Congress Gets Paid, Veterans Get Shafted

[Are_grits_groceries]

Every year, Congress needs to pass 12 appropriations bills by October 1st to keep the federal government up and running. If lawmakers don't meet this deadline, the government operates on temporary funding or shuts down.

And Congress rarely meets this deadline. In fact, 19 out of the last 22 years, Congress has failed to pass the VA budget on time. When the VA budget is late, the nation's largest healthcare provider is forced to wait in limbo, relying on stop-gap funding measures. VA hospitals and clinics can't plan for critical staffing and equipment needs, leading to long waits for appointments and rationed care. As a result, 6 million veterans who rely on the VA for health care pay the price for Congress' bickering and inefficiency.

Despite repeated assurances that the VA budget would be passed on time this year, the September 30th deadline has come and gone. And the only thing that's passed is another milestone: 20 out of the last 23 years, the veterans' health care budget is late. This year, the VA is not alone. The only budget that did pass on time was the one that funds salary checks for members of Congress.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/01/congress_gets_paid_veterans_get_shafted/?ref=fpd

Where is the outrage?? I haven't heard anyone demanding action on this. Shameful!

I think there ought to be a law that nobody in congress gets paid until the budget gets passed.

[old mark]

1. I support your idea - the PA legislature is in the same condition -

There is a "deal" in place, but the budget is still being "debated". PA state workers were unpaid, and underpaid for months, libraries closed, police laid off, but the legislators got their pay through all of it.
Time to vote some people out of office, change the laws to make them accountable for their actions or lack of actions.
I can heaqr the cries of "socialism" rignt now....


mark