Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - Apache Junction, Arizona, USA
REPUBOS KEEP PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
Those “let’s do all for our boys in Iraq” Republicans are at it again. Last month, they let the cat out of the bag that when Bush wins re-election they intend to cut funding for VA college benefits. Yesterday, led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, they put politics above our men in uniform by delaying the vote in the Senate for veterans health care because they didn’t want John Kerry on record voting in favor of it. The bill would raise veteran health care benefits by 30% next year and mandate continued increases indexed to the number of veterans and to the costs of health care.
Wealthy Repubos, siding with their presidential leader, said veterans health care was raised 40% under Bush and that the list of veterans waiting for health care has been reduced. They also didn’t like the mandatory increases saying, “Mandatory increases are the wrong approach for America’s veterans.” Apparently the fact that there even IS a waiting list for health care for the men and women who risked life and limb in the service of their country and that health care costs are zooming upward every year under the Repubo controlled Congress doesn’t faze these politicians one bit. After all, they have their lobbyists to think about; to hell with their constituents.
Besides, our Repubo Senators have more to be concerned with than needy vets. They’re gearing up for the great gay-marriage ban vote in the Senate. Frist things first, as it were. According to Mormon Senator Orrin Hatch from Utah, “This is so serious, sociologically and in so many other ways, that we do need to vote on it on the floor, one way or another.” Demo Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont had a different opinion. “This is not about the sanctity of marriage. This is about preserving a Republican White House and Senate,” he noted. Who’d of thought??
Actually, the Repubos are pulling at every straw they can to try and find justification for this bigoted amendment. They’re trying to convince people that the potential cost of same-sex marriages through lost tax revenue due to increased marriage benefits will farther hurt the budget deficit. Can you believe the hypocrisy? This from an administration that has blown the national deficit out of sight. The Congressional Budget Office shook its head at that one. They said that same-sex marriage will actually decrease the budget debt. Couples that today are receiving extra low income benefits would lose those if their incomes would be counted together as one household.
Speaking realistically, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas predicted the failure of the gay marriage ban in the Senate. With that in mind he said, “it is incumbent on the House to actually pass an amendment to put pressure back on the Senate to have a vote again.”
If at Frist you don’t succeed… DeLay.
©2004 Marcia Ellen "Happy" Beevre
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