Vote Vets and Major Richard Ojeda sent out two emails after the outrageous vote against caring for veterans who are suffering illnesses due to exposure to poisons in burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yes, these are emails sent out for the purposes of fundraising. However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t sincere and it doesn’t mean that they aren’t angry about this vote. Winning elections requires volunteers, but it also requires money. As everybody knows, control of Congress will be up for grabs in the upcoming midterms. It’s expected to be very close; there’s no reason I know of that this won’t be true. We are very narrowly favored to retain the US Senate, but the Republican Party is favored to regain control of the US House of Representatives due to gerrymandering and redistricting. The uphill climb of a midterm with a new president who is a member of our party, the Democratic Party, is exacerbated by inflation.
After looking at a number of polls, I have concluded that inflation does seem to be the major issue that is hurting us. A recent poll revealed that almost two thirds of voters who are democrats favor a nominee for president other than the incumbent President Joe Biden. That number was raised to approximately 75% in an even more current poll. Voters under 30 are nearly unanimous in their preference for a different nominee for president in 2024 than President Joe Biden. Frankly, that’s the result of ignorance. Inflation is worldwide. A secondary reason is the inability to pass legislation on a diverse set of important issues: inability to pass the Build Back Better bill and an inability to pass voting rights/democracy legislation as well as climate change legislation, and the inability to pass legislation codifying Roe. These failures are trumpeted on this website and others and blame is primarily placed on President Biden. That’s absurd, of course.
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We have a 50/50 US Senate and our 50th vote in the Senate is almost always Senator Joe Manchin. The simple fact is that neither President Biden nor Majority Leader Schumer nor the Democratic Party as a whole nor any other democrats have a way to pressure Senator Manchin into voting for carve outs to the filibuster for any of these issues and without carve outs to the filibuster, we can’t get an up or down vote on any bill addressing any of these issues. President Trump won approximately 70% of the vote in West Virginia in both 2016 and 2020, winning both contests there by nearly 40 percent. No other statewide elected office is filled by a democrat. A republican won every other statewide election. Senator Joe Manchin voted against the repeal of the ACA, for all of President Biden’s judicial nominees, for the American Rescue Plan, against Trump’s tax cut for the wealthy and corporations, and to convict Donald Trump in both of the impeachment trials. As terrible as it is for him to not be willing to support carve outs for vital legislation, he is far better than a republican replacement and Joe Manchin is the most progressive person in West Virginia who can hold that seat. Without Manchin, the votes above would be reversed. And as awful as his statement supporting the Inflation Reduction Act is, he make it crystal clear that he will vote for it and it is completely written. Without Senator Manchin, this Inflation Reduction Act would not pass. If Senator Bernie Sanders were President Sanders but held this same 50/50 majority in the US Senate, he could not have forced Senator Manchin to support carve outs for the issues mentioned above any more than President Biden could. No other democrat could either. Placing the blame on President Biden is a demonstration of ignorance, even though it is often done by people who should know better.
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The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would along with the outrage from the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in Dobbs give us a fighting shot at retaining our majority in the US House of Representatives and, equally as important, give us a shot at netting two seats in the Senate. If we can net two seats in the Senate and fill them with two progressives who are willing to support carve outs, then we can pass legislation addressing the vital issues I wrote of above. Our voters need to understand that the reason we couldn’t pass this legislation is because we had to rely upon a senator representing a state that Trump won twice by nearly forty points each time and that a senator representing such a state isn’t going to vote like the rest of the caucus, but that if they entrust us with two new senators representing purple or pink or light blue states, then we can and will get the job done. And passing the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would help support that commitment.
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Republicans have now given rational conservatives as well as independents and moderates another reason to vote D up and down the ballot, if these voters needed another reason. I live halfway between San Antonio and Austin. San Antonio like the other big, sprawling metropolitan areas elsewhere in Texas is blue. There are a couple of things that unite everybody here. One is support for the San Antonio Spurs, at least in the Tim Duncan era. Another is support for the military. San Antonio is a family town and a city that supports the troops. This is a military town. Supporting our troops is something that will have support from the overwhelming majority of the population of the country, Donald Trump and MAGA notwithstanding (suckers and losers, bountygate, abandoning the Kurds, abandoning NATO, supporting Putin and other “strong men”). That’s where this vote against the troops by 41 republicans can be used to punish them.
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I can’t fathom this vote from either a moral or a political standpoint. Morally, it’s repugnant. To not provide care for military veterans who served in combat areas and were exposed to toxins in burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan? And it had the support of 84 US senators in an almost identical version previously. You Senate Republicans were outmaneuvered politically, and you got angry. I guess that’s not a surprising reaction despite the hypocrisy involved. But this isn’t the bill that you express that on. Why should the troops who are suffering from this be punished because you are angry that you lost a legislative fight? (I doubt that attacking marriage equality is a smart move either.) Politically, this is a disaster. This damages the brand of the party. Forty One (41 !!!) Senate Republicans voted against the bill. And should they try saying that they were for it before they were against it, this was the one that would have made it law. So, this is the vote that mattered. And even if a Senate Republican in a tough race voted for it, why would they be in a political party and vote all the time exactly as Mitch McConnell says when 82% of his Senate Republicans voted against this bill? Why weren’t they able to get enough support from their fellow Senate Republicans? Why could they not lobby their Senate Republicans on this bill when this is the one that determined if it became law?
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There are no shortage of articles expressing outrage.
www.cbsnews.com/…
Veterans shocked burn pit legislation fails to advance in Senate
The Senate failed to pass a procedural vote Wednesday that would've cleared the way for a vote on legislation to expand benefits for the estimated 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The bill, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act, passed both the House and the Senate with bipartisan support in June, but due to a snag in the bill's language, it needed to go back and pass the House and Senate again. On Wednesday evening, 25 Republican senators reversed their support from June and voted no on a procedural vote to advance the legislation.
