilities so severe that they
require aid and attendance.
Now, it didn't say anythingabout you got to have 100%
(08:34):
rating to get there.
It didn't say you had to have aminimum of 70.
So I'm thinking to myself shit,I've never heard anybody getting
an extra scheduler forheadaches.
But why can't you?
Nobody told me you can't.
Well, I filed for it and boydid I get bitch slapped better
than a law judge.
He says no, no, no, no.
You can't have an extrascheduler for headaches at 50%,
(08:55):
because 50% is the max schedulerrate for the headaches.
You can't get any higher than50.
And I had to agree with him.
Yeah, he's absolutely right,but I just figured.
Just because it says 50 doesn'tmean anything to me.
I don't obey the rules.
Nobody taught me the rules, Ijust make them up as I go and if
(09:19):
they tell me I'm wrong, well,okay, I'll buy that.
So anyway, he still granted theaid to tenants.
The judge did.
He says, because of the 20% forthe grand mal seizures, which
are well recorded in her claimsfile and her Capri records,
(09:42):
we're going to give you aid totenants for basically for a 20
percent rating and and I evenwrote it in the legal brief that
I thought she deserved it,regardless of what va rated her
out under less than five petitemall seizures a month, which is
not supported by the medicalevidence that she was having 20,
(10:05):
25 a month.
And let's say five of those 25were grand mal, where you fall
down on the ground, you run arisk of kissing that concrete
too hard, you get a concussion.
And she basically had her momlive next door to her or vice
versa, and she'd come over andstay with her during the day and
(10:26):
in the evening she had one ofthose baby monitors and their
mom could hear it next door.
So if something happened, thebaby started crying and kept
crying and she knew there wastrouble.
So nobody can tell me you haveto have 100% rating, like it
says in the M21, to get in linefor aid and attendance.
(10:50):
So with that sure knowledge,let's move on to the next thing.
Because of the Barry versusMcDonough decision that came out
in May of last year decisionthat came out in may of last
(11:10):
year we know that you can havemultiple bumps for the, the
bumps afforded you in 3.350, f3and f4.
You only get one bump on f4,which would be a full step bump.
So, presuming you get the 8-nettenants, which is SMCL, and in
(11:32):
this case that I'm getting readyto demonstrate to you, his
Parkinson's is very, very badtremors and whatnot.
He's rated pretty heavily forit, based on tremors in the legs
, tremors in the hand, bothhands of one foot.
(11:54):
But he's got on top of that.
He's got a real bad diabeteswith peripheral neuropathy in
his feet.
He's even got a afl on one foot.
Drag his foot up in the airbecause he's got real bad foot.
Drop he's a hot mess.
But that would give him thatall that Parkinson's was the
(12:18):
base procedure, the base reasonwhy they gave him the aid and
attendance.
So now if you're going to gooutside of that and start
building this thing, you've gotto shop around and find other
disabilities that are separateand distinct from Parkinson's.
And for a Vietnam and he'sVietnam vet too so the obvious
(12:41):
thing is you start shoppingaround there.
Now, in this case, he's going toget his bump from L to M
because of something that waschronic lymphocytic leukemia
Another one of those presentsfrom Agent Orange.
So that gave him a bump from Lto M, full step bump under 350
(13:04):
F4.
Now stay with me here, we'regoing to do some gymnastics with
SMC.
He has a seven page code sheet.
Now what happened is I appliedfor aid and attendance and I
also threw in loss of use ofuppers, loss of use of lowers.
When he came to me he wasalready up at the Board of
(13:26):
Veterans Appeals appealing hisratings for his legs, for the
peripheral neuropathy associatedwith diabetes.
So when I applied for that,they strung me out for about
five months and finally theysaid you can't be in two places
at once and I understand thatyou can't be applying for aid to
(13:50):
tenants down below while you'reon remand from the board for a
higher rating.
Now, legally I could do this,but because the VA is so stupid
I can't do this.
He's asking for a higher ratefrom 10 to 40%, from 2010 to
2013.
I'm asking for loss of use ofthe uppers and the lowers in
(14:13):
2025, maybe going back to 2022,not back to 2010 in that era.
So they're taking me, they're.
They've dissolved my claim inacid.
My claim for loss of use hasbeen thrown in the trash can and
(14:35):
they're not going to address it, and and certainly not even
I'll probably have to refile forit if I want to.
Now you're going to.
I got a trick up my sleeve here.
I haven't been able to use itvery frequently because I very
rarely had veterans that ill.
Nor did we have the Berryversus McDonough decision to
(14:58):
draw from too.
But anyway, when they denied orsaid that technically the loss
of use was already on appeal andthey weren't going to decide
that at the same time, I've beenpestering these guys for a
couple of years to give him thebump up from L to M for the
(15:20):
chronic lymphocytic leukemia andthey kept saying, nope, went
all the way through it.
It's 996 HLR.
Nope, don't see it, can't getthere from here.
Well, why can't you grant the M?
It's under F4.
And they can't see it.
(15:41):
Can't see it from where I'mstanding.
I don't see anything about 350,f3 or F4.
I can't see it.
Can't see it from where I'mstanding.
