Seems quite appropriate, on this 60th Anniversary of the Korean War Armistice, to have found this recent piece about our representatives, not only the federal but states as well using expanded minds, and to pass it on.
Sen. Bernie Sanders shuts down one of the main rubber stampers on the countries credit card of and obstructionist that have kept the countries responsibility, the Veterans Administration, under funded and thus under it's full potential in the needs demanded for us veterans' for the decades since Korea and the wars of same, right up to the present!
26 July 2013 - With no heed of a debt crisis, the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to help more veterans find work, help more injured vets to gain reproductive health services and to pay caregivers of seriously disabled veterans who left service before 9/11 a monthly stipend plus expenses.
How to cover the $12 billion cost of these initiatives, over just the next five years, is still to be determined, conceded Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), committee chairman. But he promised colleagues to try to find the money.
snip Rep. Richard Burr (N.C.), ranking Republican on the committee, was the lone voice opposing all provisions “not paid for,” he said, “so we won’t continue to saddle future generations of Americans with continued debt.”
He opposed Sanders’ provision to expand the VA caregiver program, now limited to caregivers of seriously ill or injured post-9/11 veterans. The program pays a monthly stipend and also caregiver needs for counseling, training, respite periods and travel expenses.
The committee agreed by voice vote to extend the program to caregivers of any severely injured veteran. Before the vote, Burr noted the $8.5 billion cost over the first five years, and urged Sanders to find offsets elsewhere in the budget before the full Senate votes on the measure.
“You’re right,” Sanders told Burr. “This is an expensive piece of legislation. So is giving tax breaks to millionaires. So is having one out of four corporations in this county not paying a nickel in taxes.”
After delivering his slap to Republicans who oppose any sort of tax hikes, Sanders went on to promise to do his “best to find the funding” to be able to help more caregivers. read more>>>
There was more that lead rubber stamper and the minority leader on the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Sen. Burr voiced opposition to which brought this:
Burr had blocked Senate committee action on this issue for the past two years, fearing it would lead to expansion of benefits and higher VA costs. His resistance held even after language was added specifically barring a change in vet status from qualifying these retirees for more benefits.
Sen. Burr, in the Senate, being the lead attack dog, the House committee on veterans' affairs republicans are even worse, going after the Veterans' Administration and especially now Retired Gen Shinseki as he isn't of their ilk politically nor morally and it's dedicated employee's for every issue that arises, while never giving praise for the long sought fixes needed, attempts to accomplish and those accomplished, without ever comparing to the private sector of same, as they, and their staffs, don't do their own jobs expected by those they represent who themselves ignore as they do the veterans issues!
"If military action is worth our troops' blood, it should be worth our treasure, too" "not just in the abstract, but in the form of a specific ante by every American." -Andrew Rosenthal 10 Feb. 2013
That 'abstract' is waving the flag and occasionally, if ever and not just saying you did, giving a few bucks to organizations with successful programs that also cannot get grants but need to fight beg for contributions to maintain that success.
RM: "We got a huge round of tax cuts in this country a few weeks before 9/11. Once 9/11 happened and we invaded Afghanistan, we kept the tax cuts anyway. How did we think we were going to pay for that war? Did we think it was free? Then, when we started a second simultaneous war in another country, we gave ourselves a second huge round of tax cuts. After that second war started. The wars, I guess, we thought would be free, don`t worry about it, civilians. Go about your business." 23 May 2013
"Why in 2009 were we still using paper?" VA Assistant Secretary Tommy Sowers "When we came in, there was no plan to change that; we've been operating on a six month wait for over a decade." 27 March 2013
Something never mentioned by those that did and those that fully supported the doing, The rubber stamping rapidly rising deficits started Before 9/11 and these wars and continued with right up to the collapsed economy!!
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