Tea Party Cruz caused shutdown then complains?

Tea Party Cruz caused shutdown then complains?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 14, 2013

The government shutdown when the Tea Party reps took control and now they are upset. Seriously? Protesting in Washington after they got what they wanted? Talk about sore winners.

Cruz, Palin joined protesters at WWII Memorial but while they complain about the memorials being shut down and a bunch of their supporters tried to pretend the veterans really matter more than politics, you need to know what didn't manage to get them to protests before this.

Background on the Tea Party comes with what they posted online. They didn't think of what the government actually does when they wanted to destroy what the government does.

King of the government raiders is up for grabs. First we have Paul Ryan the man with the control of the US budget. He is the reason we haven't had a budget passed by the House that could pass the Senate or avoid a veto. Paul Ryan never thought about veterans very much. Ryan wanted to cut the VA budget taking off 1.3 million veterans and he forgot to put the money in to take care of veterans out of the another budget. Nice job!

Then we have Ted Cruz. He is responsible for the government shutdown but he ended up in Washington DC with a protest that was supposed to be about the war memorials being shutdown, by the government shutdown Cruz and Ryan caused in the first place. Did this actually make sense to the people listening to him?

Getting off the track here because I am ready to pop my cork and not in a good way.

Putting on a show at the memorials was a publicity stunt and noting more. It was supposed to be "a million" people showing up to protest the government shutdown but while they took down barriers to put them in front of the White House, they left behind the disabled WWII veterans at their memorial.

Protesters then made their way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial before converging at the White House shortly before noon.

With that said lets look at what else they have been not prompted to protest, or even mention.

First what they caused with sequestration because they couldn't put together a budget thanks to Paul Ryan.

February 2013 before the shutdown,

The Defense Department intends to notify Congress on Wednesday of a plan to furlough nearly 800,000 civilian employees one day each week beginning in April, a defense official said Tuesday.

Federal law requires the Pentagon to warn Congress of furloughs at least 45 days in advance, and other regulations require direct notification of employees at least 30 days in advance.

Cutting workdays and pay will happen if Congress does not find a way to avert budget cuts known as “sequestration,” which are scheduled to kick in March 1 and cut $500 billion out of the Pentagon budget over the coming decade. Military leaders have warned of constricted operations, reduced weapons buys and eventually, reduced end strength for the services.

American Legion Commander "Washington is failing troops and veterans"
Army veteran James Koutz of Boonville, Ind., national commander of the American Legion, criticized politicians for using the defense budget and service members as pawns in a battle over deficit reduction and spending priorities.

He also objected to attempts to increase out-of-pocket Tricare costs for retirees and opposed a recent Pentagon move to create a new medal for drone operators that ranks higher in precedence than some medals awarded to combat troops on the ground.

Army plans $92 million in cuts at West Point

Fort Hood Families Take Part In Army's Online Fiscal Cliff Chat

The three main topics were impact on soldier training, civilian furloughs, and how they could affect programs and services to military families.

"I'm concerned about retirement pay," says Tamma Ruth.

After 23 years as an Army wife, Tamma is intently tuning into the buzz over automatic spending cuts.

She says, "My husband has served, and been in Iraq, and been in harm's way for a long time, and I think he deserves to have his full military retirement."

As thousands of civilian medical workers are furloughed because of the “sequester,” patients will be sent to private doctors at public expense to receive timely medical care, according to the military medical officials.

“This will result in increased medical care costs to the DOD (Department of Defense) and American taxpayers,” says an Army Public Affairs statement released this week.

DOD cuts meal tickets for combat wounded at Walter Reed Hospital The decision forces amputees and troops receiving long-term care to trek nearly a half-mile across the Walter Reed campus to a temporary “food trailer,” instead of the facility down the hall from their rooms, Fox reported.

Then by May it got worse when they cut staff at military hospitals.

Hospital officials say the furloughs affect 2,392 caregivers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. That’s 94% of the civilian staff there.

Officials say 1,163 caregivers at Fort Belvoir’s hospital in Virginia are being furloughed, affecting 85% of its civilian staff.

I can keep going on and on but the most obvious thing that stands out is this protest in Washington was a publicity stunt the press fell for. Had they really cared, they would have had a massive protest in Washington when all of this started to slam veterans, their families and the troops. The truth is so much more uglier than they have led the public to believe.

As for Ted Cruz, we know what he pulled off and the rest the Republicans fell in line to make sure they didn't have to work for a living. Part of their jobs is to fund all the programs they already approved and no, they don't get to just forget that even though they try to.

So while Cruz decided to go to the memorials and blame everyone but himself and the Tea Party that planned for all of this, the veterans got left behind the same way they were left behind so that Cruz could protest at the White House because he didn't get his own way.

Is there any reason left to wonder why the American people are fed up with everyone in Washington? Talk about fixing anything with another temporary fix for weeks will just have us right back here again. Sequestration didn't work because as repulsive as these cuts were, the Tea Party was happy so nothing got fixed. It all just got worse much like it will get worse if they do not finally do the right thing. If this isn't enough to convince you then add this to all of the above. It is from VoteVets in September of 2013 before the government shutdown.

Congress "Farm Bill" cut 170,000 veterans off from food stamps and "a Department of Agriculture study last year found that over 5,000 active duty service members receive food assistance. And, in the same year of the study, over $100,000 in food aid was used on military bases."