Obama Takes Executive Action to Help Veterans Find Work

[TomCADem]

Source: ABC News

A day after unveiling his “we can’t wait” campaign, President Obama has announced another executive action intended to spur job growth, this one aimed at getting veterans back on the job.

The White House today announced new initiatives urging Community Health Centers to hire 8,000 veterans, approximately one veteran per health center, in the next three years and expand opportunities for veterans to become physician assistants.

“I think all Americans can agree that veterans shouldn’t have to fight for a job once they’ve come home from the fight overseas,” Matt Flavin, director of the Veterans, Military Families and Wounded Warrior Task Force, told reporters today. “But we’ve seen from the unemployment numbers, especially for post-9/11 veterans, that the case is too many of our veterans are having to have that fight.”

* * *

The new orders are yet another step in the president’s plan to take executive action on his own to boost the economy without the need for congressional approval. Obama announced Monday a new housing plan to help homeowners refinance their mortgages and avoid foreclosure and is expected Wednesday to outline new rules for repaying student loans.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-takes-executive-action-to-help-veterans-find-work/

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The funny thing is that while John Boehner tries to claim credit for the recent Veterans Opportunity to Work Act, all but one of the members of the House who voted no on the Bill are Republican!

[babylonsister]

1. I love this. A way around the rethugs. Works for me. nt

[femmocrat]

2. Proud to be Rec. #5.

And even prouder of our "new" kick-butt president!

[bluestateguy]

3. That's good but I continue to wait for the executive order to start up more infrastructure spending

That is what is really needed and will create many jobs right now.

I don't want to hear any excuses about Congress.

Just find a way to do it.

[Arctic Dave]

4. This may be a nice feel good program but why should they get special treatment.

So anyone else who has been out of a job but didn't serve gets a big finger. So while they payed their taxes to support these MIC beneficiaries when they did work now they are left out of the jobs programs.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Your attitude reflects poorly upon Democrats. Veterans risk their lives. Of course they are special

And a Democrat who labels veterans "MIC beneficiaries" probably needs to be embedded for a while to see what kind of hell our soldiers really go through.

Your post reads like something a Republican would post at DU just so that he could then "quote" it elsewhere to prove that Dems are evil.

[Arctic Dave]

6. I am a veteran.

The fact that they are creating a special jobs program exclusively for one person is wrong. Why just them? Why can't everyone be able to have the same opportunity?

Just because someone joined the military does elevate above their other countrymen. They are not more special then someone who worked hard as a janitor for years and then gets laid off. That is pure elitist bullshit.

[alp227]

8. isn't it insulting for people who devoted themselves to the military

to return to civilian life and be unemployed?

[Arctic Dave]

9. Insulting in what way?

I'm not sure if you have been in the military but most are not career seekers. Most leave mom and dads place and join for any number of reasons.

Is it your belief that military people are superior to someone who decided to take a different carrer path?

[alp227]

10. (1) I've never served but know someone in basic training in Marines,

(2) No, military personnel are NOT superior just for serving their country with such rigor, as not every American can match them, but (3) How would it feel to serve in the forces only to come back and have employers turn their backs on you?

[Arctic Dave]

11. 1. I have nephew in the marines. He joined to get out of his crappy home life.

2. The rigors are no more stressful then trying to make ends meet on whatever it is someone does.
3. How should anyone feel if they are turned away from employment just because they choose to do humanitarian work instead of militarism?

[JDPriestly]

7. The devil's in the details, especially with Obama, but this

could be a great program if done right.

It is really hard for veterans to get jobs right now. Somehow it seems to me that we are breaking a tacit promise to our soldiers that, if they serve with honor, they will find honorable employment when they return stateside.

[eilen]

12. It's really hard for anyone to get a job now.

Veterans or anyone else. I don't know about you but I was in the military many years ago and there was not tacit promise of employment after serving. There was a GI Bill to help us get the education we would need for a career we wished for. Mostly it represented at least 4 years of a guaranteed job/paycheck with the possible option of extending it and making it a career if it suited you and the US government. With a career in the military there was the bonus of a pension after serving 20 years and it was particularly helpful for those who found they could not really function in the civilian world. Since I preferred freedom, I did not re-up. Just as well because I would have likely been "laid off' or "separated" during the Clinton years d/t the peace dividend.

[No Elephants]

13. Breaks my heart every time I pass the shelter for homeless veterans or get

solicited by one of them to buy the newspaper they put together and sell.

I am not one who genuflects or knee jerks every time any member of the service is mentioned in any context.

But, I do think we owe them.

[Kingofalldems]

14. Kick and Rec