Sen. Bernie Sanders
The Republican position on the Department of Veterans Affairs continues to be that while the United States can certainly afford—or deficit spend to pay for—wars, when it comes to caring for the veterans of those wars, it's budget-cutting time. And, being Republicans, they're refusing compromise. House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Jeff Miller
blew off a compromise plan from Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chair Bernie Sanders by trying to jump straight to a conference committee meeting:
Sanders said Miller had unilaterally called the conference meeting to unveil a “take-it-or-leave-it gambit.”
“This is a sad indication that the House leadership is not serious about negotiations,” Sanders said. “We don’t need more speeches and posturing. We need serious negotiations – 24/7 if necessary – to resolve our differences in order to pass critical legislation.”
Sanders was prepared to agree to some cuts to offset the cost of the bill, because while that shouldn't be required, Democrats (and affiliated independents like Sanders) are committed to governing and getting things done, unlike Republicans. According to Sanders, while his bill concedes some on offsets, "What it does not concede is that the cost of war is expensive and that the cost of war does not end when the last shots are fired and the last missiles are launched. The cost of war continues until the last veteran receives the care and benefits that he or she has earned on the battlefield."