Paul Rieckhoff: Business as Usual: Troops Wait While Congress "Governs"

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/business-as-usual-troops_b_106428.html

Paul Rieckhoff

Business as Usual: Troops Wait While Congress "Governs"

Posted June 11, 2008 | 11:02 AM (EST)



• A resolution expressing support for designation of June 2008 at "National Safety Month"

• A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of the International Year of Sanitation

• Mother's Day Centennial Commemorative Coin Act

These are some of the critical issues our elected officials in the House of Representatives are working on this week.

What a colossal waste of time.

The war, the economy, foreclosures, global warming: America needs solutions, not more collectible coins. While it's nice to offer the mothers of America some nonbinding resolutions in their honor, I can assure you that they would prefer affordable health care for their kids.

Can you imagine if you did this at your job? I doubt you'd get away with it. It's like a pilot crashing a plane because he was too busy giving all the passengers their complimentary peanuts.

There is real work being done in Congress, of course. Proponents of a new GI Bill are beating back yet another effort by the Blue Dog Democrats to derail this crucial veterans' education legislation. In a classic case of being penny-wise, pound-foolish, some Blue Dogs are complaining that there isn't a budget offset for the GI Bill (a bill that will pay for itself in the long term), while signing off on another hundred-plus billion of war funding, none of which is offset.

If your Representative is on this list, call them and tell them to get their collective heads out of the sand and support our troops. The GI Bill is supposed to come up for a vote on Thursday - and if it doesn't, it will get pushed until next week.

What about Friday, you might ask? The House will be out of session. Guess they need a rest after a long 4-day week of doing the nation's business. Too bad our troops in Iraq working 24/7 don't get that kind of break.