Republicans were willing to spend trillions of dollars on wars but not on expanding VA
Last edited Sat May 24, 2014, 06:17 PM - Edit history (1)
A substantial portion of the estimated $ 3 trillion price of that war is represented by the cost of decent care for veterans. But even as the war raged on, the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress repeatedly refused to appropriate sufficient funding for veterans' health care. This financial stinginess toward vets was consistent with Bush's refusal to take any steps to pay for his expensive war (and decision to protect his skewed tax cuts instead).
As Alec MacGillis pointed out this week in the New Republic, legislators who voted for war while opposing expansion of the VA are hypocrites, particularly when they claim to care about veterans. So are the Republican governors who refuse to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which keeps hundreds of thousands of impoverished vets from getting health care.
Republicans regularly propose cuts in VA funding and oppose increases sponsored by Democrats -- a pattern that extends back to the first years of the Iraq and Afghan conflicts and continues to this day. ... When politicians demand accountability from their betters, including a war hero like Shinseki, let's remember that they should be held accountable, too.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/05/24/in_va_scandal_accountability_for_all_--_including_congress_122738.html:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/24/1301722/-Republicans-were-willing-to-spend-trillions-of-dollars-on-wars-but-not-on-expanding-VA#
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