Veterans have come home with a number of illnesses, including terminal cancers, but have been forced to argue to the Department of Veterans Affairs their illnesses were related to burn pit exposure. The legislation would have removed the burden of proof from veterans and their families by presuming a number of conditions could be related to exposure to toxic fumes from burn pits.
President Joe Biden is a strong supporter of the bill. At the State of the Union in March, he called on Congress to take action on burn pits, which he believes may have been a factor in his son's Beau's terminal brain cancer.
"We make a promise to people who serve in the military that we'll support them if they get wounded," Morosky said. "Passing the PACT Act today would have finally kept that promise for veterans with toxic wounds. But instead, that promise is still being broken."
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www.nbcnews.com/…
Blindsided veterans erupt in fury after Senate GOP tanks toxic burn pit bill
The widely supported bipartisan measure, PACT Act, looked to expand medical coverage for millions of combatants exposed to toxic burn pits during their service.
But in a move that shocked and confused veteran groups Wednesday night, 41 Senate Republicans blocked the bill's passage, including 25 who had supported it a month ago.
"We really expected yesterday to be a procedural vote that would go with easy passage," said Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit veterans’ organization. "That was the absolute expectation.
While it's unclear what prompted the flip, veterans believe the move was political.
"We’ve seen partisanship and games within Congress for years," Butler said. "But what is shocking is that so many senators would literally be willing to play with veterans’ lives so openly like this."
"They’re manufacturing reasons to vote against legislation that they literally voted for just last month," Butler added. "And so it’s really a new level of low."
Veterans who were exposed to toxins during deployments said the lives of sick and dying people who served the nation are on the line.
"It’s angering. It’s frustrating," said Tom Porter, 54, who developed asthma after spending a year in Afghanistan with the U.S. Navy Reserve from 2010 to 2011.
Le Roy Torres, 49, who was diagnosed with a lung disease and a toxic brain injury after he was deployed to Iraq with the U.S. Army, said he was devastated about the failure of the bill and urged lawmakers to reconvene immediately. Torres’ wife, Rosie, the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Burn Pits 360, said the 25 senators who flipped their votes "should be ashamed of themselves."
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‘These people don’t care’: U.S. Senate GOP stalls bill for veterans exposed to burn pits
The bill had appeared on track to get the 60 votes necessary to move toward final passage, but stalled when Republicans began voting against the bill en masse, resulting in a 55-42 vote in the evenly split chamber.
Those who opposed it, all Republicans, included Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Braun and Todd Young of Indiana, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy of Louisiana, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho, Steve Daines of Montana, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Rob Portman of Ohio, Rick Scott of Florida, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, and Toomey.
Those who switched their position since the June vote on a nearly identical bill included Blackburn, Blunt, Braun, Cassidy, Ernst, Fischer, Hagerty, Hawley, Johnson, Kennedy, Marshall, Portman, Sasse, Scott of Florida, Sullivan and Young.
Since they are sending out these emails, then they want these emails to be widely seen:
From Vote Vets,
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Last month, the United States Senate voted to pass legislation that will cover health care for veterans suffering illnesses linked to exposure to toxins like those from burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also extends care to Vietnam veterans suffering from exposure to Agent Orange.
Yesterday, the bill returned to the Senate to make a small fix everyone thought was supposed to be quick and simple.
Then... Republicans voted to stop the bill.
They callously stalled help for sick and dying veterans as a way of throwing a fit because Democrats came to an agreement on a reconciliation bill they thought wasn’t happening.
And every second this bill is delayed — every second Republicans keep veterans from getting the care they earned is unacceptable.
Republicans delaying this bill further is beyond reprehensible. We will not forget this disgusting display from the GOP.
This is why we exist: To call these Republican Senators out — by name and by party — when they act so maliciously.
We will start by holding accountable those who voted no and are up for re-election this year. Help us:
Can you please use this link to contribute $5, or whatever you can afford, to help VoteVets hold accountable Republicans who voted to deny veterans the benefits they’ve earned, benefits they need after being exposed to burn pits?
Thank you,
The team at VoteVets
And then we have what I consider pretty personal for an email sent out. This email hurt me to read to be honest.
Major Richard Ojeda
Once again, the Republican Party has betrayed our veterans.
They don't give a damn about us once we come home. When we enlist, they promise us the world, and when we serve in active-duty, they will do whatever it takes to get us back on the battlefield – especially guys like me. I served in active-duty combat zones for the majority of my military career.
I love my country, make no mistake about it. But I question how much it loves me when days like today happen. I am furious! In the last 5 years alone, I’ve had over 30 cysts removed from my body. Luckily, they’ve all been benign, but each procedure hurts like hell and they keep multiplying and no one can tell me why. I’ve been exposed to depleted uranium and breathed in human flesh in burn pits. I’ve been blown up and have had my fair share of broken bones and surgeries.
I am not alone in these struggles. My brothers and sisters-in-arms have also gone through the same things I did, not to mention the immense psychological and emotional trauma of active-duty warfare. I am 52 years old. I take close to 20 pills a day, and again, I am not alone.
For major procedures, we don't go to VA hospitals. We don't trust them. They are completely overworked and woefully understaffed. 42 Republican Senators voted today to keep them that way.
It doesn't have to be this way, which is why I’m a Democrat. Did you notice that not a single Democrat voted against this bill? I sure as hell did, and I guarantee that my fellow veterans did as well, including the ones who are Republicans or Independents and the ones who don't care at all about politics.