Empty chairs at Veterans Affairs Committee Hearings

Take a look at all the empty chairs at this hearing.

JULY 27, 2011
Health Costs for Veterans The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee held a hearing to assess the long-term financial costs of caring for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and wounded warriors. Witnesses said that while estimates are unclear, some projections ranged from $600 billion to $1 trillion. Several witnesses and members also talked about the ongoing federal debt limit debate and the potential impact on veterans of a credit default.

This was 3 years ago. They heard, or at least the few members of the Senate bothering to show up, the troubles veterans were facing. They had heard it all before. Nothing was new in this hearing. Senator Patty Murray talked about "new challenges these veterans were facing" however, the same thing has been said year, after year, war after war. We must do this followed by we must do that but the "smart decisions" were usually pretty stupid.

They talked about the needs of the "current" veterans but failed to mention veterans of the past had not been taken care of. They talked about the wounded, with scars you can see and most you cannot see with your eyes. Older veterans waited longer, fought harder and suffered more but that isn't the thing that pisses them off the most. It is the fact it was not fixed when congress claimed they were doing something when they came home and now, now it is worse for them as well as the newer veterans.

"With our country's financial crisis we need to make sure money is well spent." Yet no one seemed to mention the fact of how much was wasted on funding billions into programs that failed.

None of the problems they heard during this were new. So why did they do it?

It was a show no one wanted to go to. Watching these videos on CSPAN with so few showing up, it makes me wonder how those testifying felt. They traveled to Washington to sit in that hearing room with people elected to take care of veterans knowing those same people failed them. They knew there were others in those chairs telling the same stories far too many times before.

RAND Corp addressed the issues back in 2011.