GOP Refuses To Allow A Vote On Veterans Benefits Bill

(This cartoon image is by Steve Sack in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.)

The Republican Party, especially those on the far right, like to make a public display of "supporting the troops". They'll wave flags, wear lapel pins, and put magnetic yellow ribbons on their cars, but that's about as far as that support goes. Once those soldiers leave the military, the Republicans are done with them (and don't expect them to actually spend any money to help the veterans, since that might require their rich buddies to pay a little more in taxes).

A prime example of this happened just this week. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) has a bill pending in the Senate -- a bill that would help veterans get an education, find employment, and make their access to health care easier. But when Sanders tried to bring his bill to the floor for a vote, he found he was blocked by Senate Republicans. Those Republicans are filibustering the bill because they couldn't get an amendment attached to it to increase sanctions on Iran (an increase in sanctions that could derail the current talks with Iran for a peaceful solution).

When Majority Leader Reid tried to invoke cloture (stop the filibuster), 41 Republicans voted no, thus denying the 60 votes needed to stop the filibuster and bring the bill up for a vote. In other words, the Senate Republicans refused to support giving needed benefits to American veterans, unless they could get a vote that would send us further down the road to a new war -- which would create more veterans they could deny benefits to.

This is ridiculous. Republicans had no problem spending more than a trillion dollars on two wars that accomplished nothing (except to create new enemies and kill thousands of people) -- and then want to pick a new war with another country. But they can't find a few billion to help the veterans of the wars they are so eager to create.

This is shameful. You don't honor veterans by displaying Chinese-made pins and ribbons -- you do it by helping them get medical care, an education, and a decent job.