Once again, something rotten in the District of Columbia

[unixronin]

Republicans in the House are pushing to permanently kill the estate tax.  How are they planning to make up the budget shortfall?  Apparently by refusing to fund veterans' care.  (blackthornglade reports that they're also helping trim the veterans' healthcare budgets by "reclassifying" thousands of veterans, including those disabled from injuries received fighting in America's wars, as "reservists" ineligible for VA benefits.)

Now it may be just me, but it shouldn't matter worth a damn if you're a reservist.  If you're called up by your country to go off to fight in a war that means little or nothing to you personally, and you come home from it wounded or disabled, your country had bloody well better be willing to cover your associated medical bills -- and if anyone in your government looks the other way and says "That's not our problem", they should rapidly cease to be members of the government.  In fact, I venture to suggest they should find themselves drafted as privates on the front line of that same war.

It's bad enough to vote to send people off to do a job that you're unwilling to do yourself because it's too dirty or too dangerous.  It's worse to do so when you basically have to lie to come up with a rationalization for that job that anyone will believe.  But to then cheat your troops out of medical care, when they come home wounded or maimed, is nothing short of reprehensible.

Tell me again why we allow these swine to remain in office....?

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[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The law of averages has to catch up with them sooner or later -- eventually, they'll hit on a good idea by sheer random chance. But when they do, the odds are highly against it being paired with a second.