I don't see anything about 350,f3 or f4.
I can't see it.
So finally, here it is.
They declare a cue on themselvesso we forgot to give you that
bump up from l to m back in 22.
Sorry about that.
(16:02):
Here you.
You go, $14,850 for our littlemistake.
But Mr Graham doesn't get paid20% for doing that for you.
Because he didn't declare a cue, we cued ourselves.
So Mr Graham hasn't created asituation where he objected to
(16:25):
the fact that we weren't givinghim the L.
He just kept asking for ahigher level of review.
He never took it up to theboard.
Now he's reopened it again andasked for it a second time,
which is not true for the bumpfrom L to M as a not as a bump,
(16:45):
mind you, but as aid andattendance for his chronic
lymphocytic leukemia.
I never asked for a bump from Lto M.
It was strictly for aid andattendance.
They misread that.
They said well, we're going togive you the bump from L to M
for the chronic lymphocytic.
We're not even going to talkabout another aid and attendance
(17:07):
because that would bump his assright up to R1 and a New York
second.
So they gave him the bump to M,which is you know what I call
this SMCP he has an M and a K.
That's what I call poor man'spoor man's R1.
You can't ever get there, butyou can.
(17:29):
But you have to be very adroitat this.
So I'm looking at all hisratings.
They've used up the Parkinson'sand they threw in the loss of
use of Winky under SMCK, so hehad an M plus K.
But what else did he have?
As I say, he has post-traumaticstress disorder for 70%.
(17:51):
He's got a bronze star with a Vto prove it.
And he's got ischemic heartdisease at 60%.
He's got sleep apnea at 50%.
And he's got enough peripheralneuropathy ratings to run out
the window, up one wall and downthe other and out to the
(18:11):
mailbox.
The peripheral neuropathy right, lower femoral 30, left femoral
30.
What's this one here?
(18:32):
Uh, left upper, uh, same thingwith uh, uh for 20.
And bilateral hearing loss 10percent, tinnitus 10, speech
changes 10.
He's got all kinds of thingsgoing on here, but mostly he's
got all the ingredients to getbumps all the way up to n and
one half and he's still got thatk.
(18:54):
So he bumped from m to m and ahalf with the ptsd.
He bumped from m and a half toN with ischemic heart disease
and he bumped from N to N and ahalf with about 120% of diabetes
ratings for diabetes plusperipheral neuropathy.
So he's got an N and a halfplus a K.
(19:15):
Now if you know how to playhopscotch with SMC know how to
play hopscotch with SMC youwould know that when you reach
the maximum rate you can get toin SMCP, which is N and one half
plus K, you automaticallymigrate up to O.
But regardless of how you gotto O, if somewhere back there
(19:40):
you got an aid and attendance orbeen diagnosed with a need for
aid and attendance, which is howhe got here to begin with he
had the aid and attendance forhis Parkinson's.
So you're going to peer him inand say, because he's got all
these things wrong with him, toadd up to N and a half plus K
and one of them is aid andattendance, you jump from o to
(20:04):
r1 and, as I said before, barrywent became law in june I was
june 6 to 24 when they made thatdecision at the federal circuit
.
You have a damn hard timegetting to N and a half plus K,
because all you could hope foris to be on aid and attendance,
(20:26):
be blind and have some loss ofuse and that get you up to the
R1.
That's the only way you'regoing to get there.
It required some tricks to gothrough the lower rate, through
SMCP, to get to a bump positionand the best you could hope for
(20:49):
would be the blind need, aid andattendance.
And then you get another kickfrom M to N due to a 100% rating
.
But back before this theywouldn't give you 100 and a half
.
All they'd give you was one 100or one 50% half step.
(21:11):
Couldn't get both of them.
That's the way they did it.
I have seen decisions where theydid it, but they weren't
precedential.
They occurred at the boardbecause somebody stepped on
their necktie and they grantedit and there wasn't any rhyme or
reason to it.
But there were only about threeor four of them to boot anyway.
So when they passed Barry, itopened up multiple half-step
(21:37):
bumps and that made it a wholelot easier to get to N and a
half plus K.
That bumps and that made it awhole lot easier to get to n and
a half plus k.
So if you whip out your, youruh adjudication or not, the
adjudication manual, god forbid.
If you get a 38, you have a 38,cfr.
3.350, and scroll all the waydown to h, which discusses r1.
(22:02):
H2 discusses this scenariowhere you somehow arrived at n
and a half plus k, which is themaximum rate that you can get
under p.
So therefore you are at o, andif you at O and it says it
(22:23):
doesn't make any difference ifyou used aid and attendance to
get to O, if you need aid andattendance and you are at O,
then you are at R1.
That's 3.350H2.
(22:44):
Nobody's been able to availthemselves of it unless they had
the amputations at the torso ofthe lower extremities here,
literally amputated, flush withthe with the torso of your body,
such that you could not affix aprosthesis to yourself or
prostheses and strap on yourlegs and go for a walk because
there wasn't anything to hookthem to except your torso.
(23:05):
That doesn't work real good.
That was one of therequirements for n, and you
would also have to physicallylost your eyeballs, and that
would get you there too.
