Bush & Friends off supporting the Troops AGAIN
House Conservatives Cut $500M Off Vet Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) - House conservatives, rejecting protests from fellow Republicans who said they were depriving troops of needed support, stripped $500 million in military projects from a veterans spending bill Friday.
Democrats in turn said GOP-backed tax cuts and a tight budget passed two days ago were behind a fiscal crisis leading to the cuts.
"I don't know why they (the troops) should be stuck in the middle of a family squabble within the Republican Party," said Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The conservatives, led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, used parliamentary procedures to delete some 20 projects worth $507 million from the $94 billion spending bill for military construction and veterans programs in fiscal 2007, which will begin Oct. 1. The overall bill passed 395-0.
Writers of the legislation, seeking to meet limits outlined in the just-passed budget, had taken the money for the projects from a $50 billion war reserve to fund urgent projects, a move characterized by both conservatives and Democrats as a budgetary gimmick.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a fiscal hawk, asked how $18.1 million for a bachelor enlisted quarters at Camp Pendleton in California or $102 million for a brigade complex at Fort Lewis, Washington, could be considered emergency spending.
"The ink is not even dry on the budget and we are already attempting to violate it, and that's simply not right," said Hensarling.
The conservatives also noted the bill contained some 66 other earmarks, or projects requested by individual members, costing the same $500 million.
But Rep. James Walsh, R-N.Y., chairman of the subcommittee that wrote the bill, slammed Hensarling, saying, "He does not understand that we are at war."
"Please don't come out here and lecture us," Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, another GOP member of the Appropriations Committee, told the conservatives. "Pick another bill, not this one."
Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., a leader of the conservatives, told reporters this would not be the last spending battle. "I think you are going to see an ongoing effort by House conservatives to see this Congress live within our means."
Democrats also pointed out that, while the bill approves record levels of spending for veterans' and active duty health programs, it falls $735 million short because the House did not go along with a White House request for fee increases for military retirees eligible for Tricare, the Defense Department's health care system.
Rep. Chet Edwards of Texas, top Democrat on the military quality of life and veterans affairs subcommittee, said that shortfall, coupled with $316 million in underfunding for base closings and the $507 million cut from construction projects, left the bill $1.5 billion short of what was needed.
"This sends a terrible message to our troops here at home, in Iraq, and Afghanistan," Edwards said.
Democrats proposed paying for the 20 projects, the $735 million for active duty health care and the $1.82 billion increase in veterans' health care by trimming tax cuts for those making over $1 million annually. The proposed amendments were ruled out of order.
The White House, while expressing support for the legislation, issued a statement questioning some of its components. It criticized the use of war reserve funds for military construction projects, and urged Congress to eliminate the 66 earmarks that the administration had not requested.
It also opposed cuts in spending to carry out the 2005 base closing act, and urged Congress to consider administration proposals to increase copayments and enrollment fees for higher-income non-disabled veterans and for military retirees under 65 using Tricare.
The bill provides $25.4 billion for veterans' health programs, up $2.6 billion from the current fiscal year, and $21 billion for the Defense Department health program, up $1 billion. Some $5.5 billion is funded for base closing activities, $6.6 billion for military construction and $4 billion for family housing construction.
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The bill is H.R. 5385.
On the Net:
Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/
posted by Name Held by Request | 6:12 PM
18 Comments:
I don't suppose they cut the Iraq US embassy costs any did they?
Why are we allowing them to build this piece of shit..as soon as
they can find a way, they will blow it up...is that the idea.
Way to support the troops, Congress!
In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
In the chaos of Iraq, one project is on target: a giant US embassy
From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad
May 03, 2006
THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?
Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call “George W’s palace” rising from the banks of the Tigris.
In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects’ claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.
cont'd...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2162249,00.ht...
Ah.... isn't it good to think that we ever had any choice in the matter?
And from what I understand it's not only the largest US embassy we have in any country, it's also being built like a fortress - or so they say/think.
But of course it's only republicans who support the troops.
