Repub Pols Hate Veterans

Here it is, with Veterans Day coming up, and the Republican politicians are playing games with veteran's benefits. 

Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is blocking critical legislation that will provide health care, counseling, and a stipend for caregivers.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) tried to say that military vets would rather have private health care than VA care. 

I just don't understand how the "national security" party can turn its back on the soldiers that it sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Comments

[NVH]

You're smarter than this J. From Coburn's site:
Facts about S. 1963 – Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act

1. Dr. Coburn is NOT opposing the veterans caregiver bill, he merely wants to debate and amend the legislation to improve it.

2. The veteran caregiver bill currently discriminates against Vietnam veterans, Gulf War I veterans, and World War II veterans.

3. The veteran caregiver bill duplicates an existing program that has been providing benefits for decades to veterans to take care of themselves in their homes rather than nursing homes or hospitals.

4. Unlike the veteran caregiver bill, Dr. Coburn’s amendment increases benefits for all veterans, and reduces wasteful spending in order to guarantee that veterans today and in the future will receive the benefits they have earned, including these new caregiver benefits.

And here's how he pays for it
http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=b64380b2-25a0-4b53-a5c3-87b2456ea41e

As for Tancredo, well I'm pretty sure plenty of vets would like to go the multiple docs in a box on the corner rather than travel tens of miles to the base and wait there with sick screaming kids or whatever, if VA care would let them do that. Does it? Cause it should.

[J.]

Coburn is an ass who makes a practice out of being an obstacle to any and all legislation. He's the only one who is opposing the VA bill - the only one. "He merely wants to debate it..." He doesn't give a shit about the VA bill, he wants to make an example of the many programs that he wants to kill. That is, he doesn't give a shit about the veterans as much as he cares about pounding on a podium.

And NVH, you're smart enough to know that no one in Congress is going to let their pet projects get axed, no matter how duplicative they are or how wasteful they are. Coburn's kill list has zero chance of success. So we're back to him being a flashy grandstander and an obstruction to necessary legislation that directly helps veterans.

Tancredo is just a giant ass, he got a deferral to get out of Viet Nam and he's going to preach about what vets need? Give me a break. Repubs - not the soldiers' friends by any stretch.

[FDChief]

NVH: Nobody has to travel "tens of miles to the base". Tricare. Look it up. It's just this sort of lie that makes vets like myself know that people like Coburn and Tancredo would rather use us for political points than shut up and soldier. But wait...Tancredo never HAD to soldier, did he? So what would he know about it?

Tancredo is the sort of thing you scrape off your shoe when you're not careful where you walk - very nasty on a hot day.

Honestly, is there no end to the pile of nonsense we built up during the "Reagan Revolution" and the Years of Tom and Newt?

[NVH]

you two kill me, the second a piece of legislation comes thru that supports your position as vets, you throw the one guy under the bus in the senate that trying to do things right and make it better, working from within the system.

How much of a problem would all your ranting of chem demil have J if Coburn did the same thing you do in your posts on the senate floor, and actually explained the situation.

All Coburn is doing is holding congress accountable for paying for all the shit they come up with and pointing out that really, this vet bill, is a duplication of things already in place. Tell me why they need a new vet bill if Tricare, a gov't run and funded, for now, public healthcare option? What does that say about the public option congress wants to provide all us civilians? And this bill is going to make it better? How? What's wrong with it? And why do we need it if we already have things in place doing this? Then he says, fine you want to pass this, then cut here and here and here and you can have your redundant vets health bill, but not 'til you budget your way out of it.

Seriously gents, somehow I don't see how your Tricare is going to be affected one way or another if this bill passes or not, but I'll tell you what, if somehow, all this stopgap stuff Coburn's doing makes people stand up and notice one day, then we'll all be better off.

Fight all you want about how you hate these particular pols, I could care less about Tancredo. Coburn is trying to change things and taking his licks. Just because he's doing it with a bill you finally think is something worth pushing through? You're hypocrites.