Republicans to Vets: "Fuck you very much."

[MrScorpio]

>>On Day of Iraq Speech, House Conservatives Gouge Vets
This just in from the Hill. On the same day President Bush will use the soldiers at Fort Bragg as a backdrop for his address on Iraq, conservatives in the House have voted to underfund veterans’ health care by at least $1 billion.
The backstory: Last week, the Washington Post revealed that the budget for veterans’ health care was suffering a billion dollar shortfall this year, a fact unearthed “only during lengthy questioning” of a Veterans Affairs undersecretary.

The Bush administration had claimed on multiple occassions that the current budget was enough to provide full care. Back in February, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson testified that he was “satisfied that we can get the job done with this budget.” Later, when Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) tried to add funds into the VA budget, Nicholson wrote her a letter assuring that the VA did not “need emergency supplemental funds in FY2005 to continue to provide timely, quality service that is always our goal.”

Yet today, even after the administration’s misleading claims had been exposed, and despite brand new data showing that demand for veterans health programs had grown twice as fast as the VA predicted earlier this year, House conservatives still voted to block any additional funding for veterans’ care.

Moments ago, Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX), the ranking minority member on the House Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs, proposed making up the shortfall for vets’ care in a foreign aid bill that is still being considered. According to the AP, conservatives shot down the measure on a 217-189 vote. <<

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/06/28/on-day-of-iraq-speech-house-conservatives-gouge-veterans/

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Well you know them vets, they ingrates

they could not save the money by just dying o'er there and this is the way these rats think

[wake.up.america]

2. This is really bent.

Economy shot to hell, kids join the military to fight a war to increase profits for Bush and his buddies, who you would think have made enough money by giving themselves huge tax breaks and by supplying the war effort.


GIs are told to take a flying leap during a time they fight in IRAQ for no good reason in an economy shot to hell.

Yet the GIs yell USA,USA,USA.

This is really bent.

[meganmonkey]

11. It sure is

and Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[nonconformist]

3. Republican "support"

1. wave a flag
2. tout a magnet
3. cut funding and benefits
4. close your hospitals
5. treat you like leaches and discarded trash
6. use you as cannon-fodder so that other people get rich

:grr:

Nominated.

[BikeWriter]

4. Recommend Topic for Greatest Page

[cornermouse]

5. Veterans reduce the profit level.

So do the elderly, the poor, the sick, and the disabled.

[NMMNG]

8. Yeah, they're all disposable

But the "snowflakes", embryos and fetuses are all sacred--the rethugs will go to the ends of the Earth to defend their "right to life" :eyes:

[CrispyQ]

16. It's insane, isn't it?

The inmates are running the asylum.

Stop the planet, I want to get off.

[newswolf56]

6. I am no fan of Patty Murray; her absurd claim that...

...Osama bin Laden was building "day-care centers" in Afghanistan is the very worst example I have EVER seen of the sort of idiocy that drives people into the arms of the Republicans. But on this veterans issue Murray is right on and deserves our support -- especially the support of every man and woman who has ever served in the military. Alas, most of our elected representatives are either too young to have served or (like Cheney and Bolton) dodged the draft, so her protests are likely to fall on uncaring ears.

[dmr]

7. They have no conscience, do they?

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson - just another flunkie of the Bush* regime parroting what they want him to say; caring nothing for our veterans.

This is shameful. I think I'll give the DAV a call today. This just breaks my heart.

And their audacity to label us as not being supportive of the troops is so freaking hypocritical; and yet no one seems to calls these heartless, money grubbing jerks on it.

[fasttense]

9. Them vets, so ungrateful, just because they risk their lives

for their country they expect military entitlements?

[Tesla]

10. Mail this to all the VFW's!!!

[central scrutinizer]

12. They did the same thing the Friday before Memorial Day

Made sure that National Guard troops returning from Iraq would not be eligible for the same health benefits as regular Army troops - hell, the money was needed for tax cuts for the ultra rich.

[Deja Q]

13. The vets should do to the chickenhawks what they told the vets to do...

35 years ago.

[Lowell]

14. What do they care

very few of them are veterans themselves. The had higher priorities to deal with.

[Supersedeas]

15. Tax cuts for the Rich don't come cheap