Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits

[swag]

Source: Army Times



Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans.

“It is really astonishing to see this,” he said.

In a statement, Bachmann said her plan is intended for discussion purposes as an example of ways to cut federal spending to make it unnecessary to increase the current $14.3 trillion limit on the amount the U.S. government can borrow.

Read more: http://bit.ly/hLrPPZ

[suston96]

1. Please fix your link....

the last / doesn't post......

[swag]

4. Weird that the original url didn't want to work even after several pastes

I shortened it and it seems to work now.

Happy reading.

[suston96]

16. Thanks. I just put the / at the end and it worked. nt

[denverbill]

2. Wouldn't want that safety net for disabled vets to become a hammock, would we?n/t

[emulatorloo]

7. I really can't get past Ryan's statement - so arrogant

Blaming the victim. I wish the media would play that line over and over again.

[SouthernLiberal]

3. What a plan!

After giving big tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, the publicans then complain about the debt. Duh!

But this is as disgusting an idea as I've ever seen. Sure, all we need to do to balance the budget is to break our promises to our veterans. Tell the men and women who were willing to risk their lives to keep faith with us, that they are not important enough that we need to take care of them after they came home hurt, but alive.

What message does that send to forces in active duty? Or to young people considering enlistment?

Not to mention that it is breaking a solemn promise, and would morally damage every American.

[TexasProgresive]

5. One thing about the tea baggers

They love babies as long as they are in the womb.
The love military people as long as they are able bodied and in active service.
Be born and you are worthless. be injured and the same.

Gotta love 'em!

[prolesunited]

10. Once they lose all "value" for them

as political pawns and cannon fodder, they no longer matter. It's also why they don't want to help the homeless, feed the hungry or save the lives of the poor with adequate health care -- all the while professing to be such awesome Christians. There's just no payoff for them. I can't see why people don't see through their game.

[DCKit]

6. Why does Michelle Bachman hate our troops? nt

[katnapped]

8. Why does Michelle Bachman hate America? n/t

[era veteran]

9. I really hate the ignorant teabaggers

The idea that this woman is a Congresswoman would make Fellini laugh.

[DCKit]

11. Yeah, but he'd also be smart enough to refrain from making the movie.

The critics would pan it as "Over the top - even for Fellini."

[GoldenOldie]

14. Bachmann, Boner, McConnell, Ryan, Cheney, etc., have no shame

They all made it to the top of the heap on the backs and blood of others. Bachmann and her family through land subsidies, poor little Boehner was able to receive an education (an education he now wants to deprive others), Cheney through "Regulations," that deferred him from military service, allowing him to climb the ladder to fame and fortune, while thousands of his peers who chose not to use or abuse the rules, died and suffered.

All of these grifters, have fared well on the backs of the working taxpayers because they have used and abused "REGULATIONS/LAWS." Laws and regulations, that were fought and won by the Liberal Progressives to insure all Americans have a fair advantage and stake in our democracy.

John McCain, POW, is receiving 100% military disability benefits (100% usually means unable to perform work of any kind), yet he is supposedly working full-time as a Senator, representing Arizona, where he and his Arizona mate, Sen. John Kyl, deny the same military benefits to our present military/veteran members. John McCain is a "Triple-Dipper," on the taxpayers.....Military disability, Social Security, Senate, which will become an annuity if or when he retires. Upon his death, his widow Cindi (a millionaire in her own right), will then receive his benefits? These men,women and others have all become very wealthy and prosperous from US Government "We the People." Yet now, they all seem so delighted in touting their budget plans which calls for throwing those who do the real work, out in the cold, with no opportunity to ever make life better for themselves or their families.

[Fuddnik]

12. What's she going to do if they cut her mental health care?

All that drooling in public and stuff?

[atreides1]

13. It's not like she's using it

I doubt if she'll even miss it!!!

[AsahinaKimi]

15. Taking away benefits from Veterans would be a

wrong move on the part of tea bagger politicians. Whats going on in Egypt would pale, if they ever pissed off the Veterans who served this country.

