Veteran's Benefits

Senate Republicans defeated a bill by Bernie Sanders that would have addressed a wide range of current veterans problems. We are all appalled by the fact that many veterans do not receive proper care after they have fought for this country. We all know that those who fought for our country deserve to be taken care of. There's no question.

I hate the commercials that urge us to support veterans by making donations to charitable organizations for their care. It rings the bell loud and clear: Why do we need to do that? Isn't the government taking care of our wounded soldiers?

There is a lot of quacking about taking care of our troops by the same Republicans who voted against this bill. Their false devotion to the troops is obscene.

It would have cost 21 billion dollars over a ten year period. That's a little over 2 billion dollars a year. The U.S. military budget for 2015 was 598 billion dollars. The proposed legislation would have cost .3% of the total military budget.

The total expenditure for veteran's benefits was 160 billion dollars in 2015. The federal budget was 3.8 trillion dollars. These numbers are so incredible that the mind balks at understanding what they mean. Simply speaking the increase of 2 billion dollars is mind boggling. But that is actually .05% of the national budget, 5/10,000ths of the national budget.

Like Senator Everett Dirksen (R) Illinois said many years ago, "A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

I personally cannot think of anything in the military costs that tops taking care of our wounded soldiers. They protect us, do the actual fighting. They need weapons, planes, boats to be sure. But we need them and we need to protect them.

Now the above is the truth. The numbers are correct. I believe the national sense that we should take care of our wounded soldiers is correct.

The vote was 56-41. It needed 60 votes to keep it alive. Only 2 Republicans voted for it. I said at the beginning of this blog that Republicans defeated the bill. That, too, is a fact.

The logic was that we can't afford it. I say that the cold pencil, the accounting mentality in the face of serious human need is unconscionable. The only conclusion I can draw is that this is a perfect example of the kinds of problems we face when representatives fail to do what is right for the people of the United States. And the problem is not the legislature. It's the Republicans in the legislature.

So when the newscasters say that congress is deadlocked it is grossly misleading. Some of them do say that the Republicans defeated a proposition, but generally they are a little vague about it. 

Put this in the context of how we want to run our country, and I'm sorry, I don't mean to be partisan, I'm not really all that fond of the Democrats either. But they certainly seem to be the lesser of two evils. 

One last thing. Mathematicians say that when you have a difference in the order of magnitude you have a difference in kind. I may not be all that crazy about the Democrats but the Republicans are taking it to another level, another order of magnitude.