But that just gets you to end,and then you'd still have to
have another half step bump forsomething and you've got your
(23:28):
better, have a k or this wholething doesn't work out at all.
So it hinges on a bunch ofdifferent things, but mostly,
yeah, I lean on.
I have to look it up on my legalbrief but I don't want to wipe
out being attached to you rightnow.
But basically there's adecision called Moira versus
(23:54):
Principia and I have to go inthere and look for the spelling,
but it's M-O-R-E-I-R-A, Ibelieve, spelling, but it's
m-o-r-e-i-r-a, I believe.
And you'll see it in a lot ofmy legal briefs, underneath the,
the legal standard of review orthe legal landscape, and it
says smc is awarded based on thelevel of disability, which is
(24:17):
true.
It's kind of like legos youjust stick them together and
stick, and if this one is thistall, then it goes over here and
attaches to this one and nextthing, you know, you've built
your little Lego castle and gotup to the R1, r2, t level.
It's a recipe of combiningthings and combining them in the
(24:39):
right order, and sometimes iteven hinges on getting them
rated in the right order.
And sometimes it even hinges ongetting them rated in the right
order, like getting aid andattendance for Parkinson's
before you lose your lowerextremities or the ability to
walk with your lower extremities.
When that happens, then it'sloss of use.
(25:01):
It's it's something differentfrom aid and attendance.
You cannot grant aid andattendance for loss of use.
It's against the law.
That's why they have twodifferent kinds of ratings.
One for loss of use of yourlower extremities is due to
Parkinson's, and you're gettingaid and attendance for
(25:26):
Parkinson's.
You're not pyramiding by addingthat onto it.
You haven't pyramided.
Or even if you have pyramided,it's permissible in aid and
attendance, which is about theonly place in the whole scheme
of things at 38 CFR that you'regoing to get away with
pyramiding and get paid for it.
(25:49):
So this is the back door, this3.350H2, which is the back door,
that says N and a half equals Oif you have a k and if, if,
what?
If the reason you have this isnot loss of use but aid and
attendance, then you catapult upto r1.
(26:11):
So it's an interesting it's.
It's like checkers, where yougo click clack, click clack and
get to the other side.
The guy's got a king.
You put an extra one on top ofyou.
It's pretty tricky andunfortunately, if you think smc
is difficult, I I can't evenbegin to tell you how many
(26:32):
things you have to memorize andevery time you get to there
there's always some littlecodicil that'll say up but you
can't do that, or you can onlydo it on thursday, or you can
only do on thursday in theafternoon, you can't do it in
the morning.
Add to that the insult that theregional office folks have a
(26:55):
clue on how to do smc.
I have looked them across adesk, I have looked them in the
eye, I have looked at them onvideo cameras.
I have talked to them ontelephones doing HLR informal
conferences and formalconferences and explained to
them how it works.
(27:16):
And they look at you like adeer in the headlights.
They don't connect with itbecause they use the M21, and
they just type in your 100% forthis, 100% for that, 70 for this
, 70 for that, and push send andit kicks out what they're
(27:37):
supposed to get.
Oh, you get SMCS.
Well, that's pretty easy.
All you have to do is figureout that the guy's got a tdiu or
a hundred percent schedulerrating and all the rest of the
on the code sheet adds up tosixty percent or more.
Homer simpson's monkey mojocould figure this one out while
(27:57):
he's going to get a beer forHomer.
I mean, it's that simple.
But when you move up to SMCL,they can figure that out.
If the Board of VeteransAppeals says give him aid and
attendance, they go okay, gotthat right.
Hit, enter special monthlycompensation calculator.
(28:19):
Figures it out, says got togive him an L, oh, and he's got
a K.
So we got to give him the K too.
So you get an L and a K, butthe machine, the computer that
does this calculation for SMCseizes up.
It cannot for the life of it seean extra 100%.
(28:39):
That has to be arrived at withthese devices in front of your
face, behind your glasses.
There Somebody actually has tolook at a code sheet manually
and say, hmm, it's got an extra100% here.
Oh well, we can bump them fromL to K or L to M, rather, excuse
me, and continue to give themthe K.
(29:01):
But that's the end of the party.
They can't see any further thanthat and they have to do it
manually.
Most times they'll go rightover the 100%.
You got extra for something andlook for a half-step jump and
give you L and a half.
I don't know how many guys havecome to me with the l and a half
(29:23):
and said what happened?
I got another 100 for ptsd hereand plus this loss of use or
this aid and attendance for formy traumatic brain injury.
How come they didn't give methe bump?
What?
What's going on?
They can't do it, it'simpossible and I'm not allowed
(29:45):
to divulge this yet.
But I got a not for publicationsomething from somebody that
works at VA and it was adiscussion from the VA office of
inspector general and it's areport.
They're getting ready topublish it.
But I got the thing that saysnot for publication.
Yet we got to make sure weclear this with the new boss,
(30:09):
doug Doug Collins, before wepublish it, because it's from
pretty damning evidence.
They went out to 19 regionaloffices and they said, okay,
flip out a code sheet, as someguy says, here you go, let's
rate this guy for SMC, show meyour rating method.
