Congress doesn't want to talk about veterans paying debts

Congress doesn't want to talk about veterans paying debts
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 29, 2013

The Defense Budget for 2001 before 9-11 was $329 billion. 2002 it was A $350.7 billion. 2003 $396.8 billion was requested. The money for two wars went up after that. No one thought to pay for any of it. No one thought about the men and women they would be sending to fight these wars or taking care of them when they became veterans. It was all borrowed money along with the lives borrowed to fight.

The VA budget has gone up but what Congress doesn't want us to think about is the simple fact. 22,328,000 veterans in the US as of 9-30-12. As of March of 2013 the VA had 8.76 million veterans in their Health Care System but were only compensating 3.61 disabled veterans.

What happened to the others? What happened to veterans serving this country but do not seek anything in return? Do they get sick? Do they deal with wounds no one can see like PTSD and TBI on their own refusing to go to the VA?

We don't want to talk about military/veteran families on food stamps when Congress cut the budget.

About 900,000 veterans and 5,000 active duty troops face cuts in their food stamp benefits beginning Thursday as $5 billion is automatically trimmed from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program for low-income families.

"The coming benefit cut will reduce SNAP benefits, which are already modest, for all households by 7 percent on average, or about $10 per person per month," according to an analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

We don't want to talk about veterans being long term unemployed when Congress cut them off. In a report from May of 2013 the Bureau of Labor Statistics had 18-24 year old veterans at over 20% followed by 11% "Post 9/11 veterans" with many of the "long term" unemployed.

We don't want to talk about millions of veterans needing true affordable healthcare insurance when Congress was doing all in their power to kill the Act instead of doing all in their power to make sure it worked.

When members of Congress shut down the government over health insurance, some went to memorials to stage scenes of pretend outrage over them being closed. As we look at the facts of what the Congress does not want us to remember, it is clear the damage done belongs to them. Now they want to make it even worse.

They decided that aside from the cuts they have already done, it was necessary to go after one more. Military Retirement.

That item would produce some $6 billion in savings by shaving a percentage point off annual cost-of-living adjustments, and it would apply only to military pensions. Not all military pensions — just the retirement paid to veterans younger than 62.

First they sent troops into Afghanistan and then into Iraq but didn't fund the wars. Now they don't want to fund what these men and women thought was part of the deal. Why did congress do it? Because the debt was so high and someone had to pay for it. So yet again, it is the citizens of this country stepping up to fight the battles and veterans paying the price for doing it.

Congress Wants Answers from DOD About Suicides, Again?

Members of Congress get their names on Bills to "prevent suicides" yet veterans end up with their names on tombstones because no one is held accountable for what Congress failed to do. Is that fair? Is that reasonable? Is that even honorable?

Not even close. Suicides within the military under the Department of Defense went up after Congress "addressed reducing the number" of service members taking their own lives. Suicides went up after veterans had been trained to be "resilient" and then did not get what they needed from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Yet members of Congress do not seem interested in what responsibility they have in all of this. They forget they have jurisdiction over both departments. They forget they spend the money and write the bills to make lives better, not push what has already failed. It has produced a terrifying outcome.

Congress Orders Defense Dept. to Study Combat’s Effects on Veteran Suicide Rates
New York Times
By Dave Philipps
DEC. 18, 2015

Congress on Friday passed a bill requiring the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to study the long-term effects of combat on the mental health of veterans — a dynamic that remains poorly understood despite concerns by lawmakers and the public over elevated veteran suicide rates in recent years.

The issue of suicide among war veterans gained prominence almost a decade ago, but repeated studies seeking a cause have left the question of combat’s role unanswered. The studies generally focused on whether deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan raised suicide rates, sidestepping whether troops encountered combat on those deployments.

Most of the studies found that deployment had no effect on suicide rates.

The new study is an amendment added to the $1.15 trillion year-end spending measure passed by Congress on Friday. It was inserted by Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado and a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

The amendment requires the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments, which oversee active-duty troops and veterans, to begin the study within a month, using an independent research team to research what it called “the impact of participation in combat during service in the armed forces on suicides and other mental health issues among veterans.”
read more here

In Unit Stalked by Suicide, Veterans Try to Save One Another
New York Times
By Dave Philipps
Septeber 19, 2015

Members of a Marine battalion that served in a restive region in Afghanistan have been devastated by the deaths of comrades and frustrated by the V.A.

After the sixth suicide in his old battalion, Manny Bojorquez sank onto his bed. With a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam beside him and a pistol in his hand, he began to cry.

