With Veterans Day a week away, the House of Representatives passed four veteran-related bills on Monday - but the heavy work still remains to be done.
By voice vote and with little controversy, the House passed a veterans' credit protection bill and three veterans-related proclamations: one in support of Veterans Educate Today's Students Day, another in support of the National Veterans History Project and a third honoring Native American veterans.
By week's end, Congress expects to pass a bill that will include funding for veterans programs for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, with a chance that a small package of improvements in veterans benefits also may pass.
The veterans spending bill appears headed for an almost certain veto (my em) because it is part of a larger appropriations measure that President Bush has said he opposes. The benefits package that could pass this week includes improvements in disability benefits for some veterans with vision impairment and a modest expansion of burial benefits for state-run veterans' cemeteries.
The four bills now go to the Senate for consideration. The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee is trying to prepare a package, or possibly several packages, of veterans legislation that could be passed before lawmakers go home for the year.
On Friday, the Senate approved one such package - the bill that would expand disability benefits for some veterans with vision impairment in both eyes.
Also included in the bill are provisions to expand reimbursement to states that operate veterans' cemeteries and to pay to have private headstones include a medallion showing that the deceased is a veteran.
Each one of these bills helps Veterans in seemingly small ways. Unless you are one of the Veterans they help. Then it's a BIG way. Every little bit helps, and I applaud the House for doing this.
A trillion dollars of borrowed money to fight for a lie, and Bush will veto a few measures that help Vets because all of a sudden he has to get a grip on spending. He needs to get a grip all right, the petulant little punk. It's OK to waste billions on Halliburton and Blackwater and a useless missile shield system that benefits only the companies that make the junk, but he wants to 'cut spending' on the backs of Vets who need glasses or have credit problems because of repeated deployments. What an asshole.
At the top of the Army Times site there was a VFW ad that said something like, "Because of veterans, all wars come to an end". Speaking as a VFW Life Member, bullshit.
Wars only end when the last Veteran of that war dies. Until then, we owe them.
Just as an aside to illustrate that last sentence, last night I watched a film on PBS (KQED) called "Red White Black and Blue" about a coupla WWII Vets in their 80s who returned to Attu where they had fought. The guy they mainly profiled is a classic case of undiagnosed PTSD and what had been going on in his head all these years only started to sink in after his battlefield visit. It was heart-wrenching to watch and I couldn't take my eyes off it.
In the case of Iraq, they shouldn't have had to go in the first place. We really owe them and will until the end of this century.
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