How Rick Santorum Ripped Off American Veterans
A controversial land deal by the presidential candidate robbed a vets' home of tens of millions of dollars.
By Andy Kroll Motherjones News
Like any good presidential candidate, Rick Santorum heaps praise on America's soldiers and veterans. He's pledged to "make veterans a high priority" if elected president, adding, "This is not a Republican issue, this is not a Democratic issue, it is an American issue." But as a US senator, Santorum engineered a controversial land deal that robbed the military's top veterans' home of tens of millions of dollars and worsened the deteriorating conditions at the facility.
The Armed Forces Retirement Home, which is run by the Department of Defense, bills itself as the "premier home for military retirees and veterans." The facility sprawls across 272 acres high on a hill in northern Washington, DC, near the Petworth neighborhood. The nearly 600 veterans who now live there enjoy panoramic views of the citythe Washington monument and US Capitol to the south, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to the east. At its peak, more than 2,000 veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War lived at the Home.
But with the rise of the smaller all-volunteer military, the Home began to run into serious financial problems. It was clear that one of its primary sources of revenuea 50-cent deduction from the paychecks of active-duty servicememberswasn't enough to keep the Home operating fully. In the 1990s, the Home scrambled to find ways to avoid insolvency, trimming its staff by 24 percent and reducing its vet population by 800. Still, the money problems began to show, with its older historic facilities slipping into disrepair and decay. To grapple with its worsening shortfall, officials running the Home eyed a valuable, 49-acre piece of land worth $49 million as a potential financial lifeline.
(READ THE STORY OF HOW RICK SANTORUM STOLE VETERANS LAND HERE: http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/how-rick-santorum-ripped-off-american-military-veterans )
Ilsa
(61,695 posts)with an amendment to the NDAA. Santorum's amendment restricted how the Home could divest itself or use the property for income. It led to a bad sale. Santorum set up the whole rip-off. He should be ashamed of himself. Pig.
Good find in MJ!
atreides1
(16,079 posts)Because I refuse to call it a man...is slime...he is the fecal matter on the bottom of the ocean that is lower then whale shit!!!