[Submariner]

17. The republicans (Bush/Cheney junta) already stripped away VA health care access

guaranteed to Vietnam/Cold War era veterans. These aholes just don't know when to stop.

[SpiralHawk]

18. Republicon chickenhawks really HATE our sons and daughters in uniform

Never, ever trust a Republicon chickenhawk when it comes to taking care of our veterans and our active-duty men and women in uniform.

As they prove over and over, Republicons despise our sons and daughters in uniform, and take every opportunity to claim glory and then screw them.

[snowshadow]

19. Vietnam Vet

I served 4 years in the Marines and one of those was in 'Nam. Being a helicopter crew chief I've seen all kinds of injuries from minor to almost catastrophic. To gut benefits for those that have served whether or not it was WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan is incorrigible. If the war was justified or not like Vietnam and Iraq should not make a difference to those who have put their lives on the line and served. These veterans are not abusing the system like the so called brave chicken hawks who send these brave people into war.

No need to worry about Michele Bachmann, people respect these men and women no matter what the cost. Her chances of winning are comparable to those of Palin, zero to none.

[sabra]

20. Disabled Veterans Decry Wrongheaded, ‘Heartless’ Budget Cuts (Rep. Bachmann proposal)

Source: sunherald

WASHINGTON -- If Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) wanted to make a name for herself by proposing to cut funding for veterans health care and disability compensation, she has succeeded. “Such an ill-advised proposal is nothing short of heartless,” according to Disabled American Veterans Washington Headquarters Executive Director David W. Gorman.

“It is unconscionable that while our nation is at war someone would even think of forcing our wounded warriors to sacrifice even more than they already have,” Gorman said. “Their injuries and disabilities were the result of their service to the nation, and our nation must not shirk its responsibilities toward them. How do you tell a veteran who has lost a limb that he or she has not sacrificed enough? Yet Rep. Bachmann wants to do just that.”

The third-term member of Congress has called on Congress to freeze Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending and reduce disability compensation. Her proposal would cut $4.5 billion from veterans health care and disability benefits.

“Freezing VA health care funding will not only freeze out sick and disabled veterans seeking care, it will also end up costing the federal government even more money,” said Gorman. “With the number of veterans seeking health care rising, the effect of a freeze would be to either block enrollment of veterans, many of them just returning from battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, or to ration care to currently enrolled veterans, including disabled veterans who have relied on VA dating back to World War II,” Gorman said.




Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2011/01/28/2815339/disabled-veterans-decry-wrongheaded.html

[Leithan]

21. What the Hell are people in MN's 6th District smoking???

[CLANG]

22. Apparently just ciggarettes - and also heavily drinking

If they had smoked mary jane, they would have never voted for this moron.

[Blue Owl]

23. Beats the fuck outta me

Whatever it is I don't want it.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

24. Gerrymander Brand™ Cigarettes.

That's pretty much all they sell there.

[NickB79]

28. The college students at St. Cloud State University are bogarting all the good stuff

Which is why it's a liberal bastion in a sea of stupid up there.

[CAG]

25. Why can't these veterans be patriotic and support measures to ensure

that Michelle Bats&*t can pay for her tax cuts for the rich??:sarcasm:

[old mark]

26. K&R- Keep it up, Bachmann-and I hope you get lots of GOPers to support you.

Maybe more people will realize how much of a shit you really are.


mark

[AlbertCat]

27. Cuts

Yes, it makes so much sense, and shows one is totally sincere, to cut veterans' services before cutting the budget to build weapons to fight the Soviet Union! Thanks Michele!

:eyes:

[gratuitous]

29. Why don't they just apply for farm subsidies?

That's how the Bachmann family helps make ends meet!

[skoalyman]

30. from wiki

she represented the Internal Revenue Service "in hundreds of cases"<10> (both civil and criminal) prosecuting people who underpaid or failed to pay their taxes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Bachmann looks like she brought her job ethics from her last job along for the ride. Just a shark with no conscious under a different job title. :puke:

[Odin2005]

31. Why does Bachmann hate the troops?