For her part, the right-wing congresswoman told a local reporter yesterday that her proposal to undermine veterans' needs was intended to generate discussion. I suppose Bachmann succeeded on this front.
Let’s tread carefully here....
Our veterans sacrificed too much to be thrown away at the expense of paying for a useless person's welfare check.
Bachmann is toast. The charge that she wants to stick it to vets will stick.
For most veteran’s medical needs, do we really need veteran’s hospitals? Couldn’t the government save money by just paying a regular hospital to do the work?
Of course, we need a few veteran’s hospitals open for dealing with combat-related problems where regular hospitals might not have the specialists.
My husband and I are both US Army veterans. I got out in 1978. Husband retired in 1990.
I don’t know who started the policy, but, sometime after Viet Nam the government started trolling for “disabled vets” in order to bestow extra benefits.
Let me be clear, combat related, or signifigant duty related disabilities deserve help. BUT! Offering disability pay for vague, nondiscript, insignifigant, minor “disabilities” that in no way affect a person’s ability to work and function has got to be addressed.
I am a veteran and I am retired living on Social Security. Saying that I left AARP a long time ago because of its selfishness.I have children and grandchildren that I do not want to leave this mess to. I am willing to sacrifice and even freeze all of my entitlements and maybe give a few back. I have served my country in 3 different capacities and now I am willing to sacrifice.People need to be considerate of those coming behind us. We also need to stop all these illegals from coming in here and some of our folks need to be willing to do labor. Now is the time for all good Americans to come to the aid of their country.
Vet issues should be near the end of the list to cut. I’m sure we can find areas in the VA that can be run more efficiently, but there are so many other areas we can focus on without having a public fight over vets.
The VA is a cesspool of pork, inefficiency and corruption. Read Stolen Valor to see how they go trolling for vets that they can get diagnosed with PTST so they can bill the govt billions for their ‘treatment’.
Standard attack piece, where is the plan that says all of this, I doubt it exists.
I think we all know that’s not going to happen so lets let it play out and see what happens before we all go Pelosi on it.
Oh wait. I pay about for the roads with a tax on every gallon of gasoline I buy, and I pay for my kid's schools with an explicit tax every year. It's almost $10,000 a year where I live. So I pay for my "benefits." And I also pay for their's.
And the problem is, along with the vets, who actually have a case, there are millions and millions of others who will scream just as loundly and just as convincingly about why not one single penny of their largesse can be touched. Not a penny. Tens of millions of others, and more millions coming into this country across the borders every year.
As I can tell you from the experience of my son with VA educational benefits, the place is incredibly bureaucratic and inefficient.
The VA is staffed by people who, for the most part, are very lazy and don’t care at all about veterans.
Many of our Tea Party faves are blithely heading into media buzzsaws and and are gonna get chopped.
Even if they emerge relatively intact, the suspicion will remain “how could they have not known they would be savaged?”
Not one in a five hundred people of either sex could put up with the assault that has been launched against Sarah Palin. I hope Michele can handle what she is going to unleash upon herself.
I would prefer she proceeded a litle more gingerly and I will not diminish my support of her, but the impression is created that she does not know what she is doing walking into this type of hornet’s nest and so she *also* may not know what she’s doing over here, and over here.
Cut foreign aid to ZERO first.!!!!!
And so it begins. Every group is going to say they don’t want to be cut. Every group is going to say cut the other guy. This just goes to show that conservatives have their pet projects which leaves the liberal RATS laughing.
Everything should be on the table. Veterans (and I’m one) should be saying you can cut me as long as you cut others. At some point everything will be cut-when no one lends us any more money. It will be far worst then it could be if everyone just stepped up to the plate.
This may have been a fatal mistake. We shall see.
Let’s distinguish between disability pensions, which are given to any veteran with an income below a certain level, and disability compensation, which is exactly that, repayment for injuries suffered during military service. I’m on the 100% list due to malpractice by the Army medical system (mis-diagnosis of cancer symptoms as a ‘mental problem’). By law, I was not allowed to sue the Army doctors, my only recourse was through VA compensation.
Now, I have a standing offer. If you want my money and benefits, you can have them. But I want something in return: your large intestine. I no longer have one, and I miss it. And the next time the cancer comes back, you can take the chemo. Three times is enough.
No takers yet.
Army Times will only allow the posting of titles and links, but this a a good read on the issue. There's a little more info than I have seen from the MSM so far.
No fuss, no muss.
“We need to cut government spending! But don’t cut any of my benefits! We need to cut ‘other peoples’ benefits!”
Sorry vets, unemployed, contractors, government employees, Joe Blow, etc...
Everybody has to take a cut. Yes, EVERYONE! NO EXCEPTIONS! Otherwise this is just a waste of time. Go spend yourselves and your children into bankruptcy, and blame “other people.” Just keep on going. It’s not your fault.