And they hamburger, 13 of the19 ratings got them wrong.
(30:32):
So and they said, okay, how didit?
How did it end up wrong?
Let's do the kind of the faultsystem check.
And they all came back to thisSMC calculator and they said
well, garbage in, garbage out.
You can put in the correctparameters up front by typing it
(30:53):
in, but the machine can't see,it won't understand, it, rejects
it and says, okay, yeah, thisguy should get M and a half, and
it spits out L and a half, orit might spit out M if
somebody's looking at it andsaying, I wonder why I didn't do
that, I got to fix it.
But most of the time they justlet the machine do it.
(31:15):
And the machine does it wrongevery time.
Or, in this case, it did itwrong 13 out of 19 times.
Or, in this case, they did itwrong 13 out of 19 times.
I have no idea what theindividual cases involved that
they used for test runs throughthe machinery, but it was
(31:37):
uniform from one regional officeto the next because they're all
using the same SMC calculator.
Now multiply that out, john.
How many years do you thinkthey've been doing their wrong?
I have no idea, but I wonderhow many guys are out there with
an L and a half that shouldhave an M?
J Basser (31:58):
or after.
Barry should have R1.
Alex Graham (32:01):
There were many
guys that actually had it and
died and didn't get nothing.
Yeah well, we can't.
That's.
The sad thing about death of aveteran is that the spouse can't
file a Q and say you screwed me.
The only way you can keep thesethings alive is what I do.
If one of my clients' spousecalled me and says well, looks
(32:23):
like Frank's headed for the lastroundup, one of my clients'
spouse called me and says, well,looks like Frank's headed for
the last roundup.
We're probably going to have tocall hospice next week because
he's not eating now.
I went.
Oh yeah, that's probably aboutthe first clue.
So first thing I do is I filethem for aid and attendance for
every last thing that's wrongwith them, john, and I'll get
(32:46):
them R2 instantly, but it mightonly last or carry for three
months.
But that's a nice little kickerfor the wife if you're sitting
there at SMCS and all of asudden you're at R2.
That's the difference between$4,200 and $11,200 a month.
That's a $6,000 jump.
Essentially for seven, that's$21,000 for three months.
J Basser (33:11):
That's a good list.
Alex Graham (33:17):
I don't like to
look like an ambulance chaser,
but I do it for the spouse andnine times out of 10, they'll
deny I'll have to take it up tothe board and they grant almost
within 21 days.
They see the rainbow and thepot.
At the end they say I see whatGraham's doing.
(33:38):
The guy isn't going to be on R2for the rest of his life
because he's already dead.
So they get him for threemonths or something.
But it's a nice way to just geta little bit more before they
go to heaven or even after theygo to heaven, as far as I know.
J Basser (33:58):
You know.
I mean do what you can.
It's just sad that they do that.
You know they need to be ableto have one of these computer
wizards that's in the governmentright now to go in that
computer system and maybe putthe right parameters in and have
it do its job correctly.
That could be done really easy.
Alex Graham (34:17):
Well, you could fix
the SMC calculator.
If you were an AI, it guy,whatever.
You'd probably go in there inthe guts of that thing and look
at the program and you'd say,well shit, all I got to do is
change line 47 and line 204, 205, 206.
This thing will work like a NewYork second.
It'll punch out the correctrating every time.
(34:38):
Why haven't you fixed it?
J Basser (34:41):
This thing's been
screwed up for years, decades,
when you write an AI program.
When you write an AI program,you got to look at the factors
involved.
You need data and you need tobe able to submit data as far as
your claims process and yourrating schedules.
In order to get that in there,it's got to be in there
correctly and it's got to bebased off of what the 38 says.
(35:03):
It can be done, but it's goingto take a pretty tough person to
do it.
Alex Graham (35:08):
Well, I find it
interesting that it will work
right up to SMCL, but it won'twork any further.
Why is it that it doesn't workall the way to SMCN?
Nobody qualifies the machine'sbroke and they know it's been
(35:29):
broke.
And the OIG comes to theregional offices and the DROCs
across the Fruity Plains andthey say your calculator don't
work.
And the guy goes no, it worksjust fine.
Well, yeah, it works just fine,but it's cranking out the wrong
information, the wrong rating.
You know, they just shrug theirshoulders.
(35:51):
Well, that's not my department.
My job is to stick it in thefront end here and then take it
out the back end, stick it in anenvelope and mail it to the vet
.
Well, that's a pretty sad stateof affairs.
And now you throw Barry versusMcDonnell in on top of it and it
(36:11):
becomes a fuster cluck ofmassive proportions.
J Basser (36:16):
Well, you're right.
I mean, if you're rated, ifyou've got 100% or IU and you
get SNCS and you got a bunch ofother disabilities, you know it
adds up four, five, 600%.
Then look out.
Alex Graham (36:33):
Sadly there's too
many guys named Commando Craig,
combat Craig, whatever he callshimself, and that other guy that
wears the fancy jacket and thelittle musher, the handkerchief
sticking up out of his pocket.
He's got a real sexy hairdo.
Too bad, these guys.
They teach a lot of stuff andthat's a good thing.
