LV Congressman Charlie Dent this week voted to support Fiscal Year 2011 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. It provides $75.9 billion in funding for programs benefiting American veterans, as well as the construction and maintenance of military facilities. Here's why he supports it, in his own words:"I was pleased to support this measure because it supplies the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with the robust funding it needs to continue providing valuable services to our nation’s many deserving veterans and their families. This bill included $51 billion for the Veterans Health Administration to ensure our vets receive the highest-quality medical services and to improve the accessibility of care.
"As greater numbers of soldiers return from missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is imperative we honor their service by continuing to develop programs for veterans. In addition to improved medical care, this must include enhanced educational opportunities that prepare our veterans for civilian careers. I supported H.R. 5822 because it also included strong funding for training and tuition assistance, and will provide VA the means to address the troubling educational benefit claims backlog.”
Blogger's Note: The accompanying photo shows mostly forgotten Merchant Marine veterans of WWII, who were recently recognized and honored by Charlie Dent.
5 comments:
Regardless of whether you think the contents of the bill were worth it (and I do, despite being an Afghanistan skeptic), why no comment from Dent about the impact on the deficit? After all, there's no real reason military appropriations should have to go on the national credit card, but unemployment benefits and jobs bills should. At 10% unemployment, those are emergency measures too. If Charlie Dent and the Republicans were actually the fiscally responsible party, they'd insist that war funding go through the regular budget process. Combined with the recent stories about Republicans supporting the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and repealing the estate tax, it should be clear that Republican credibility on the deficit is a joke.
Oh now Jon Geeting cares about the deficit? Your credibility is actually the joke. You are the same one that has consistently advocated for MORE stimulus. Talk about adding to the deficit.
Also, I thought your fanatical liberal friends were going to stop funding for all the wars and bring the troops back home? Pelosi is in charge...why hasnt this happened?
According to a study released by the Harvard Medical School, 2,266 veterans under the age of 65 died last year as a result of not having health insurance. Researchers emphasize that "that figure is more than 14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001."
The 1.46 million working-age veterans that did not have health insurance last year all experienced reduced access to care as a consequence, leading to "six preventable deaths a day."
Like other uninsured Americans, most uninsured vets are working people -- too poor to afford private coverage but not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or means-tested VA care," said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a professor at Harvard Medical School. [...]
I actually laughed out loud - Geeting a deficit hawk! Thanks, that was a good one
I'm just pleased that he's actually FOR something. What a pleasant surprise!
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