Veteran Voting

[Oubaas]

My wife and I were there when the doors opened here in our tiny, rural, red state village and we've cast our votes.

We would have voted anyway, and we're Democratic voters for reasons besides veterans issues, but we were particularly motivated because I was 100% permanently and totally disabled in the line of duty in the military and the Republicans are eying veterans benefits again. Senator Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, seems to think we have too many benefits and commissioned a report about what we're eligible to receive. He says he wants to "streamline" our benefits because we're eligible for too many things. He probably ordered up the report right after reviewing his own benefits as a Senator and deciding he and the uber-rich could have more if he took from us pesky veterans.

I'm sure he'd give a stirring speech about how willing veterans are to sacrifice for the good of the country. Republicans like to wave the flag, slap us on the back, and put words in our mouths for us. But it's not like they're making me rich or something, unlike Senator Coburn. Sorry Senator Coburn and his fellow Republicans, but I've sacrificed enough already and I'd like to be able to afford to live like a human being and take care of my family. Maybe even keep my home. I'm greedy like that.

But trying to screw veterans is a longstanding Republican tradition, and Senator Coburn's lust to cut our benefits is just the latest attempt. John McCain, Michelle Bachmann and others have tried in the past. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled a while back that veterans benefits are the PROPERTY of the veteran, not entitlements. But I guess the Republicans are OK with depriving me of my property, for which I contracted with the government and served until I couldn't anymore, without due process or consideration of the potential impact on me and my family. And McCain should know better, being a veteran himself.

I have a friend who works for the VA and has been paying attention and tracking things for many years who tells me that veterans ALWAYS do better under a Democratic Congress and administration. Always.

I've been retired from the military for 23 years now, and for all of those 23 years, I have lived not only with my service-connected disabilities, but also with the constant threat of having my benefits, my PROPERTY according to the 9th Circuit, stolen. For two cents, I'd sue the Republican Party for exacerbating my service-connected disabilities year after year for 23 straight years. It would be so nice to be left in peace. But I guess the service-connected disabilities aren't enough and the Republicans want to make sure that I don't run low on stress.

And as icing on the cake, I now have a daughter in university, and the aspiring Senatorial candidate from my state, a Republican, would like to cut her scholarships here in her second year of university if he's elected. I can't afford that, either, and neither can my daughter. And I still have one more to get through school.

Needless to say, I voted a straight Democratic ticket, as did my wife. Any veteran who votes Republican is shooting himself in the foot.

And Mamas, considering my 23 years of waiting to be screwed out of what I was promised when I joined the military, don't let your babies grow up to be soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines.