Re: story
I don't think most people would argue that you hadn't earned those benefits, particularly the veteran's ones.
However, we are beginning to discover, no matter how much we may wish it otherwise, it is not physically possible for everyone in the country to "live off the taxpayers."
We used to have a much larger proportion of wealth generators to wealth consumers. The latter are overwhelming the system (this is also the main issue with public employee benefits). I don't begrudge you what you've earned, but realistically people in the next generation or two are going to have to realize the well is drying up and they aren't going to be getting all the goodies they expect.