Senator Bernie Sanders, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs has already answered all of the republican faked up questions and false concern - with action, and is working overtime despite the republican's decision reactionary kneejerk to turn another important issue requiring clarity and serious work, into another fundraising scandal that once again loads so much political garbage into the mix, any solutions get buried long before the problems can be sorted out.
Here, the survivors of Cheney's warmongering reached out for those solutions and their response to Bernie Sanders landmark legislation introduced earlier this year (S.1982 | Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014 ) to deal with the problems:
On January 21, 2014 the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) wrote a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsing the legislation. The IAVA believed, "This legislation would accomplish many of the goals for which veterans and military service organizations have been advocating for years, including strengthening the Post-9/11 GI Bill, expanding advance appropriations for more of the VA's budget... and much more." The Veterans of Foreign Wars was just as enthusiastic in its support, and wrote a similar letter explaining how S.1982 would help veterans:
If signed into law, this sweeping legislation would expand and improve health care and benefit services to all generations of veterans and their families. Most notably, it would expand the current caregiver law to include all generations of veterans and provide advance appropriations to ensure monthly compensation and pension as well as education payments are protected from future budget battles. The bill also offers in-state tuition protection for recently transitioned veterans, improves access to mental health and treatment for victims of sexual assault in the military, and authorizes construction of more than 20 Community Bases Outpatient Clinics to serve veterans in rural and remote communities.
The Paralyzed Veterans of America had this to say about S. 1982:
"This legislation marks one of the most comprehensive bills to ever be considered in the Senate or House."
[...]
"If enacted, S. 1982 would accomplish some of the highest priorities for Paralyzed Veterans and its members."
VetsFirst, another group devoted to disabled veterans supported S. 1982:
"this legislation goes a long way toward fulfilling many of the current and future needs of our disabled veterans."
The American Legion lent
"its full support" to the bill and
what it would accomplish for veterans:
"addresses several high priority issues for The American Legion, like repealing the 1 percent retiree COLA provision, funding the stalled CBOCs for the VA, increasing access to health care for veterans at VA, employment and education fixes, and other programs that are important to us."
..and more
But republicans killed the bill S.1982 with a vote of 56-41, all naye votes republican and only two republicans aye votes
With republican Senate minority leading hostage taker Mitch McConnell endangering fragile negotiations, fearful of losing his seat in upcoming elections, and North Carolinas Sen. Burr throwing blame at everyone and everything but where it belongs - with the GOP
Source: HuffPo H.A. Goodman (5/27/2014) who concludes with this:
What better way to circumvent responsibility for underfunding the VA and voting against veteran's legislation than blaming big government? Somebody should tell Sen. Burr and the GOP that we funded both wars with "money we didn't have" and we should fund veterans health care as enthusiastically as we paid (borrowed) for two wars.
That's says it
So while there are very real problems happening with our VA, this non-in-depth-just-for-the-record Diary does not attempt to address those. It is just my own preemptive early on pushback with facts, as this latest "scandal", (and with the Benghazi as another failure for the right), the VA will be the next fund raising vehicle for the RWNJ's with our wounded soldiers as their hostage. A vehicle they built with austerity to wreck, hurt, blame, scandal, fund raise. deceive, election rig - repeat
And of course the noise, lying, and obfuscation by the party of RWNJ's is going to escalate as facts come to light that it is the "conservative movement" neo-con party, from the industrial polluting extraction industries to the Wall street financial sector that bet on them to the Military industrial complex as the muscle which protects their "conservative" platform to gouge out and privatize for profit our government programs, laying waste to our natural resources, people, soldiers, the land and anything else here and abroad at the core, that they hide - but we'll be ready I have no doubt
With the last word from Senator Bernie Sanders (video @ Link):
"If you are not prepared to take care of the men and women who put their lives on the line to defend this country, who came back wounded in body, wounded in spirit, if you're not prepared to help those people then don't send them to war in the first place," Sanders said during an appearance on MSNBC’s "Politics Nation."
Thanks for stopping by :)
P.S. got some sanding so, be back in a while..
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Update: Rachel Maddow is reporting that Senator Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation next week (from International NYT story By Jonathan Weisman MAY 29, 2014):
Senate Democrats were drafting a far more complex bill. To alleviate the short-term crisis, it would allow veterans to get private care paid for by the V.A., access Department of Defense health centers, Indian Health Services and federally licensed community health centers. Longer term, it would fund 27 new V.A. facilities and advance a partnership between the department and the National Health Service, offering medical students scholarships or loan forgiveness in exchange for five years of service at V.A. facilities, said Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
“If there’s any silver lining in this horrendous situation, maybe the country will focus on the crisis of primary care throughout our health system,” he said. Mr. Sanders said he planned to have a new version ready by the June 5 hearings on the crisis.
- emphasis added
Kudos to Senator Sanders on this
- the RWNJ's had better not f'ck this up again or they will have shown the world they are amateur thugs with zero national security or foreign policy creds and like Cheney, don't know shit about how to run the military or understand the whole purpose of the Armed Forces in today's world- imo