He had gone to Afghanistan at 19 as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps. In the 18 months since leaving the military, he had grown long hair and a bushy mustache. It was 2012. He was working part time in a store selling baseball caps and going to community college while living with his parents in the suburbs of Phoenix. He rarely mentioned the war to friends and family, and he never mentioned his nightmares.

He thought he was getting used to suicides in his old infantry unit, but the latest one had hit him like a brick: Joshua Markel, a mentor from his fire team, who had seemed unshakable. In Afghanistan, Corporal Markel volunteered for extra patrols and joked during firefights. Back home Mr. Markel appeared solid: a job with a sheriff’s office, a new truck, a wife and time to hunt deer with his father. But that week, while watching football on TV with friends, he had wordlessly gone into his room, picked up a pistol and killed himself. He was 25.
read more here

Some were kicked out, yet while members of Congress knew about this practice going back to the Revolutionary War, they played dumb and blind, shocked by the reprehensible treatment.

They paid billions for resilience training even though numbers went up at the same time the number of enlisted went down.

There are over 400,000 veterans charities getting money to "save lives and serve veterans but more die each year.

Where is the country they were willing to die for?

Where is the country they were willing to die for?
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 6, 2013

Flag raisers at Iwo Jima
Mike Strank

Their leader and Sergeant, it was Mike who got the order to climb Mt. Suribachi. Mike picked his “boys” and led them safely to the top. Mike explained to the boys that the larger flag had to be raised so that “every Marine on this cruddy island can see it.” It was Mike who gave the orders to find a pole, attach the flag and “put’er up!” He was killed by a mortar.

Harlon Block took over the unit after Strank was killed. Block was killed hours later.

Franklin Sousley was also killed on Iwo Jima at the age of 19.

Ira Hayes said after being called a hero by President Roosevelt, “How could I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury?”

Rene Gagnon and John Bradley also survived.

These men became a symbol of what this country means to the men and women risking their lives everyday to defend the nation. They do it for the others they are with. They do it for the families back home. This country was worth whatever price they knew they faced paying.

The Pew Research Group pointed out that only a fifth of the members of congress have military experience. They also have a fascinating graphic to show the decline in the number of veterans holding office.

This is very telling especially when you consider the next part their research showed. Veterans are only 7% of the population.

That should tell us something right there. They are only 7% of the population now but 20% of the Congress.

They come from all over the country, from different generations, different political beliefs but every one of them knows what it is like to put their lives on the line for the sake of others. In war, no one asks another how he/she voted in the last election before trying to save them. No one asks what they believe because they believe in one another. They are doing what the congress and the president at the time said needed to be done and that was all they wanted to know.

It was never about supporting a person as Commander-in-Chief but always about what the country needed and what other Americans were heading into.

Now as they see their age advancing, not knowing how many more years they have left to visit the Memorials this nation erected to honor their sacrifices, they find they can only see them from a distance. Really sad when you think that many of these veterans have arranged trips to Washington a long time ago but Congress didn't plan for keeping this nation running even though they have had years to put the country first. Pathetic when you think about it.

So now the press is jumping all over the reports of them showing up at the WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial and the Vietnam Wall, all closed down, but never seem to understand what those memorials really mean to them. It isn't about stones carved to honor them. It is how they have lived to honor the lives lost in war.

Most veterans are more upset about the fact congress did not manage to put the country first and keep the government running. Sure they care about if they will get their disability checks and be able to have their claims honored but they care about this whole country and political games being played. They are very unhappy with members of congress using them like pawns in this battle of egos.

When will members of congress ever learn they are supposed to be putting this country first so they will really honor the men and women from all generations willing to die to defend her? They care about every part of this country just as other Americans do. They have their own political views, again, just like every other American. Unlike members of congress, the right thing to do for the good of the whole came first. So where is this country they were willing to die for? Will Congress ever really get what they are supposed to do for the sake of the whole country?

UPDATE

Dennis Ross, GOP Rep: 'Pride' Is Why Republicans Won't Budge On Government Shutdown
Huffington Post
Sabrina Siddiqui
October 5, 2013

WASHINGTON -- With the government shutdown in its fifth day, many Republicans have conceded the fight is no longer about Obamacare. Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) added his name to the list on Saturday, saying the matter now boils down to "pride."

“Republicans have to realize how many significant gains we’ve made over the last three years, and we have, not only in cutting spending but in really turning the tide on other things," Ross told The New York Times. "We can’t lose all that when there’s no connection now between the shutdown and the funding of Obamacare."
read more here

I rest my case.