(36:55):
For veterans is to be taught orto see the different ways to do
it.
But what I see is that nobodyseems to grasp the way I look at
SMC John.
When a guy has SMCS, what has hegot?
He has something that isconsidered to be a 100% rating.
(37:16):
All by itself.
That might be TDIU or a it or ahundred percent scheduler for
ischemic heart disease becausehe's blowing a one to three Mets
.
That is the base leg thatyou're using to get SMC because
you got 60% more.
(37:37):
To me, every SMCS is an L.
Every time you see 100% or aTDIU, it is an L depending on
how disabled the veteran is andthe older you get, the more
disabled you get and the greaterthe level of your disability
(37:58):
and the symptoms.
So I don't believe s is astatic rating.
I believe that it's just atransitory transition.
You know, you say going from100 to s to l to r1, or however
you want to go up the ladder.
J Basser (38:22):
There's two roads for
S You're either physically
housebound, say that again.
There's two roads for S.
You're either physicallyhousebound, can't get out of the
house, or you have 100 plus 60or total plus 60.
Alex Graham (38:35):
Right, most of them
are 100 plus 60 or total plus
60.
Right, most of them are 100plus 60 because a doctor could
write you a letter that sayshe's substantially housebound
and can't get out unlesssomebody puts him in the
wheelchair.
It's not raining because hekind of has a poor grip and
(38:56):
can't hold the umbrella overhimself before they get out the
car and get soaking wet.
When you're talking about thatlevel of housebound, you're
actually most of these guys arealmost bedridden.
Uh, due to uh, whatever itmight be, might be loss of use.
Maybe that's notservice-connected and they can't
(39:19):
accomplish that to get to L forloss of use.
But even if you are housebound,getting a doctor to write that
sometimes is very difficult.
They'll hem and they'll haw orthey'll say I'm not putting my
name on that.
They might come and sue me forfalsely claiming that you're
(39:41):
housebound.
Maybe you're not, maybe you'refunning me, maybe you're
bullshitting me.
That's why the 100 plus 60 isthe more common way to get to
SMCS most frequently.
J Basser (39:56):
Most of it should be
automatic, though, alex.
I mean, if you've got that, itshould be automatic.
It's an ancillary benefit andit should kick it out and fit it
out, which it does.
Alex Graham (40:03):
Well, the whole
thing should be automatic From
the moment you get a 100% rating.
Va should have the binocularson your ass and be looking at
you and saying I've got 100% forthis ischemic heart disease.
Look at it.
You'd say it's got 100 for this, uh, ischemic heart disease.
Let's pull him in for a cnpexam.
See if we can give him smcl foraid and attendance, because
he's forgetting to take hismedications or something or he's
(40:28):
not.
He doesn't have the stamina tostand up and cook.
He gets short of breath, has togo over there and start popping
those nitroglycerins liketic-tacs.
They don't make thatdetermination and that's an
inferral.
That's like when you go in andfile a claim for diabetes and
when they do the diabetes testthey go wow, yes, sir, you're
(40:52):
pumping yourself with a ton ofglipizide there.
Sir, you're pumping yourselfwith a ton of glipizide there.
Let's go see if he's got someperipheral neuropathy and they
send you out for a second examthat just deals with what your
peripheral neuropathy is in yourextremities, because it's
inferred If you have diabetesyou might have problems with
your legs or your hands or youreyes, or your eyes or your
(41:18):
kidneys.
I mean the.
I mean the list.
It's a pretty long list.
Let's look at it that way.
But yeah, diabetic nephropathy,diabetic retinopathy both of
them but va doesn't make thatdetermination to give you the
diabetes and they might give youthe peripheral neuropathy.
But if you got 100 for ihd I,you nobody is going to get off
(41:41):
their dead ass and say let'ssend him out and find out
whether he needs aid andattendance.
They're not going to make thatdetermination.
Ackles versus Derwinsky saysthat's what you're supposed to
do.
Neandrum versus Nicholson Samething.
If you see that he can'taccomplish something like
walking, then you should besaying let's send him out and
(42:05):
see what the story is on that.
They had the blinders on.
They're looking down at theground.
Here's your 100%.
We're not investigating thisany further.
If you've got a bitch file a tolook.
We're not investigating thisany further If you've got a
bitch file a 526.
That's not the way it works.
It's unfortunate, but you'vegot to be a self-starter in the
(42:27):
SMC world.
They don't come knocking onyour door and try to beg you to
take more money from them.
It doesn't work that way.
J Basser (42:35):
It doesn't work that
way.
I mean it's not plausible forthem to do it.
You know it's kind of like theywould serve better time working
for JG Whitworth trying to getyou to sell your insurance to
him or something, doing whatthey do, jg.
Alex Graham (42:55):
Whitworth, that's a
good one.
I have to remember that.
J Basser (43:03):
Diabetes is hard to
get a rating increase because
they kind of stick to their gunson the regulation of activities
.
But one of the big things nowis the pop of ischemia.
If you have a bent, you knowduring the day, you know you'd
have to call an ambulance, go tothe hospital.
Now they got these gcms on yourarms everywhere and veterans
are still dropping low, buttheir wife or caregivers wake up
(43:24):
middle of the night shovingtheir tweaky down the throat and
they're avoiding going to thehospital.
