Take a moment and watch these two clips I’ve got from a house committee hearing on how our veterans are being left behind, within a system that Republicans and the President have gone out of their way to nickel and dime for too many years. Putting aside the fact that there have been news stories written about the systematic underfunding of the system since back in 2003, what has been taking place since then is even worse. Knowing that the feedback isn’t positive from doctors, VA employees or the veterans, and that backlogs exist for so long and grow year to year while budgets are cut, one would have to come to the conclusion that it is managed this way to specifically frustrate the patrons of the system to decide it’s not even worth bothering with at some point.
Because if tomorrow suddenly every veteran had the disability percentage they deserve, and those veterans who were bamboozled into allowing the military to discharge them – saying that the debilitating mental condition they’re suffering from was a pre-existing condition from before they enlisted (and not two deployments in Iraq) – were given what they deserve as well…then the President and his party have a mess on their hands that they’d rather pass off to someone else. Why? Because to treat every veteran fairly that is returning home from Iraq would put residual expenditures onto the books that would probably convince China to stop poisoning us for a couple years. The mafia mentality would take over then, and we’d certainly need to be as healthy as possible for a number of generations in order to pay it all off.
I don’t doubt that the primary goal in all the ramping up within Iraq, has mostly to do with the Iraqi parliament’s continued unwillingness to settle the matter of how the state’s oil wealth will be divided, and most importantly, who will help Iraq extract it? Once the oil services industry is made well, the real mission will be accomplished. That said, how about the knowledge that with a Democratic Congress now aimed at making sure the VA isn’t being waterboarded from now on, could the “all in” Bush is now riding on also have to do with making sure that next Democratic President most likely to be elected in 2008 has as many broken veterans to pay for as possible? Food for thought, now take a look at a couple freshman congressmen who understand what’s going on:
Rep. Hare – How are the millions in bonuses justified?
Rep. Walz
The situation is sad and there should be no satisfaction from watching these clips…and yet, to see the little money-grubbing weasel Secretary scribble giant obvious truths on his little pad made me laugh.
It’s like Rep. Hare told him there was an elephant in the room sitting on the Secretary’s foot, and the Secretary acts surprised and decides that’s something he should make a note of lest he forget. “Ele…phant…is…sitting…on…my…foot. Gotta remember that.”
You’d think after the Walter Reed scandal, they’d be overhauling veteran care like gangbusters. You’d think after Katrina, they’d be overhauling FEMA like gangbusters. You’d think that after 9/11 they’d be overhauling protection of our ports like gangbusters. You’d think.