While I feel it is really "stretching" it to think there are still children of civil war veterans living, two certainly isn't a very big number, and $876 per year is NOT the cause of our country's budget mess!
With regard to the veterans of other wars and their families who are receiving benefits, it is my personal opinion that they deserve all (and the very best) they can get! After all, where would the rest of us be if not for the sacrifices made by our veterans and their families! We'd probably all be speaking German! (or worse, living under Islamic law.)
Once again our freeloading politicians are refusing to acknowledge that their wildly extravagant waste and spending on un-necessary "pet" programs, as well as their own salaries, pension plans, medical benefits, &c., &c., are the underlying causes of our economic dilemnas and woes!
I greatly fear that we are headed down a path that will lead to an even greater tragedy than the nineteenth century civil war. Unfortunately, many people today are either too apathetic or un-educated to realize what's going on, preferring to "stick their heads in the sand" and pretend the problems don't exist. We cannot let our government turn our country into a "nanny state", for that is merely a polite name for communism...the government already has too much control over our lives, from cradle to grave, and too many of the "freedoms" and rights guaranteed by our Constitution have already been usurped. Where does it end?