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Program for veterans with traumatic brain injuries endangered because Republicans and funding
Program for veterans with traumatic brain injuries endangered because Republicans and funding
by Laura Clawson
Here's a great encapsulation of our broken government:
The program costs between $100 million and $200 million, and the alternatives are more expensive in the long term and less effective for the veterans. Republicans and Democrats both want to pass it. But Republicans already filibustered a veterans' healthcare bill in February, and now this small piece is being held up by, y'know, cost concerns.
Can we just get reporters to admit that any time they're writing that something stalled "because of a fight over how to pay for it," what they're really saying is that Republicans are starving the government of revenue it needs to pay for even programs they claim to support? Because, really. Just do it! Close one corporate tax loophole and fund it for a century ... except Republicans won't do that, so we have these endless, mysterious, "fights over how to pay for" every damn thing.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/22/1301187/-Program-for-veterans-with-traumatic-brain-injuries-endangered-because-Republicans-and-funding
by Laura Clawson
Here's a great encapsulation of our broken government:
Hundreds of veterans with traumatic brain injuries will get kicked out of assisted living facilities this fall unless policymakers in Washington soon extend an expiring pilot program. <...>
The VA has notified Congress that a pilot program for injured veterans will expire at the end of September without congressional action.
A Senate bill that included language to extend the program stalled on the floor earlier this year because of a fight over how to pay for it. The House Veterans’ Affairs panel plans to hold a hearing on two measures to reauthorize the popular program, but time on the legislative calendar is running out.
The program costs between $100 million and $200 million, and the alternatives are more expensive in the long term and less effective for the veterans. Republicans and Democrats both want to pass it. But Republicans already filibustered a veterans' healthcare bill in February, and now this small piece is being held up by, y'know, cost concerns.
Can we just get reporters to admit that any time they're writing that something stalled "because of a fight over how to pay for it," what they're really saying is that Republicans are starving the government of revenue it needs to pay for even programs they claim to support? Because, really. Just do it! Close one corporate tax loophole and fund it for a century ... except Republicans won't do that, so we have these endless, mysterious, "fights over how to pay for" every damn thing.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/22/1301187/-Program-for-veterans-with-traumatic-brain-injuries-endangered-because-Republicans-and-funding
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