In a lame attempt to defend Bachmann, Doug Sachtleben, (Bachmann's spokesman) said "Congresswoman Bachmann is not advocating for veterans' benefits to be abolished. She has always said that our nation must properly care for its heroes," but she was not saying she wanted to abolish the VA. She may say it but never proves it. She was saying the veterans are not worth what they are getting. The same thing the rest of us have. Get hurt on the job and you get Workman's Comp plus Social Security Disability. Instead of Workman's Comp veterans get VA Comp. This statement was not defending what she wanted to do. What does she think proper care of our heroes is? Is it telling them their benefits are open to be slashed because she doesn't feel like paying them? Is it telling them that tax cuts for the rich should be funded off their backs? Maybe now people will finally see that when a politician says one thing but does another, it's what they do that really matters. Talk of supporting the troops and veterans is cheap and when they pull something like this, they show how little they really do value the "heroes" they say they care about. Her own spokesman couldn't even defend her properly. If she really thought this was the right thing to do, her spokesman should have defended her reasons to do it instead of twisting it around. Not that it would have made this right but it would have at least shown she believes in what she says.
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Bachmann Takes Heat From Veterans' Group for Proposing Benefits Cuts
Published January 29, 2011
FoxNews.com
Conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann is taking heat from the nation's largest combat veterans' organization for proposing, as part of a broad list of spending cuts, a combination of reductions and caps in veterans' benefits.
"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress," Richard Eubank, head of Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in a written statement released Friday.
The Minnesota Republican congresswoman, who is positioning herself as a leading critic of the Obama administration in the wake of the midterm elections, earlier this week outlined $400 billion worth of possible spending cuts. The plan projected huge savings from drastic measures like abolishing the Department of Education, overhauling farm subsidies and eliminating a host of Justice Department grants and programs.
Tucked into the outline was $4.5 billion in cuts targeting veterans. She proposed capping increases for health care spending at the Department of Veterans Affairs and cutting disability payments "to account for (Social Security) disability payments."
Reached for comment, Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben told FoxNews.com in an e-mail that Bachmann is not pushing a "budget plan" and "has not introduced legislation to cut veterans benefits."
"Congresswoman Bachmann is not advocating for veterans' benefits to be abolished. She has always said that our nation must properly care for its heroes," he said.
Rather, Sachtleben described the proposal as a "list of suggested cuts to open things up for discussion" on how to reduce the nation's $14 trillion debt.
Mission accomplished.
Eubank called the pitch for veterans' payment cuts "totally out of step with America's commitment to our veterans."
"There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home," he said in a statement, urging Bachmann to tour a Minneapolis VA medical center and trauma center.
"The day this nation can't afford to take care of her veterans is the day this nation should quit creating them," he said.
Read more: Bachmann Takes Heat From Veterans' Group
Bachmann tells veterans you aren't worth it
Disabled veterans decry wrongheaded, heartless cuts
Why does it not surprise me that this 'bagger yotch Bachmann advocates cutting veterans benefits. After all, in the hatemonger universe of these 'baggers, once the troops become disabled veterans they are damaged goods to be discarded.
ReplyDeleteThats Bachmann, spelled B-A-C-H-M-A-N-N. Two N's, just like the Nazis!
ReplyDeleteShe is like too many other politicians. She only talks about supporting the troops and veterans but never really does. People voted for her and her kind because they never took their vote seriously enough to look up her record and weigh it against what she claims. No veteran ever wants to think a politician votes against them but they do it all the time.
ReplyDelete