When Republicans campaign, they always wrap themselves in the flag. They claim they are the party for the veteran. Of course, the words and promises never correlate with the spending they are willing to make on behalf of our veterans. One must not forget when Republicans blocked a substantive bill in the previous Senate that would have changed the lives of many veterans.
The largest piece of veterans legislation in decades — aimed at expanding health care, education and other benefits — was rejected Thursday by the Senate on a procedural issue after proponents failed to obtain 60 votes to keep the bill alive.
Wrangling over an issue — veterans — that often receives bipartisan support, the legislation died on a vote of 56-41, with only two Republicans voting for it.
Why did the Republicans block the bill?
They blocked the bill for the same reasons they always do. They have had the House and Senate for some time and are yet to support our veterans with the spending really required.
Most Republicans said it was too large, too costly and would burden a Department of Veterans Affairs already struggling to keep up with promised benefits.
Sen Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee who authored the bill, argued that many provisions in the bill have won bipartisan support in other pieces of pending legislation before Congress.
Republicans complained about how to pay for it. Sanders’ legislation had more than 140 provisions costing $21 billion over 10 years.
If dynamic scoring is good for tax cuts, why not for our veterans?
Republicans do not generally mind using clever accounting methods like dynamic scoring to justify ‘budget friendly’ tax cuts. However, to support the veteran, they refuse to accept plausible funding.
Most of that money was to come from billions of dollars the government projected it would be allowed to spend on wars overseas in the fight against al-Qaeda.But Republicans argued that this is “phony” budgeting because U.S. participation in the Iraq War is over and operations in Afghanistan are winding down.
So what did Republicans deny our warriors?
The legislation would have restored cost-of-living increases for the pensions of future military retirees; expanded VA health care by allowing acquisition of 27 new medical facilities and paid for reproductive services for 2,300 troops wounded in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
It also would have expanded compensation for family caregivers of disabled veterans — something now provided for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan — to families of veterans of all wars.
The bill was supported by nearly all veterans groups.
One hopes that Americans will stop listening to the rhetoric and start voting for politicians who really pass bills in their interests.
CORRECTION: In the previous version of this post, I erroneously posted that the story was a vote since this recent election. It was not. The core message remains and holds true today and I strongly believe it is necessary that Americans do not forget the core values of our parties.