I don't get some Americans. This is a picture of the Syrian People Solidarity Group protest in November in Austin. By last count, Texas has nearly 16,000 homeless veterans. Why can't they put the same effort into helping those Americans instead of this nonsense? "Among troops returning from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, estimates of traumatic brain injury and the PTSD that often results are staggering. At least 350,000 are predicted to have PTSD or depression and 370,000 percent are expected to sustain a traumatic brain injury, according to a 2008 study by the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research called “The Invisible Wounds of War”. Mental health experts believe that the number of soldiers experiencing any or all of the three conditions will rise to one million by the time the wars are over. “There’s one million of our citizens that will need some serious rehabilitation,” said Dr. Thomas Horvath, Chief of Staff of the Michael E. Debakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston." I beat this drum a lot but it deserves beating. I spend a fair amount of time around vets, mostly from Iraq and Afghanistan but still some from Vietnam and a few from Korea. They need help and support. The current White House occupant shouldn't allow one refugee until we have taken care of our own vets.
2 reasons 1. Veterans represent less than 1% of population, therefore they are easily ignored. 2. democrats by and large know they have lost them and republicans believe we will always vote for them. So it only reinforces point 1.
This isn't, nor should it be, an either/or issue. We are the United States of America...why can't we take care of our veterans and extend a hand to those in need? I am a veteran so I ardently agree that most veterans services are underfunded. I do not use my VA benefits because I do not need to use them right now and I also understand that there are kids coming home who need to see the VA much more than myself. Perhaps one day when I am retired I will use that benefit but for now I can pay my own way. That said, making this a partisan issue is ignoring the fact that congressional republicans have axed billions in veterans funding in the past several years in the name of austerity. This isn't speculation this is fact. I am not pretending that Democrats haven't done the same in the past so you can spare me the....."But the democrats do the same answer...." My point is that the Republicans have plenty of blood on their hands too. You want to make this about Veterans, and only Veterans, then I'll stand with you issue by issue, but making it about politics and pointing fingers is juvenile and neglects to address the real issues facing Veterans. 1. Veterans Affairs Funding Bill (2015) The House Appropriations Subcommittee, met with VA Secretary Bob McDonald to remove more than $1.4 billion in veteran services from President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget. Included in those cuts was more than $690 million earmarked for direct VA medical care and $582 million in VA construction projects. As a result of the cuts, it was estimated that 70,000 fewer veterans would be able to receive needed care. 2. Women Veterans and Families Health Services Act (2014) This bipartisan bill would have provided fertility treatment and counseling for severely wounded veterans and their spouses. However, the bill was killed before making it out of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee after Republicans proposed an amendment to prevent any involvement with Planned Parenthood. The author of the bill, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), took to the floor of the Senate and made the following statement: “Don’t take something that should be above politics, our sacred duty to our veterans, pull it down into the muck of petty politics. It is not fair to veterans and their families who have been hoping and praying for the opportunity to have children.” 3. Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act (2014) This bill, proposed by Senator Bernie Sanders, was a piece of sweeping legislation that would have expanded healthcare and education for veterans. After clearing a procedural vote by a 99-0 margin, the bill was hijacked by Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans who attached an amendment to the bill which would have levied sanctions on Iran. While arguing over the proposed amendments, other Republicans took to the floor to raise concerns over the cost of the bill, and it was ultimately defeated with 41 of 45 Senate Republicans voting against the bill. 4. Veterans Jobs Corps Act (2012) Originally submitted by democratic Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa, this bill would have established the Veteran’s Jobs Corps to provide gainful employment to more than 20,000 veterans through public works projects in their own communities at a cost of $1 billion over 5 years. Ultimately, Senate Republicans blocked the bill because it was unpaid for… while simultaneously proposing a bill to increase military spending with no way to pay for it. “We Republicans remain resolute in our commitment to deny the Democrats anything that looks like an accomplishment in an election year,” said Republican leader Mitch McConnell. 5. Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act (2010) Originally proposed to expand assistance for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children, as well as increasing funding for federal grant programs to address the issues surrounding homelessness amongst veterans, this bipartisan bill made its way through the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee with strong support from members of both parties. However, the bill was promptly killed as Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, on behalf of Senator Tom Coburn, objected based on the cost of the program. “If we don’t start paying for new programs and continue on our path to bankruptcy we’ll have a homelessness problem beyond imagination,” Coburn spokesman John Hart told HuffPost. “The old Washington excuse that it’s too hard to cut spending is undermining our troops, our veterans and our future.”
