Cadmean Victory
Congress no longer declares war or makes budgets.So that's the end of the constitution as a working machine
--Lowell Lecture, Harvard University (1992)
"Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog.
Tomorrow I'll probably still be a dog. Sigh!
There's so little hope for advancement."
--Snoopy
________________
In a budget proposal of $195 billion, $162.5 billion was allocated for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, enough to keep them funded into 2009.
Our own North Florida Representative Allen Boyd (D), Vietnam vet and Combat Infantry Badge-holder, is a leader of the "Blue Dog coalition," a group of conservative House democrats objecting to --
"the creation of a program that would guarantee veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a year of in-state college tuition for each year served in the war zones. The Blue Dogs said the House had not found any additional money, through spending cuts or tax increases, to pay for the program, a violation of pay-as-you-go rules imposed by House Democrats in early 2007 ("Blue Dog Democrats Join GOP in Opposing War Bill.")
So these Blue Dog Democrats, Republican in all but name alone, cannot see fit to fund a meager proposal like 1 year war zone service = 1 year college? If four years in a combat zone is what it takes to earn a college degree, Ranger wouldn't want to go to school that badly.
The Blue Dogs have qualms about extending education benefits due to lack of funds, but they have no such qualms about financing the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) in Iraq and Afghanistan with deficit spending.
The message is loud and clear: deficit spending and emergency funding for phony, feel-good elective wars is automatically enacted, while anything favoring veterans once repatriated is hard-fought and hard-won, if won at all.
Why must veterans issues be so politicized? Have the veterans not earned their place at the federal feed trough? Ranger believes they have. Moreover, their needs should take priority over those of Iraq and Afghanistan.
If we want a better, more competitive society, we need a better-educated citizenry. That was the great success at home following WWII -- the veterans who availed themselves of the GI Bill upon their return, contributing to their society rather than proving a burden upon it. We need that same vision today.
Spend our deficit dollars on veterans; we know they are faithful and true Americans. The Afghanis and Iraqis have done nothing to earn our respect or our dollars.
For shame Allen Boyd and any other veteran legislator who denies education benefits in favor of continuance of these wasteful hostilities.
The Blue Dogs may tout their fiscal responsibility, but they are morally bankrupt.
Labels: blue dogs morally bankrupt, education vet benefits denied, letting veterans down
posted by rangeragainstwar at 5:33 PM
7 Comments:
over and over the party of "fiscal responsibility" takes the short sighted and mean spirited outlook which damages the long term.
the economists john kenneth galbraith, milton friedman, james howard kunstler, and a score of others all cite the GI Bill as it used to exist as one of the finest pieces of government investment that paid off, and paid off handsomely.
to grab a little extra cash to fund his stupid crap like star wars, his silly adventures in the caribbean, mr. "gosh and golly gee i loves me some soldiers" reagan gutted that fine example of sound government. they haven't seen fit to replace it.
the selling of rapacious, thieving republicans whose policies almost always have the opposite effect of what they claim to be doing as "responsible" custodians of the economy is almost as mind boggling as their reputation (self proclaimed of course) as advocates of small government.
reagan presided over the largest expansion of government size and spending until george w. bush.
only the small, inner circle of cronies benefit from republican economic policy. only their buddies who are lining up to feed at the government trough benefit from their vast expansions of the scope and expense of government.
to put it in plain spoken country terms.
they. are. fucking. lying. bastards.
Blue dogs? What a sadly inadequate name for a pile of asshats. I like the color blue AND dogs better than I like them---what was that old phrase from the Viet Nam years, used by the Viet Cong to describe THEIR enemies ..."running dog capitalists"? Something of that nature? These Congressional dogs better run....far and fast, if the vets they screw ever lose as much moral fiber as the "dogs" already did.
MB, pleasr remember that as an officer I cannot call them FUCKING LYING BASTARDS, but that's clearly the case. jim
there are some definate advantages to being enlisted sometimes. they expect us to be profane and uncultered.
although one of the finer social skills i ever acquired was the ability to be so excruciatingly polite and correct in my military bearing and behavior that it was insulting.
MB,
"they expect us to be profane and uncultered."
Nay--profound and cultured, I'd say.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
MB, being excruciating polite is a definition of passive aggressive behavior. Been there , done that . jim
Post a Comment
<< Home