Gee, the same Republicans that are calling for Shinseki's head, and trying to find a way to somehow blame the black-guy-in-the-White-House, have already forgotten February, 2014:
(Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans blocked legislation on Thursday that would have expanded federal healthcare and education programs for veterans, saying the $24 billion bill would bust the budget.
Even though the legislation cleared a procedural vote on Tuesday by a 99-0 vote, the measure quickly got bogged down in partisan fighting.
Supporters said the measure would have brought the most significant changes in decades to U.S. veterans' programs. For example, it called for 27 new medical facilities to help a healthcare system that is strained by veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
With Democrats pressing for passage this week, Senate Republicans, backed by their leader, Mitch McConnell, attempted to attach controversial legislation calling for possible new sanctions on Iran that President Barack Obama opposes.
"The issue of Iran sanctions ... has nothing to do with the needs of veterans," complained Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders of Vermont, the main sponsor of the bill.
Republicans also raised budget concerns, forcing another key procedural vote that ended up killing the bill. By a vote of 56-41, the Senate failed to waive budget rules that would have allowed the bill to proceed. Sixty votes were needed and 41 of the chamber's 45 Republicans voted against the waiver.
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In December, Congress passed a two-year budget deal that included a reduction in veterans' pension benefits. Weeks later, Congress did an about-face and repealed many of the cuts.
And early this week, with the initial 99-0 procedural vote on Sanders' bill, the Senate appeared to be delivering a strong show of support for veterans, only to see the legislation die in the Senate with Thursday's vote.
Boy, imagine my surprise...again. The Dems press for passage of legislation to INCREASE the funding for veterans...To create 27 new medical facilities...And the knuckle-draggers--(and McConnell--Oh sorry, that's redundant)--filibustered it because they couldn't attach a poison-pill amendment to it. (At least, that was their excuse. It's a given that even if they could have attached their little amendment to it, they would have filibustered it anyway.) We can't have anything passing that might turn out to be beneficial to the Kenyan....
Nobody that matters wrote: Just curious.... where were the democrats proposing to cut to get the $24 million?
Close a few 1%'er loopholes--private jet subsidies; $4B/year subsidies for the fossil-fuel industries; close the "carried interest" loophole; close the hedge-fund manager loophole...Cripes, I can think of dozens of ways...
--ALL OF WHICH ARE LESS IMPORTANT THAN TAKING CARE OF THE VETERANS.....
You didn't seriously think that we would buy the "job creator"/"trickle-down" crap as a reason not to--Did you? :LMAO: :rofllol
Nobody that matters wrote: Just curious.... where were the democrats proposing to cut to get the $24 million?
Close a few 1%'er loopholes--private jet subsidies; $4B/year subsidies for the fossil-fuel industries; close the "carried interest" loophole; close the hedge-fund manager loophole...Cripes, I can think of dozens of ways...
--ALL OF WHICH ARE LESS IMPORTANT THAN TAKING CARE OF THE VETERANS.....
You didn't seriously think that we would buy the "job creator"/"trickle-down" crap as a reason not to--Did you? :LMAO: :rofllol
So much for your "curiosity"...
Most of which sound like a decent idea to me. Why didn't the dems put that in the bill? Or, why didn't they work with the republicans to find someplace to cut without raising taxes?
I really don't blame the republicans for not approving yet another spending bill without any funding.
"Whatever you are, be a good one." ~ Abraham Lincoln
I can tell you why it would have been rejected even if they had: All of those sources would have required closing a loophole (GoTP vernaculer: "raising taxes")... None of those suggestions would have been acceptable in this slash-and-burn GOP. They have to filibuster EVERY bill, regardless of what it is.
I guess McConnell didn't get the message--The primary directive to "make Obama a one-term president" is a mission they already lost. So, the new directive is to obstruct ANY legislation--even their own--if it could be conceived as a "win" for Obama--even at the expense of veterans.
So any suggestion that the VA problems could have been avoided is going to fall on my deaf ears.
LadyJazzer wrote: Gee, the same Republicans that are calling for Shinseki's head, and trying to find a way to somehow blame the black-guy-in-the-White-House, have already forgotten February, 2014:
And this right here is Exhibit A in "Why you can't have a reasoned discussion with a 'progressive' ". They seem to think that you can build 27 hospitals in less than 3 months to get rid of the backlog and wait lists that Dear Leader promised would be addressed in 2009 but somehow was completely unaware existed in 2014 . . .
There you go again, the same old conservative mantra, if the solution doesn't fix the whole problem immediately then it is better to do nothing. Haven't you heard of planning for the future PS? I believe that it is better to begin to solve the major issues than to throw up our collective hands and admit defeat before we even try. But our do nothing congress is proof that there is little appetite for buckling down and actually working on the problems we face.