Why is it you ALWAYS miss the point @Tiger in NC , I'm glad you asked so that now I can tell you. It's because you are so quick to take a dem deep while flipping off a rep. that you didn't see it wasn't about vets at all. It's about a bunch of refugees that should not even be thought about much less allowed into this country. Typical freaking liberal, should be ashamed of yourself.
Because we aren't taking care of our veterans. I don't care about partisan crap on this issue. The man in the White House wants to bring 10,000 refugees here which means spending money and resources on them. I can't understand that decision/choice when I know/see so many homeless and sick vets. There is a huge desert available to those syrians. It is better for them to stay put and then go back home. If they come here, they will never leave. It's an insult to me when I know how many refugees are allegedly heading to CA and we have 50,000 homeless vets here.
I am completely on point, Shane, and for the record I didn't ask you shit. I am quick to point out facts and those can be very inconvenient, especially when the are irrelevant to someone like you. Not about vets? She made it about vets when she made the comparison, so if you don't like it that they were brought into the conversation then take it up with USC. I do not expect you to comprehend, much less understand, why we should do our part to take in refugees so I won't waste my time. Thankfully, people like you are in the minority, and it is a minority that is growing every single day.
Exactly. But when the man in the white house submits a budget and house republicans strip 650 billion in VA funding out of it, how exactly can you blame him? You honestly think that accepting refugees into the country will come at such a financial burden that we cannot afford to do both? Take care of our Vets and accept some refugees? Seriously? And it is controlled by ISIS or ravaged by civil war, and contrary to what you might believe, there are Muslims who just want to live their lives, watch their children grow and have a decent job....same as you and me. We currently have a two year vetting process for refugees coming into the country. Don't you think that terrorists would conceive of a better means of entering the country than a two year process where they investigate your background? I realize they are bad guys but they are not stupid. So what? If they work, pay taxes, abide by our laws and accept our culture then why should they have to leave? Then you should be offended that we always have the money for war but never seem to scrape together enough to take care of our veterans. You should be offended that congress doesn't consider our Vets worthy of funding. You should be offended that we have 50,000 homeless vets in CA. But what is offensive about lending a hand to people who just want to be out of harms way and to have a chance at a better life. Isn't that the American dream? Is it still alive, or is that only for white christians?
"The Philadelphia VA announced a new incentive program earlier this month that rewards employees with cash and food for deciding cases quickly — a move that some employees say will encourage staff to rush claims and reject deserving applicants, once again leaving veterans struggling for benefits. For some, the program is too similar to one at the Phoenix VA hospital last year that led to patients dying while waiting for care, even as employees manipulated wait time data to collect bonuses." Because HIS VA, under Shinseki's direction, did shit like this. No, we can't do both....obviously. As long as one veteran sleeps on a street, can't get an appointment, is not receiving medical help, then I don't want one fucking penny to go to a syrian refugee. Why in hell are we even considering it? It's their lot in life and not my problem. America needs help FIRST. The ones already here don't abide by our laws, accept our culture, or even attempt to fit in. Yea, right, throw the race card. The vets I invest my time in are not all white christians. They are also asian, black, latino, etc. I am offended at the number of homeless vets in the state where I reside. I do what I can. There are millions of people here in America RIGHT NOW who want out of harm's way. I think they deserve a go before a syrian who already has a continent to live on.
You act like Obama personally ordered the deaths of these people or something. It's so partisan and lacking a basis in reality that I hesitate to even comment on it. The VA can only operate within the confines of the funding that it receives, as I have already noted, and that has been continually reduced in the name of austerity. You see, when you scream at the top of your lungs that we have to balance the budget regardless then we end up with shit like this. This is the kind of narrow minded ignorance that has kept me away from this place for so long. You have narrowed in on a single microcosm of an issue and are using only the parts that are convenient to your alternate universe and refuse to hear that there are other factors at play that affect the consequences that you so desperately hate. Why not revoke some of those massive tax breaks that oil companies get or stop forcing the military to use aircraft that they don't even want (F-35) or allow those who make over a quarter million a year to pay an extra percent or two in taxes? Please cite one single instance where a Syrian refugee has not done any of these things. Please.... If the shoe fits wear it, but let's face it....not a single one of those refugees are white people and though I know you would never admit it, if they were white Christians from Sweden no one would be saying a god damned thing. Again, I will say, we do not have to choose between funding vets and accepting Syrian refugees. No one has insinuated that this is a choice we face.....only to you in your small little world.