Well, the a saving a lot ofmoney keeping out of the
hospital, but they need toadjust the rating schedule in
order to tell that becauseyou're still dropping low.
I brought that up the other dayto a couple of Congress
senators and it's in theirthings right now.
We'll see what happens.
I'm going to go testify and seewhat happens on that because I
(43:45):
want this thing fixed.
Alex Graham (43:48):
Well, we're flying
back for the NOVA conferences.
This fall they're going to beback in Washington DC and myself
and several other litigatorshave been making overtures to
Cheryl Mason, the former BVAchairman, who retired before
(44:15):
Biden got out of office.
Real nice gal.
She's the special assistant toDoug Collins, a new secretary.
He hired her to bring her onboard so that they could start
figuring out where to take thescissors to all the fat at VA
(44:36):
and most of it apparently is atthe fat at VA and most of it
apparently is at the VeteransHealth Administration.
And they got too many bedpanchangers, too many janitors, too
many non-doctor,non-psychologist,
non-psychiatrist, non-nursing.
J Basser (44:51):
Non-patient care.
Non-patient care.
Alex Graham (44:55):
It's not going to
impact patient care or getting
an appointment or whatnot,because they're not 86 and the
psychiatrist that's throwingthem out the door and pushing
you out six, eight months for anappointment with a psychologist
or a mental health consult.
I'm talking about a affect that, and of course the powers that
(45:21):
be on the progressive side, areall doing the panicking like the
sky is falling chicken.
Little that the life as we knowit as veterans is going to go
take a turn for the worse.
I think it'll take a turn forthe better.
I'd like to see what they'redoing down there.
(45:42):
You know, think about it.
John.
West LA you've probably heard alot about West LA what?
288 acres?
388 acres.
And the VA started leasing thatout to Hertz Rent-A-Car, a
commercial laundry service.
Brentwood Private School builttheir whole athletic field on
(46:04):
the property and they said we'renot giving that back.
We spent $2 million on that butit belongs to veterans.
The guy that gave it to themback in 1898 or 1919 said this
is VA.
It is going to be about VA forveterans, by veterans and in aid
of making veterans' life better.
(46:27):
And the VA not under DougCollins, mind you, but because
of all these people, the poobahsthat are in office there, all
these people, the poobahs thatare in office there, who've been
there for the last 20 years.
They're saying, no, we're notgoing to build that, take any
money and use all that acreageto create homeless housing for
veterans Hell, no, we're notgoing to spend that kind of
(46:48):
money.
No, no, no, no.
That is so anti-veteran, Icannot believe it.
And it's so against the lawthat they're utilizing that and
making money off all these guys.
There's pump jacks out therestill pumping oil on that
property and they're not naked.
(47:09):
I just can't believe it.
They've got plenty of roomthere.
I've been there.
I know they've got tons andtons of room that they could be
using to build that out and teardown those old barracks like
things and put in some real nicehousing in there, a single unit
(47:29):
with a common room for like afair field inn where you go down
there and get meals.
I just can't believe thatthey're doing that to veterans.
But in the scheme of things, itdoesn't shock me in the least.
The good news is, as I'm flyingback there to Tennessee, you
(47:50):
know where Columbia Tennessee is.
Yes, I do.
I think it's north of Nashville.
Tunnel to Tower is building 59houses up there and one of my
clients is getting the ribboncutting ceremony approximately
July 10th, 15th somewhere inthere.
So Cupcake and me are going tofly back there, rent a car and
(48:14):
go up to Columbia.
We got invited to the Tunnel tothe Towers ribbon cutting and
so I'm looking forward tomeeting this guy.
I got him R2.
He's a man Got real badParkinson's but he's not a
Vietnam vet.
He came down with Parkinson'swhile he was still in the
service of Vietnam.
Yet he came down withParkinson's while he was still
(48:35):
in the service.
He's got two ARCOMs, a V on oneof them and a Bronze Star and a
Purple Heart and a rotten caseof TBI.
But I got him R2.
I didn't get him to SMCT.
He had so much wrong with himit was actually easier and he
didn't have a diagnosis for TBI.
(48:56):
But he's way off in left fieldwith the ptsd to the point where
he's has hallucinations anddelusions and attacks people
sometimes when he gets a littleantsy and take cupcake.
J Basser (49:12):
Take an extra day and
take cupcake.
Kept the bowling green to thecorvette plant.
Alex Graham (49:16):
Oh yeah, yeah well,
you know I'm a mopar guy but
I'm willing to go look at, golook at chevy's.
I know chevy didn't cupcakewrong, that she bought a brand
new camaro yeah, with a t-top onit back I think.
I'm trying to remember as well.
(49:36):
I was dating her girlfriendbefore I met her, her girlfriend
.
My girlfriend introduced me toher.
That's how that happened.
She was married to another guyback then, but that T-top leaked
like a sieve.
She one day she went to getsomething out of the trunk and
open it up.
There's mushrooms growing inthe truck.
So took it to the dealership,had a little talk with them
(49:59):
about that.
They cleaned it all up.
