Happy Veteran’s Day!

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3 responses to “Happy Veteran’s Day!”

1. 

   J.M. Prince

   November 13, 2009

   DailyKos takes on Cong Tom Tancredo (R, Chickenhawk, CO): Via Jesus’ General:

   “A veteran disrespects someone who chose to fight the Vietcong by getting a deferment so he could give pro-war speeches to Young Republicans”.

   http://patriotboy.blogspot.com/2009/11/honoring-our-deferment-veterans.html

   JMP

2. 

   J.M. Prince

   November 12, 2009

   Politico story:

   “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) ‚Äúillogical” for holding up a veterans care bill Tuesday, criticizing the Oklahoma Republican for supporting war funding while blocking health care funding for veterans.

   Coburn, a fiscally conservative Republican, has a hold on the bill, a legislative tactic to prevent its passage. He sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), saying that the Caregiver and Veterans Services Act of 2009 needs to be fully debated because it will cost taxpayers more than $3 billion over the next five years. The bill provides funding for families who care for wounded soldiers.

   Reid, flanked by a severely injured Iraq war veteran on Tuesday, hinted that Coburn’s tough stance on the cost of legislation was flawed — he supported the war in Iraq, which wasn’t paid for, but opposes the veterans care bill for the same reason.

   “Where was he when we were spending a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq?” Reid asked. “That wasn’t paid for. I didn’t hear him stopping the bill from going forward at that time. I think he should become more logical and understand we have people who are suffering.”

   John Hart, Coburn’s spokesman, shot back, saying that Reid thinks Congress doesn’t have to make tough choices while the rest of America does.

   “Dr. Coburn would have welcomed Senator Reid’s help in paying for the war,” Hart said in an e-mailed statement. “Instead, Senator Reid was voting for the Bridge to Nowhere and defending earmarks for contributors in Nevada.”

   also via the Dailykos.com:

   http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/11/803220/-Coburn-Disses-Veterans

   “For weeks now, Senator Coburn has been using his “holding” privilege to block consideration of the Veterans Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act – S. 1963. The legislation would help severely wounded veterans of the Iraq and Afghan wars. Coburn wants to fund it by diverting unused stimulus funds.

   According to Army Times, the hope of many veterans organizations was to get the legislation passed by Veterans Day. The delay initiated by Coburn prompted a letter from 13 veterans organizations to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a week ago Monday:

   Those signing the letter include the nation’s major veterans groups — The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, AmVets, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Blinded Veterans Association, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Vietnam Veterans of America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and Jewish War Veterans, plus the Military Officers Association of America, National Military Family Association and Wounded Warrior Project.

   Steve Robertson, legislative director for The American Legion, said delaying the bill hurts families caring for severely wounded combat veterans who would benefit from the stipends, health care, counseling and respite care that would be provided to caregivers in the bill.

   “For a lot of family caregivers, delay is costing them their jobs and their savings. It‚Äôs having a big impact,” he said.

   At a press conference Tuesday, Senate Democrats, including Reid, asked Coburn to release his hold.

   Back in Oklahoma, Jim Myers and Barbara Hoberock at the Tulsa World reported:

   “Devoted families caring for seriously injured service men and women are losing their jobs, their health insurance, their savings, caring for their injured family members,” said Medrano, an Iraq War veteran.

   State Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones said in statement responding to the Democrats that Coburn has the courage to stand up for veterans, their children and grandchildren “by demanding that Congress not write another multibillion-dollar hot check that puts future generations in even deeper debt.”

   Why didn’t that debt matter when Coburn, first as a Representative from Oklahoma’s 2nd Congressional District and then as Senator, was voting to pour money into the wars that put men and women into harm’s way? Never mind. The answer to that question is all too obvious. A one-fingered salute to you, sir, and all who think like you”

   JMP

3. 

   J.M. Prince

   November 12, 2009

   Things we need & ought to be doing to really honor & help our Vets: Via ThinkProgress.org

   http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/10/vets-study-deaths/

   “Study: 2,200 Vets Died Last Year Because They Lacked Health Insurance

   On the eve of Veterans Day, a team of researchers from Harvard Medical School has released a study finding that an estimated 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they did not have health insurance. That “translates to six preventable deaths per day” and more than twice the number killed in Afghanistan since the war began in 2001.

   Being uninsured raises a person’s odds of dying prematurely by 40 percent. The researchers found that 1.46 million veterans between the ages of 18 and 64 lacked insurance in 2008. While most veterans are eligible to receive excellent care from the Veterans Administration, those who were not injured in combat and whose income is above a certain threshold are often ineligible. Others are assigned low priorities, providing them with less consistent and more expensive access to care:

   ‚ÄúLike other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people ‚Äì too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care,‚Äù said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School. […]

   Dr. David Himmelstein, the co-author of the analysis and associate professor of medicine at Harvard, commented, “On this Veterans Day we should not only honor the nearly 500 soldiers who have died this year in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also the more than 2,200 veterans who were killed by our broken health insurance system. That’s six preventable deaths a day.”

   Unfortunately, health insurance is just one of many serious problems vets face. Up to one-in-five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, while male vets face suicide rates double the national average. And, as the VA under President Obama recognized, veterans still account for up to a quarter of all homeless.

   The fact that even veterans cannot receive adequate health care demonstrates that the current system is broken and in need of dramatic overhaul. A robust public option will guarantee that vets and all working-class Americans will be able to afford quality health insurance. Still, the study’s authors warn that the health care legislation “would do virtually nothing for the uninsured until 2013” and would “leave at least 17 million uninsured over the long run when reform kicks in,” leaving many veterans without care.

   Update via: Politico reports, “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) ‘illogical’ for holding up a veterans care bill Tuesday, criticizing the Oklahoma Republican for supporting war funding while blocking health care funding for veterans.”

   http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29372.html

   JMP