Republicans block help for women veterans

If half of the people in this country heard what some people say about our veterans, they would regret voting for them. Suddenly, now that bills come up to help our veterans, they want to worry about money instead of them. They do it all the time.

When bills came up to fund the action in Iraq and Afghanistan, they had no problem borrowing money to pay for it all, with no checks on where the money was going or even asking for any accountability. Hell, they didn't even ask for results. They said it was to support the troops. Yet these same people find it too hard to take care of the same men and women now they are veterans.

Senator Burr had a Q & A this morning with the DAV for a virtual town hall. He said over and over again the reason he does not support doing something is that it is not paid for. Cost of living raises for disabled veterans didn't happen because inflation was low, but he didn't mention that everything has gone up including the amount of money veterans have to pay to carry private health insurance to pay for non-service connected medical care, including those actually caused by service but not approved as a claim yet. What Senator Burr fails to understand is that when it comes to our disabled veterans, they already paid for it with their lives, their bodies, their minds and their futures. This is a debt we owe them and not the other way around. They need to stop thinking about veterans as some kind of charity case or an issue they can just wait on dealing with.


At the bottom of this section on veterans, it says to stay informed. We all should everyday and not just when it comes time for elections.
Senator Burr on Veterans Issues

The people we elect can say anything they want but what proves how they really feel is by what they do and how they defend what they don't do. Saying they need to "pay" for anything dealing with veterans needs is insulting. They should factor it all in when they decide to send even one of them into combat.

Senate Republicans block measure to provide additional benefits to homeless veterans.
Today, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) brought her bill — the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act — to the Senate floor seeking unanimous consent. Murray said the bill would “expand assistance for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children and would increase funding and extend federal grant programs to address the unique challenges faced by these veterans.” However, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to this seemingly non-controversial issue:

McCONNELL: Madam president, reserving the right to object and I will have to object on behalf of my colleague Sen. Coburn from Oklahoma. He has concerns about this legislation, particularly as he indicates in a letter that I’ll ask the Senate to appear on the record that it be paid for up front so that the promises that makes the Veterans are in fact kept. So madam president I object.

Read the rest here

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/06/29/gop-homeless-veterans/



In other words, if you want to take care of veterans, pay for it, but while we're talking let's talk about tax cuts again for the wealthy.


These women, who served this country, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, risked their lives just as the men did but what comes with many female homeless veterans are children. When they have PTSD and their marriages fall apart, they have to take care of their kids all the same. They lack support because when it comes to the military and veterans communities, they are still a minority. We also have to face the fact that military sexual abuse is a big reason some of them face the futures in need of more help than others.

How can anyone say they have not already earned the help they need with putting their lives on the line? How can anyone dare say what they need was not worth the price we have to pay today? To tell congress to find the money instead of being willing to do whatever it takes to take care of our veterans is appalling. They said no to extending unemployment benefits to the jobless as well. Did they ever consider the fact that many of the veterans no longer in the service, along with National Guards and Reservists are also unemployed in this economy?

I've asked this question many times and I still don't have a real answer. Do they support the military making the machines, in other words, defense contractors or do they support the men and women they send when they say they support the military?


House ready to move on defense funding bill

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jun 30, 2010 12:33:41 EDT

Congress won’t make Defense Secretary Robert Gate’s July 4 deadline for passing a war supplemental funding bill, but there is now a glimmer of hope that lawmakers might get the measure passed before August, when the military would begin to face severe cash-flow problems.

The holdup on the bill has been in the House of Representatives, but Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the House Appropriations Committee chairman, announced Wednesday that a $93.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill would be considered by the House this week that includes $37 billion for troops in Iraq.

The bill also includes $13 billion to cover a planned expansion of Agent Orange disability benefits to more Vietnam veterans.

Gates warned lawmakers that the Navy and Marine Corps would have to start dipping into peacetime budgets to cover war-related expenses as early as next week if Congress did not pass a final supplemental war funding bill before leaving town for its Fourth of July recess.
read more here
House ready to move on defense funding bill