January 3, 2007 Should be ?Veterans Day?

[Gimpy]

At least for 2007 anyway!



###START###


January 3, 2007 Should be ?Veterans Day?


The day the 110th Congress is sworn in should be a day of rejoicing for America?s veterans


by Larry Scott
From VAWatchdog.org

For six years America?s veterans have heard one story and lived another. The Jekyll & Hyde, Republican-controlled Congress loudly proclaimed their support of veterans while voting their cost-cutting political agenda. There was little, if any, Congressional oversight as the Republican political appointees who run the Department of Veterans? Affairs (VA) knowingly requested inadequate healthcare budgets and implemented a program that prevented hundreds of thousands of qualified veterans from even enrolling for benefits.


Yes, January 3, 2007 should be Veterans Day, for just one year, anyway. The day the 110th Congress is sworn in will mark the demise of two of the most controversial Chairmen on Capitol Hill.


Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), will no longer be the Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans? Affairs. Buyer handily won re-election in Indiana?s ultra-conservative 4th District without the endorsement of any major veterans? group.


Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), will no longer Chair the Senate Committee on Veterans? Affairs. Craig was not up for re-election. His term ends in 2008.


These two Chairmen, while tasked with the care of America?s veterans, have rightfully earned the contempt of their charges. While I doubt there will be dancing in the streets or free beer at American Legion and VFW halls, veterans will surely breathe a sigh of relief as new leadership comes to the Veterans? Committees.


Rep. Buyer has turned his two-year tenure chairing the House Vets? Committee into a living hell for veterans. Buyer tried to redefine who is a veteran. He claimed the intent of Congress was that only disabled and indigent veterans should be eligible for VA benefits. He pushed for a VA run by political appointees and not healthcare and business professionals. He locked-out veterans? service organizations from meaningful input into the VA budget process. His list of transgressions is long and hurtful to those who have served their country.


Sen. Craig runs a close second to Buyer. Craig has said the VA has too much money and has gone out of his way to obstruct additional funding for veterans? healthcare. He has deliberately confused the issue of unemployed and unemployable veterans and pushed the VA to find jobs for those veterans already deemed unable to work because of physical and/or emotional disabilities. Craig, along with Buyer, will NOT be missed.


The view ahead for veterans is much brighter. On tap to Chair the House Vets? Committee is Democratic Rep. Bob Filner of California. Filner endeared himself to all veterans when he took the VA to task for losing a laptop computer that contained the personal information of over 26 million former service members. Filner, in front of rolling cameras, pointed at VA officials and yelled, ?You guys f***ed it up! Stop covering your ass and figure it out.? Filner is known as a strong veterans? advocate in the House.


In the Senate, Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii should take the chair of the Vets? Committee. Akaka has long been known as a defender of veterans? rights and has an impeccable voting record on veterans? issues. (The appointments of Filner and Akaka are not etched in stone and there is a possibility of some political maneuvering that could put other Democratic Members in the seats.)


Together, Filner and Akaka will provide much-needed Congressional oversight of a VA crammed with Republican political appointees. The current Secretary of Veterans? Affairs is Jim Nicholson, former Chairman of the Republican National Committee. This is Nicholson?s only qualification to run the agency charged with the care of the nation?s 24-plus million veterans.


Nicholson?s mistakes read like Chapter One of ?Bad Management for Dummies.? He allowed the loss of massive amounts of veterans? data by not implementing tight information technology controls. He colluded with the White House to accept inadequate VA budgets and was caught by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). He did not distribute over $100 million in funds earmarked for veterans? mental health needs and was again nabbed by the GAO. And, his most blatant transgression is his constant claim that the VA is ?well-funded and well-staffed? while veterans wait months and years for necessary mental health and medical appointments. (Documentation of all Buyer, Craig and Nicholson facts available at VA Watchdog dot Org, on the web at: http://www.vawatchdog.org )


A recent editorial in the Houston Chronicle stated: "Treating and supporting our veterans is a non-negotiable cost of war.? The Republican-controlled Congress did not get this message. Many veterans got mad and voted for change, along with the rest of the country. Although I have seen no statistical breakdown on how veterans voted, anecdotal evidence indicates many former service members crossed party lines to vote in a Democratic Congress.


The challenges facing a Democratically-controlled Congress are legion. The Veterans? Committees are no exception. They must work to ensure a properly-funded VA where veterans are not turned away or told to wait for necessary healthcare. The cost will be in the billions of dollars and these expenditures must be supported by the American people. They must provide oversight of a VA system paralyzed by incompetent political appointees. And, Congress must hope and pray that President Bush doesn?t find his veto pen.


Larry Scott


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[Advisor]

Maybe Muthra can lead the celebration.

[Gimpy]

Maybe so!.....................

[zuni_rocket]

Gee Whiz! He hasn't even been appointed yet & Wallah! The watch dogs are after him , shucks they should be after Nancy as well but that's another story!! This is going to be great Stuff !


Looks like this "jar head" is more of a "jug head" to me. I know one thing I haven't talked a Marine yet who will admit he has any respect for him , & they resent him deeply for the most part for his actions & behavior ?? Wonder Why ??



Jim Bishop


"Praise the Lord & Pass the Ammunition!"



CREW BLASTS PELOSI ENDORSEMENT OF UNETHICAL MURTHA FOR MAJORITY LEADER DEMOCRATS WIN ON ETHICS BUT CHOOSE TO RUN CORRUPT MEMBER FOR LEADERSHIP POST.

?Future House Speaker Pelosi?s endorsement of Rep. Murtha, one of the most unethical members of Congress, shows that she may have prioritized ethics reform merely to win votes with no real commitment to changing the culture of corruption,? Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. ?How can Americans believe that the Democrats will return integrity to the House when future Speaker Pelosi has endorsed an ethically-challenged member for a leadership position? Rep. Murtha is the wrong choice for this job.?