The mushrooms came back aboutsix months later and then one
day the windshield wipers turnedon and she couldn't turn them
off.
She took it to the dealershipand about two blocks away from
the dealership the windshieldwipers turned off.
She goes in there and says Goddamn, things won't turn off.
Well, they're not running now.
Lady, I don't know what thehell you're talking about.
(50:19):
Drives away, starts up againsix blocks down the road, makes
a U-turn, heads back and theyshut off again.
Finally she took it back in andsays here's the keys.
I want my money back.
J Basser (50:32):
Don't mind me, a bit
Defects but I'm looking forward
to that.
Alex Graham (50:41):
I donate quite a
bit of money to what's well
Tunnel of Towers, but I alsodonated to people that are
building those Fisher House.
Yes, they let Debbie thoseFisher House.
Yes, they let Demi stay atFisher House for almost a month
(51:02):
when they thought I was dog meat.
J Basser (51:06):
That's probably one of
the nicest places that I've
ever seen.
We got one here.
They're beautiful In the rooms.
They take care of people.
I think Ray and his wife stayedin one.
When he's in the hospital, Ithink Pam stayed in one.
I was scheduled to go to StLouis last summer for some
spinal cord stuff.
(51:27):
They wanted me to stay in theFisher house but we worked out I
could get it down here.
Well the one they had there inSeattle.
Alex Graham (51:36):
I think it had six
or eight bedrooms in it.
It had a big common area, a bigdining room table.
It should probably bringeverybody in for Thanksgiving
dinner, certainly a whole 14people at that thing.
It was huge.
I'd never gone over there.
I was sick, I was in thehospital, but Debbie took
pictures of it and showed themto me.
She said you should have seenthat kitchen.
(51:58):
They had big ceiling-to-floorsub-zero refrigerators and
freezers, all decked out withthe wood fronts on them and
everything Almost where theylooked like cabinets.
You wouldn't even know it was arefrigerator unless you went
over there and pulled out thedoor and opened it and it was
(52:18):
chock full of food.
You didn't have to go buy food.
They had that thing stocked tothe gills every day A walk-in
pantry, everything you couldeven dream of in that pantry.
They kept that stocked up.
And when she came out of thatthing I said well, if I ever get
(52:38):
rich which I was hoping for, ofcourse I didn't know Cupcake
was independently wealthy andshe didn't know it until her
parents died and left her a lotof money which I'm not going to
go into.
But she stayed there and tookall those pictures and showed
them to me.
I'm not going to go into, butshe she stayed there and took
(52:59):
all those pictures and showedthem to me.
I think I even wrote a blog andput some of that information on
there.
But that kitchen was absolutecat's pajamas, man.
You couldn't ask for it.
I can't think of anotherappliance you could put into
that kitchen that it didn'talready have and the only thing
it was missing was an electricgas scratcher.
J Basser (53:22):
You can cook whatever
you want to do, you know.
Alex Graham (53:25):
Well, yeah, and you
know, I suppose you could still
call out for a pizza if youwere real lazy, but anybody with
a half brain if they didn't puta meal together there, what was
in there?
And some of that stuff was realsimple.
You know, macaroni and cheese,two-step process, stir and bake,
(53:46):
kind of shit, but hey, itimpressed the living shit out of
me.
So when I started getting alittle bit further down the road
and started doing my work thatI do now, I came up with some
extra money from all thesepeople that I get a fee for
helping.
We started donating to fisherpretty heavily and then I got
(54:12):
approached by uh, the tunnel toTowers people and I thought you
know, these are the only twoI've ever seen that put that
much money on Target.
I think it's a constant racebetween those two that they're
always dancing at.
About 95 to 96 percent of themoney donated goes to the
(54:36):
project and the rest of it'spostage.
I mean, it's not like now.
I'm by law, after I got sued,I'm not supposed to talk about
this, but let's put it this way.
Let's talk about somebody.
Once upon a time there was anoutfit called Wounded Wallet
Project and they managed to get39% of their donations on Target
(55:03):
, and all those commercials wereplease donate $20 a month.
God, you would have thoughtthat every veteran in the world
had his own house with the keyshanded to him, mortgage paid off
.
Not so, I'll tell you.
The guys running now we're alldriving Lexuses and had real
(55:25):
nice yachts and $2.5 millionwaterfront property in
Jacksonville.
So you know it's what it is.
If you want to know where themoney's going, look at it.
Look at those IRS 990 forms,man.
You can see if somebody'ssucking that money off to the
side and buying fancy cars.
(55:46):
It's sad that they can do that.
Get away with it.
Look you right in the face onTV, because the guys they show
are pretty disabled and that'ssad, but they're not even
getting that money.
J Basser (56:02):
They are, but they are
pushing a lot of R2 veterans
around Well.
Alex Graham (56:10):
I'll bet you $100 I
could go into that new village
in Columbia with 59 very, verydisabled veterans and find some
of them are SMCP instead of R2or T.
I'm not going shopping forclients.
I need more clients like I needmore holes in my head.
J Basser (56:32):
No, I build a quite up
all and you can always play
quarterback, hand them off toone of your running backs or one
of your full backs or somethinglike that.
