This is my first DKos diary. I want to let you know, if you don't already, that Senator Barack Obama is the best! He sponsored a bill to make sure that the Army stops billing wounded soldiers for their hospital meals. It passed! Salon has the story and references to earlier articles. Sorry, I can make the link work--here is the URL:
(www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/13/walter_reed)
What a contrast to the Bankruptcy bill that stiffs the little guy while United Air Lines can write off $9.4 billion of its employees' pensions. And all the other corporate welfare bills.
Several months ago I learned that KBR/Halliburton had billed the surviving relatives of a soldier, wounded in Iraq and transferred to Germany in a com where he died, for his hospital meals, that, of course, he never ate because he was in a coma. It was an even worse situation than you might think because he had been denied compassionate leave to stay with his very young kids when his wife committed suicide a little while before he was wounded.
I was so outraged, I wrote to everyone I could think of to protest this practice and to demand our government get reimbursements from Halliburton. This bill was illegal at the time it was sent. (Congressman Bill Young of Florida had introduced legislation several years earlier to stop the practice of billing soldiers for meals in the hospital). No one from the White House down bothered to respond to my communications, except the Government Accountability Office which forwarded my complaint to the Pentagon's inspector general. Then, silence. Now I see Halliburton is getting bonuses for its great work from the military so I doubt anyone at the Pentagon cares about the poor soldiers. Penny wise and pound foolish at the Pentagon and greedheads at KBR/Halliburton.
Salon started writing about this a few months ago when the Army started billing guys in wheelchairs for their meals. Finally, someone paid attention. Let's get some more people in Congress like Senator Obama! Here's his address:
713 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-2854
Web Form: obama.senate.gov/contact/
Let him know we appreciate what he does.