Not only is Rep. Murtha beset by ethics issues, The New York Times reported on October 2, 2006 that he has consistently opposed ethics and earmark reform. Sloan continued, ?Rep. Murtha?s opposition to ethics reform does not bode well for future Speaker Pelosi?s promise to enact ethics legislation in the first 100 hours of the new Congress.?

CREW?s report can be found at www.beyonddelay.org.

***

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions.

For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact Naomi Seligman Steiner at 202.408.5565/press@citizensforethics.org.

[Gimpy]

Rocketman, (and Advisor)-----This thread was started to show how the democrats will be more inclined and obviously more supportive of military veterans issues than were those deceiving and lying bunch of jerks from the republican party that chaired the House & Senate Veterans Affairs Committes.

If you want to hijack a post for purposes of trashing Jack Murtha take your vile, bile and hate filled nonsense elsewhere!

Because, Murtha will not be involved in the day to day business and operations of these committees. I'm sure he will however be voting with the MAJORITY DEMOCRATS to assure that you and all other military veterans receive increases and advances in benefits and health care. Unlike those sycophants and UNsupportive republican members of Congress that held the reigns of power these past 6 years!

[reconeil]

Get Real.
Do you honestly expect people to believe that everything
prior to this last about 12 years was hunky-doory for
America's Veterans, or when solely DEMOCRAT CONGRESSES
had TOTAL CONTROL of the purse strings for The Veterans?????????
Such intelligence insulting.

Besides,...Oh Bush and Anything Republican Despiser's, Haters, Underminers & Attackers,
wasn't it President Bush and The Republican Congress that
pushed through the largest single increase in Veterans Monies
in the history of The VA (about 20 BILLION$$$)?
Think none in America have any memories of such?

So,...why all the glee Gimpy?
After all, the next 2 years under Democrat Control might start
getting a little dicey for The Veterans,....ONCE AGAIN.

Neil

[SuperScout]

Actually, it's da dims that are bashing Murtha, and the internal blood-letting will only get funnier, to those of us observing the internecine frivolities, before anything serious or real gets done. What this endorsement by Pelosi shows is just how out of touch with her own party she truly is! She is showing the ineptitude that we long suspected.

My $20 says that there will be little for veterans to celebrate with da dims back in control. After all, what did they do for us before when they had the power? They could have fixed all the problems, like concurrent receipt, full funding for the VA etc. etc. decades ago, but they didn't. Now, one has to wonder about their current promises.

[reconeil]

Good points raised.

Also, it took about 10 years for Dems to EVEN ADMIT that Agent Orange
ACTUALLY EXISTED,...and about 15 or so years to start addressing it.

Hell,...While Dems were In Control (and For Quite Some Time!!!),...
Veterans adversarially had to fight the VA. So, how on earth can
any sane Veteran actually believe that such insatiable socialist
leopards or societal predators are going to change their spots,
and Veterans will be generously treated better by The Democrats.
Those believing such just living in another type: "FOOLS PARADISE".

Veterans not treated better before by Dems,...........
and not very likely happening now. Quite the opposite.
For foreign or enemy veterans? Hey,...who-the-hell knows?
Plus,...good source of votes.

Neil

P.S. Hell again. I never got such low Disability Check Increase$ as
under Carter or Clinton. Guess that American Citizens in general
(Veterans or not) don't count near as much as foreign nationals
(here legally or not),...for most Democrat Leaders?

Neil

[Gimpy]

Recon,


You and SuperFella are so full of shit you're putting out nothing but gaseous nonsense once again.


Why do you continue to try and lie and deceive folks about this issue?


Don't you know by now that I will post the TRUTH (directly from the Department of Veterans Affairs web site and the Legislative History of disability compensation rate increases)!


Here's the actual factual historical percentage increases for Carter, Clinton and GEE-W.


Even though I didn't agree with many of Carters actions during his tenure, he was responsible for the HIGHEST RATE INCREASES of VA DISABILITY COMPENSATION of any sitting president in modern times!


Looks like your hero GEE-W is sucking hind teet on this issue as well!


No surprise there, huh?


Why can't you dingbats get your FACTS STRAIGHT???????????????????


__________________________________________________ _____________
Jimmy Carter = 6.5%.....7.3%....9.9%....14.3%


Bill Clinton = 2.6%....2.6%....2.8%....2.9%....2.1%....1.5%....2. 4%....3.5%


G.W. Bush = 2.6%....1.4%....2.1%....1.5%....2.0%
__________________________________________________ _____________


Don't you ever get tired of making a fool of yourself??

[reconeil]

If ANYONE'S FULL OF IT around here,...it's YOU.

Plus,...YOU FLAT-OUT-LIE with your cockamamie & bogus percentages, making-out that Carter & Clinton were generous to
AMERICANS (Military, Veteran or Civilian). That just not so.

For foreign nationals? Of course.
Some foreign nationals even collect Social Security,...as per CARTER.

Also, any Veterans receiving yearly increases in their Disability
in Dollars, as do American Veterans,...know YOU'RE FULL OF IT.

Yes, Gimpy,...and dealing in dollars and not your wonderful percentages,...
a $2 increase is more than a $1, and a $3 increase is more than
a $2 monthly increase, and so on and so on and so on.

Hey,...just ask one your friends that knows a little about math.
And besides, if no sane American could possibly ever believe
whatever came out of the last Democrat President's (re. Clinton
and/or: "Slick Willy") Mouth,...why on earth should anyone believe
what comes out of a fanatical Democrat, like you?

Makes about as much sense believing YOU,...as does believing
the War Protesters Bill Clinton, John Kerry & Jane Fonda.


Neil