GOP Abandons Injured/Disabled Vets
I realize it is late but I wanted to get this out to the blogs and grassroots as soon as possible. As some of you may know I serve as the Ranking Democrat on the House Rules Committee... well tonight Republicans on the committee (Chairman Dreier & Reps. Hastings of Washington, Capito, Cole, Bishop and Gingrey) voted against taking care of a serious budget shortfall that the Bush Administration recently announced has opened up in our country's veterans' health care system.
For those you that don't know, last week, the Bush Administration acknowledged that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) needs another one billion dollars this year to cover the health care needs of our country's veterans, including approximately 86,000 new Iraq and Afghanistan vets.
All major veterans' groups, including the American Legion, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Disabled American Veterans, condemned this billion-dollar shortfall and predicted it could seriously harm the quality and availability of veterans' health care.
In response to this announcement, Texas Congressman Chet Edwards, the top Democratic Member on the House Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs, offered an amendment to immediately address this shortfall, so no veteran would lose access to her or his needed health care. Invoking a special wartime budget wartime authority, Edwards proposed adding the money to H.R. 3057, the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that we will be passing later this week.
Unfortunately, my Republican colleagues (Chairman Dreier & Reps. Hastings of Washington, Capito, Cole, Bishop, Gingrey) on the Rules Committee opposed giving Congressman Edwards the procedural waiver his amendment needed so that it could be debated and quickly passed. The Republicans I just mentioned voted along party lines to block the Edwards Amendment and effectively killed his attempt to immediately address the terrible budget shortfall the VA is facing.
I'm sure you'll agree with me that standing up for our veterans is not a Democratic or a Republican issue. It's about keeping the solemn promise we make to the men and women who go to war to defend our freedoms. We promise them we'll take care of them if they come home injured in their minds or bodies. It is unconscionable to me that we would go back on this promise while our country is at war.
Don't let this horrible event be swept under the rug. Grab your mouse & keyboard and get to work... spread the word and see if we can start another brushfire from the blogs.
-LMS
P.S. Don't forget to join my call (4,500 and counting) for an Audit in Iraq at: www.IraqAudit.com
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Thanks once more for
Thanks once more for bringing this to our attention Rep Slaughter. As one of their own stated recently, the BA and its puppets in Congress just can't seem to get out of the campaign mode, and into governence.
Of course this is a non-partisan issue, and being a vet myself I am apalled at these Republican "win at any cost" tactics. There seems to be no end to their wrong-headed, and -hearted partisanship.
A GOP Disgrace
All we hear from Republicans is..."support the troops" and if they think we dont, they call us traitors and every other name they can think of. To me, they are the non-supporters and the term treason applies to them.
I believe it is time to make sure the general population knows and understands this and does something about it. So threats about who we will vote for next year might wake them up.
This is outrageous. Does the phrase
'Support our Troups' only apply when our soldiers leave for their tour of duty and not when they are injured and return home?
What possible justification can the opposing congressmen have for killing this amendment?
I'll take it a step further- their actions are unpatriotic.
Many thanks Rep. Slaughter.
Many thanks Rep. Slaughter. If Republicans wish to act like grade school kids perhaps I can accommodate them.
Here goes: I’m telling! When I write, I do not deliver it to fellow Democrats. I write to family and friends who have traditionally supported the Republican Party. Bit by bit their opinion of the Republican Party is changing and this will continue the process.
To all democrat.com members, I might also add a bit of strategy that works for me. In this case I will quickly summarize the situation in a dry, neutral manner. I will then quickly move on to explain how important it is to aid our veterans. This sounds innocuous but it is not. I have found that by quickly moving on to EXACTLY what traditional conservative supporters already believe, this new Republican gang in government gets tarred as non worthy of further support. Just present the facts, include a bold R in front of the offending party’s name, and state whatever beliefs you have which are already common to descent Americans.
Remember too, that if you can not win over a Republican voter by 2006, your job is to depress them enough so they do not head to the polls.