Michigan Lawmakers Start Own Charity Instead of Doing Their Jobs?

As you can tell, my head exploded when I read that elected officials would rather start their own charity than actually do something to help all veterans, but why would they do something like remember the others?

Lawmakers start nonprofit to help struggling veterans
WLNS Web Staff
Published: March 2, 2016

LANSING, Mich. (AP) – Two lawmakers have announced a new nonprofit to help struggling veterans after the state’s Auditor General released a scathing audit unearthing problems at a state-run veterans’ nursing home in Grand Rapids.

Republican Rep. Tom Barrett and Democratic Sen. David Knezek announced the nonprofit Wednesday at a press conference.
read more here

Seriously? This may sound like a good thing to do until you consider this.

"We have thousands of veterans who have gone and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now coming home," said Barrett, an Army veteran and National Guard reservist who served two tours in Iraq. "I've heard numbers as high as one in three combat veterans could be suffering from PTSD." Rep. Tom Barrett,
Detroit Free Press

Pretty much shows how little he knows about PTSD, all generations and the total lack of oversight on all the other PTSD Service Dog charities already out there.

Aside from National charities, here are just a few from Michigan.

Stiggy's Dogs
Service Dog in Training
Dogs in Honor
Pets for Vets

The truth is, service dogs are great, for some veterans, but not all of them and none of them are the answer to everything our veterans are going through.

Recently there was an Afghanistan veteran with a PTSD service dog, but he didn't get what he needed and took his own life. There have been many more like him. Far too many.

Service dogs are great for some veterans but not all veterans like dogs. Some are allergic to them. Some live with people who do not like dogs.

The worst thing in all of this is these two elected officials should actually be working on doing something for all of Michigan's veterans. That means the veterans they just don't want to remember suffered the same wounds and waited a hell of a lot longer for help. Top that off with the fact they are also the majority of the veterans committing suicide in this country everyday while legislators repeat the lie of "22 a day" forgetting about the other 50 or so that are not even mentioned.

VA Suicide Report has a lot of information in it however most,including legislators, missed the part about limited data from only 21 states leaving us with a clue as to what they actually do know is a lot less than what they guess at.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs Population Map Michigan has 658,469 veterans. WWII veterans 34,769 forgotten about. Korean War veterans, 59,711 veterans forgotten about. Vietnam Veterans, 237,675 forgotten about. Gulf War veterans, 155,754 forgotten about.

Maybe they should actually focus on this problem before they start their own charity.

As a result, Michigan ranks among the bottom five states for federal spending per veteran. Veterans' benefits can include health care, monthly disability checks, life insurance, home loans and education through the GI bill. Benefits at the state and local levels include vocational training and the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund.

Only 22 percent of Michigan's estimated 660,800 veterans used their health benefits from the U.S. Veterans Administration in 2013 — the most recent year for which data is available. Roughly 13 percent of Michigan veterans received disability checks, according to federal data.
Detroit Free Press

US Census Michigan Veterans

Now top all that off with the fact the uproar started over the report on nursing homes and you get the idea.