Massachusetts Democrat Jim McGovern succinctly nails the burn pit “issue.” In essence, the only issue is that any member of Congress, in either chamber, who would vote against veterans who have been exposed to toxins from burn pits and who have gotten cancer while in the service to their country, deserve to be out of Congress.
That’s it. Plain and simple. Nothing to debate. McGovern is right. There is no issue here and the “senators” who oppose the bill should be run out of Washington, D.C. on a rail.
Jon Stewart is right to be focusing screaming attention on this issue. This is a farce. Listen to Congressman McGovern.
Rep. Jim McGovern: "It's unconscionable that as we are gathering here right now, Republicans in the Senate are blocking a bill to provide care for veterans exposed to burn pits who have cancer. I mean, what's going on here? People who are responsible for that are unfit to serve." pic.twitter.com/KpQD4IngE0
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 29, 2022
If you want to see just who is unfit to serve, here is that list.
These are the senators blocking cancer care for vets. pic.twitter.com/EURzIT32PI
— Sydra (@sydrasmith) July 29, 2022
These are the bums that need to go. It’s no coincidence that their voting records stink in other areas as well as this one. I’m surprised to see Romney with this group, but then we remember the Mittens of old. He couldn’t jump on the same fence twice. Maybe he flipped a coin in the morning to figure out how he was going to come down on an issue on any given day. Didn’t figure it out ten years ago, and doubt that I will today.
Shelby is on his way out the door and so is Toomey, so they have no more proverbial fuks to give. That McConnell can think that this is a good idea to oppose this bill with all the other issues he has swamping him, frankly astonishes me.
This is a good bill. This is hailed as the best Veterans Administration expansion in decades. You cannot go wrong protecting and promoting the interests of our veterans. At least, anybody sane would not think so. NPR:
Known as the PACT Act, the bill no longer would force generations of veterans to prove that their illness was caused by toxic exposures suffered in the military in order to get VA coverage. It had been hailed as the largest expansion of care in VA history, and was expected to cost $280 billion over a decade.
Activists had spent a dozen years campaigning for such an expansion — a period during which they lost many of their own, including Sgt. First Class Heath Robinson, for whom the bill is named. He served near a burn pit during his deployments to Kosovo and Iraq with the Ohio National Guard, and died of a rare cancer in 2020.
The bill — like many issues related to veterans’ health — had amassed deep bipartisan support, and easily passed the Senate by an 84-14 vote in June. But a technical error required another vote, and this time, more than two dozen Republicans switched sides. The final tally was 55-42 (with three senators abstaining), falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
But the Republicans argue that they see this legislation as an “accounting” or “budgetary” gimmick.
I think Chris Murphy nailed it. The Connecticut Democrat
said in a statement that the “charitable explanation” is that Republicans simply changed their minds, with the alternative being that they “are mad that Democrats are on the verge of passing climate change legislation and have decided to take out their anger on vulnerable veterans.”
Ted Lieu, who was a Colonel in the Air Force Reserve until he retired last year told Raw Story,
“And then they just flipped their votes because they threw a temper tantrum,” Lieu said. “It is obnoxious and morally wrong.”
It beggars belief.
All I can say at this point is that if the GOP is going to let revenge and pettiness overwhelm human decency, they may be an endangered species, and good riddance. I don’t think the court of public opinion is going to take too kindly to this madcap reversal.
They hitched their wagon to revenge and pettiness when they let marmalade man be their candidate in 2016. They’ve learned a lot from him.
That is a true statement. The GOP defined themselves at that point and now they have to live with the consequences.
imagine…
This tells me that they expect to underperform in the midterms, possibly to the point of LOSING seats. These are the kind of spite plays that you do when you’re on your way out. Didn’t start with Trump either…recall Old Man Bush pardoning Iran-Contra criminals for “patriotic reasons”.
They are traitors, plain & simple. Benedict Arnold served in the Continental army & with valor in battle. He colluded with the British only after not being rewarded by Congress in being promoted. He felt he was owed as he was left with a permanently injured leg. And look how we reflex when we hear his name. These yahoos not only are just a moronic death cult, but have supported the violent overthrow of our government in order to install an evil dictator. One, who shit on gold star families & the military continuously. He joked about a medal the military hands out to the wounded in battle. EVERY REPUBLICAN NEEDS TO GO DOWN IN NOVEMBER. That’s the only potential solution. We already know who these folks are. Just watch what they do.
‘All I can say at this point is that if the GOP is going to let revenge and pettiness overwhelm human decency’
It will prove they are republicans.
I think some GOP senators are going to have some ‘splainin’ to do to their constituents–especially the ones who love to tout their military service during their election and re-election campaigns.
And I think every GOPer running this year for a Senate seat–whether incumbent or not–needs to be grilled on his vote (if an incumbent) or how he would’ve voted (if running to win the seat).
I imagine we’d see a lot of Josh Hawleys if that were to happen.
The sad thing about this is there are 63 republicans in the 117th congress that are veterans. Mind you, that is more than the amount of democrat veterans in the current congress. Of course that is what makes it all the more obscene. Democrats are, to a member, supporters of our veterans and as usual the republicans are M.I.A.
I would be curious to know how many of those 63 republican veterans are not supporting our veterans by refusing to support this bill. Granted, all republicans need to be gotten rid of in any and every way possible, but the republican veterans need to be relieved of their seats in Congress AND tarred and feathered….do we still do that?