Alex Graham (56:41):
Well, I've trained
30 guys on this SMC.
30 guys and gals and man,they're red hot, they're all out
there, just collecting them,sweeping them up and getting
them into R1 and R2.
It's a recipe just like bakingcookies, john.
It's not that difficult if youunderstand the principle.
But if you've been to lawschool sometimes you get that
(57:06):
law school, your brain on drugskind of mentality like the two
eggs in the frying pan.
You get stuck on something youknow, wes McCauley.
Good old Wes just called me thisafternoon while I was on my way
to the doctor to find out why Igot this laryngitis.
He says yeah, you ever heard ofthis guy called Coral, coral or
(57:29):
Coral.
I'd never heard of him, wes,and he goes.
Well, he came to me and I tookhis claim because I figured I
was going to get him off SMCSand get him at least up to an M
and a half in or something likethat, because he's an S 100 plus
60.
And he said I wasn't doing itright, I wasn't doing it.
(57:52):
And Wesley goes I'm trying toget you up into aid and
attendance.
He says, says no, you got tostart following me for an
increase for my 50, for myobstructive sleep apnea.
But you can't.
You're at 50, that's it on osaand they're trying to get him an
increase on his 20 for thediabetes, trying to get an
(58:13):
increase on his 100% for hismetastatic prostate cancer.
Man, when you hit 100, that's it.
But that doesn't mean it's it.
You go for aid and attendance.
At that point you don't justfile another claim to increase a
100 to what it's already at 100.
Now it's time to start talkingto SMC, not an increase on a
(58:36):
100% rating.
It's insane.
Those are attorneys doing it.
I'm not going to tell you thename of them, but if you took
raspberry and got rid of theword raz, you might have a good
idea of who it was.
So that's who he's using forhis new legal help.
(58:57):
God help him.
They still have.
They filed him for sixincreases and they still haven't
started talking about SMC yetwhat's that group out there in
San Francisco, Morris andForrester?
they are a pretty good outfit.
They did the very firstextraordinary writ for, oh God,
I'm going to think of his name,the father of extraordinary
(59:21):
writs at the court Erspammer Yep.
They represented him for probono.
They represented his wife,actually, after he passed.
J Basser (59:34):
We've got the website
straightened out, because it's
kind of hard looking forattorneys on a website to see
something come across therecalled mofocom.
Alex Graham (59:40):
So tell me about
this new show before we wind
this thing up.
So are you doing this just foryou, me and Ray on these things,
and then you put them up onyour site for viewing by
readership later?
J Basser (59:58):
No, this is automatic
and it goes on the site, it
broadcasts on the site, it goeson the page and it's on there
and after I do a couple ofthings at the end of the show it
goes into the file.
It's uploaded.
But this is a live broadcast.
Way cool, this is a livebroadcast.
Alex Graham (01:00:14):
Way cool, I love to
talk.
I love talking at boardhearings, face-to-face with that
judge about four feet away.
I call that bayonet distance.
I can skewer him and get hiscomplete attention.
That's one of the.
I appreciate you Go ahead.
J Basser (01:00:33):
I appreciate you
coming on.
We're out of time, but I wantedto thank you and we'll do this
again soon, because you alwaysbring it.
Every time you come on, youbring everything, you bring the
good.
You know we call you MrDependability and it's always a
changing system, but you're ontop of it.
Alex Graham (01:00:51):
Well, it's a
changing system.
You got to stay up on it oryou're going to be left behind.
A changing system You've got tostay up on it or you're going
to be left behind.
I've learned so much doing thisover 35, 36 years.
I keep having to change myattack plan, but I don't quit
attacking.
J Basser (01:01:10):
Don't stop attacking.
You can always take the tailsection off the plane with a
prop.
I saw that the other day.
Alex Graham (01:01:21):
Well, I like to say
that I don't practice law, I
perform it.
J Basser (01:01:27):
Well, that's good.
You're not an ammo chasereither, because you don't look
like Danny DeVito.
Alex Graham (01:01:36):
Well, thank you
very much for inviting me on,
John.
J Basser (01:01:39):
I appreciate it, buddy
.
Thank you very much.
Alex Graham (01:01:41):
I'd be more than
happy to do this anytime you
feel the urge to call.
If I come out there inNashville, I'd like to.
You're not that far away fromthat, are you?
Or in Kentucky?
J Basser (01:01:56):
Yeah, probably about
three hours.
Alex Graham (01:01:58):
Oh shit.
J Basser (01:02:00):
You need to buy them
some.
You never know.
It could be a road trip, younever know.
Alex Graham (01:02:04):
Get a Cessna 172 or
something.
J Basser (01:02:08):
No, I've got a Learjet
, okay.
Alex Graham (01:02:15):
Well, I'm going to
go out and beat my horses
because I know they're chompingat the bit.
J Basser (01:02:21):
All right.
Well, I appreciate you comingon, we appreciate it and folks,
thanks for listening to the show.
We'll have another guest onnext week, so please stay tuned.
And this is John on behalf ofMr Alex Graham and the Exposed
Vet Productions show.
We'll be signing off for now.
Thank you, john, all right.