VA funding denied by Republicans

This is from a conservative commentator, but one who seems to have some honor.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2014/05/21/will-va-scandals-succeed-in-destroying-the-obama-administration-where-other-scandals-have-failed/

Rick Ungar
5/21/2014

“Running for president in May of 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama delivered a stem-winder on mismanagement of veterans care under President George W. Bush, recalling the story of an 89-year-old South Carolina veteran who committed suicide after being repeatedly denied access to health care. “How can we let this happen?” Obama thundered in front of a podium in Charleston, W.Va., that read, “A Sacred Trust; Support our Veterans.” “How is that acceptable in the United States of America? The answer is, it’s not. It’s an outrage. And it’s a betrayal, a betrayal of the ideals that we ask our troops to risk their lives for.”

Then Senator Obama had it right back in 2008.

The problem is that, while his administration may have succeeded in lessening the backlog over at the VA, and improving the situation for homeless vets, improving that backlog or getting a roof over the heads of more of our fighting men and women does not lessen the outrage or betrayal that results when so much as one veteran is denied the care he or she needs in a timely manner—let alone hundreds of thousands.

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As my progressive friends are quick to remind me—and they are correct in doing so—it was the Senate Republicans who, just months ago, successfully filibustered to death a bill that would have given the VA an additional $20 billion to be spent on healthcare and veterans education.

What’s more, efforts by the Administration to increase veterans spending in budget proposals have been consistently shot down by the House GOP.

For these reasons, any Republican seeking to turn the VA scandal into a political bonanza—I’m talking to you House Majority Leader Eric Cantor—deserves to be branded the lowest form of hypocrite, one who would actually play politics by using the lives and well-being of our veterans as so many chips at the poker table.

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