Right?
It's the democrats who keep cutting veteran benefits and programs. Right?
But they've all got yellow ribbons on their SUVs
Supporting the troops!
Yes, now we can build our BIG wall to keep Mexicans out..
It'll come and go like the wind... Just like every other...... shabby treatment of our vets...! But they're the military party, right...?
Worse, it increased co-pays
It added money to the overall VA budget, the bad part was the co-pays and enrollment fees.
"While the budget does call for a generous increase in the VA budget it still puts new burdens on our vets, with increases in “prescription drug co-payments for non-disabled, higher-income veterans from $8 to $15. It would require them to pay an annual enrollment fee of $250. Congress has rejected this in the past.”
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog /
Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US
By Daniel Trotta
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The nightmare of Iraq was bad enough for Vanessa Gamboa. Unprepared for combat beyond her basic training, the supply specialist soon found herself in a firefight, commanding a handful of clerks.
"They promoted me to sergeant. I knew my job but I didn't know anything about combat. So I'm responsible for all these people and I don't know what to tell them but to duck," Gamboa said.
The battle, on a supply delivery run, ended without casualties, and it did little to steel Gamboa for what awaited her back home in Brooklyn.
When the single mother was discharged in April, after her second tour in Iraq, she was 24 and had little money and no place to live. She slept in her son's day-care center.
(snip/...)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060519/us_nm/iraq_homeless...
I think it's people trying to look like heros themselves by paying lip service to a bad cause.
How does this happen when I see "Support The Troops" ribbons everywhere?
Notwithstanding anyones views on the "war" itself
this is a sad situation.
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat, calls it a "national disgrace" that homelessness among veterans has not been solved and held an informal hearing on Thursday to highlight the issue.
snip
"Then the downward spiral begins with substance abuse and problems with the law," said Amy Fairweather of Iraq Veteran, which helps war veterans in San Francisco.
Amy Fairwaeather's remark reminds me of John Prine's "Sam Stone"
Sam Stone
©John Prine
Sam Stone came home,
To his wife and family
After serving in the conflict overseas.
And the time that he served,
Had shattered all his nerves,
And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
But the morphine eased the pain,
And the grass grew round his brain,
And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.
Chorus:
There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes,
Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose.
Little pitchers have big ears,
Don't stop to count the years,
Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.
Mmm....
Sam Stone's welcome home
Didn't last too long.
He went to work when he'd spent his last dime
And Sammy took to stealing
When he got that empty feeling
For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
And the gold rolled through his veins
Like a thousand railroad trains,
And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
While the kids ran around wearin' other peoples' clothes...
Repeat Chorus:
Sam Stone was alone
When he popped his last balloon
Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
Well, he played his last request
While the room smelled just like death
With an overdose hovering in the air
But life had lost its fun
And there was nothing to be done
But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
For a flag draped casket on a local heroes' hill.
A lot of veterans are homeless. Period.
I work at a homeless shelter and a lot of our men are veterans, primarily from Vietnam. They've been bouncing around from the streets to the VA to the shelter to the streets to the VA....for years. Most have some kind of substance abuse problem, often a combination of alcohol and drugs.
It's sad and more than a little disgusting that we as a nation can't seem to treat those people whom we "say" we so "deeply honor and revere" any better than this. Whenever I do an intake on a new guest and I come to the military veteran question, I am filled with such a deep sense of shame when someone answers "yes." And, I am also so humbled in their presence.
If we truly honor the service these men and women perform, then we MUST guarantee that they have a smooth re-entry to civilian life and all of its benefits.
Female vets 3Xs more likely to become homeless than general pop "About half of all homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, and more than two-thirds suffer from alcohol or drug abuse problems, the VA says.
Gamboa has avoided those pitfalls, but female veterans are three times more likely to become homeless than women in the general population, the American Journal of Public Health reported."
This is how the GOP "supports the troops"
Support the troops! ...um..nevermind. Like fetuses, they outlived their usefulness - end of support!
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