(no subject)

[disneydream06]

Apparently we now know how much the GOP really does care about the veterans.
They love to stand in front of cameras and RAH RAH RAH the military and it's veterans.
However that love apparently ends with the checkbook.....

GOP Sen. Ron Johnson: It costs too much to fund the VA

by Mark E Andersen

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/22/1307971/-GOP-Sen-Ron-Johnson-It-costs-too-much-to-fund-the-VA?detail=email#
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Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the US Senate has finally decided to support fixing our bridges and highways.
One little problem... How does he propose to pay for it?
He wants the Federal government to cut the wages of Federally hired construction workers.

SERIOUSLY????????????????????????????

Comments

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

sure we can fund the VA!

cut back on buying lots of fucking unneccessary "pretties" for the military. BRING OUR TROOPS BACK FROM WAR ZONES.

tell the fucking UN that we are NOT the world's peacekeepers, and ether let some of the other nations of the world take up some of the slack OR they can start funding some of these military junkets.

and quit giving all sorts of fucking tax breaks to corporations...and GEE there will be LOADS more fucking money!

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Well said.
Especially the first and last points. :)

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, and give the enlisted men living wages.

there is NO REASON that a married enlisted man who lives in housing with his wife and two children should have to qualify for food stamps, not when they only have their food and cable (if any), plus car payment. rent, water, and electricity are included, although you no longer get housing allowance in the paycheck. and qualify for even MORE in food stamps should there be no housing available, and they have to live off base. (housing allowance NEVER equals up with what it actually costs to rent someplace to live.)

and that was 10+ years ago that i knew that for a fact, and the wages have NOT kept up with the actual rise in the cost of living. they never do. annual cost of living ends up being a 7-8% rise? miltary get a 2-3% raise in their COLA (cost of living allowance).

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

i was a navy brat. the evil ex was in the navy, the good ex and i lived in a navy town in florida. i worked with navy wives. so yeah. i KNOW all of this for a fact.

and it's absolutely sickening that a young enlisted man in *any* military service can go and be put in harm's way...and come back damaged as they do, then the VA does BULLSHIT in trying NOT to give them services. my heart-sister? her son has a 45% disability. he had to turn his paperwork in FOUR TIMES, each time sending it "return reciept signed for" and be told three of those four times that he had NOT sent the papers in at all.

it took him over 2 years to get his disability, which covers the knees that were blown out on a training accident, but not the PTSD he suffered after his first tour in afghanistan. her husband? PTSD from vietnam. (she has her own issues with PTSD, but since she was forced out of the army, she gets no support at all. yes, forced out since they had children, and neither one of the sets of grandparents were fit to raise a hamster much less children.)

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[incertum-verum.livejournal.com]

That is so awful. I can't even fathom the idea of putting people in such grave danger (with many repercussions) and then not funding them after. These are the people who are fighting for our freedom that we take advantage daily! Why the fuck are they so mistreated? I never understood it. My uncle who was in Vietnam gets taken care of but he was lucky. I hear more stories that are closer to yours than the one with my uncle.

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

why? here's my small vein of cynicism showing: it's pretty damn easy to train up some kid in a hurry. so who cares if they get killed...or worse, come back with horrific wounds of the body and/or soul?

right now, they're pushing TRAINED people out of the military, because once you hit up to a certain level of expertise (depending on your rate) you get a signing bonus. some of those signing bonuses hit 5 figures. it's "better" to push out someone with experience and train up someone newer and cheaper.

people are expendable, and always have been, back to the earliest battles in pre-history. weapons of war are more valuable, since they take skilled labor to produce.

*sighs* and now i will try to go back to my normal happy-go-lucky self, because knowing all this wounds me to the very fibers of what it is to be human. (that is not against you, not at all. it's a valid question that deserves an answer.0

[incertum-verum.livejournal.com]

Yes. Let's cut the wages of people who are making our roads and shit. GOOD PLAN. NOT.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Exactly. :o