Congress Got It Wrong With Clay Hunt Suicide Bill

Stateside Suicides Won't Change with Repeating Failures
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 17, 2015

Coming out against something so popular isn't easy but it would be harder for me to simply follow everyone else for me. I've looked into the eyes of far too many families after it was too late to prevent a stateside suicide of someone they loved. I've talked to too many veterans after they survived combat and then repeated attempts to end their own lives. They waited, hoped, prayed, Congress would finally get it right but more were failed by them than helped by them.

It is far too easy to simply support Clay Hunt's family on this bill instead of looking back at all the other families having to travel to Washington hoping to make a difference. They have done it for years. They have been wondering where all the outrage has been for their sake. Where are the editorials about holding someone accountable? Where are the editorials brave enough to mention how many other lives could have been saved if Congress ever once took a look at what they already did and failed with?

It isn't the money. It isn't the worthiness of Clay Hunt to have his name attached to a bill promoted as saving lives. It is the fact that there have been many more bills, just like this and suicides went up. It is the fact that Congress has not gotten a single bill written worthy of the suffering of any of them.

After years of Congress telling us they were doing something to save lives the results are veterans committing suicide at double the rate of the civilian population yet are only 7% of the general public. Younger veterans, OEF and OIF veterans, are committing suicide triple their peer rate. My heart breaks for Hunt's family. It breaks more knowing that they joined many more families hoping their loss will save lives only to discover, more suffered the same fate.

This bill should not be passed until Congress stops repeating what they have already done since 2007 with the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention BIll. That bill was pushed by another grieving family thinking they were going to make a difference only to discover Congress didn't know what they were doing. Clay Hunt deserved better than this bill and so did all the others.

The money Congress spent along with the DOD and the VA have been in the billions a year but the price cannot be measured with a dollar sign. It is measured by the tears shed for someone who should not be dead.

A soldier's suicide, our second chance
Star Tribune
Article by: EDITORIAL BOARD
January 16, 2015

It’s an outrage that vets’ legislation didn’t clear Congress last year.

The impromptu YouTube video made by Clay Hunt’s mom and stepdad last month wasn’t meant to be a tear-jerker. But it’s hard to watch the footage without being affected by the raw, emotional pain the couple shares.

Hunt, a Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, took his own life in 2011 after struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. In mid-December, a much-needed bill named after the young Texan, one that would improve veterans’ mental health care and access to it, was poised to easily clear the U.S. Senate after unanimously passing the House. Then it hit a roadblock by the name of Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican known as “Dr. No” for both his medical degree and his willingness to single-handedly kill bills through procedural gamesmanship.

The last-ditch video by Susan and Richard Selke was shot near Coburn’s office as they became aware that he had concerns about the bill’s expense, $22 million over five years, and necessity. Hoping Coburn would see the video, Selke asks the senator, as a fellow father, to reconsider.

“I know there are things in there [the bill] that might have saved Clay’s life, might have saved some other veteran’s life,’’ Selke said, clearly struggling to hold back tears. “It’s on your back. This is personal. Please, please don’t say no.”
read more here

A Father-to-Father Message to Sen. Coburn from Clay Hunt's Step-Dad
Can you listen to their heartbreak and then tell them honestly this bill will make a difference knowing what you know now? I can't. What I can tell them is everyday I fought to try and prevent someone like Clay from committing suicide. He did everything right. He tried to get help. He got involved with other veterans. He volunteered with TEAM Rubicon responding to disasters around the world. What more could he have done? Nothing. The rest of us should have been up to the challenge and fought for them. What excuses will we have the next time another family goes to a funeral and then to Washington hoping to make a difference?

President Obama not waiting for congress to stop Military Suicides

UPDATE

We read the news about the troops and our veterans everyday, so while we are very well aware of what they come home to, you'd think the party claiming for so long they are "pro-military" would actually think about them enough to mention them during the convention that nominated the man they want to lead this whole nation including taking on the role of Commander-in-Chief.

They fight so hard for the wealthy and so hard against women's rights but they don't seem to take much interest in the men and women serving this country or the veterans.

Obama: ‘I Meant What I Said’ on War, Veterans’ Care
By Devin Dwyer
ABC News
Aug 31, 2012

FORT BLISS – President Obama told several hundred troops with the 1st Armored Division here that he kept his promises as commander in chief during the past three and a half years, ending the war in Iraq, drawing down forces in Afghanistan and redoubling care for returning veterans.

His record, he said, was proof that he can be trusted at the helm for four more years.

“I told the American people that all our troops would be out of Iraq by the end of [2011],” Obama said. “At the time I know some folks didn’t believe me. They were skeptical. Some thought the end of combat was just word games and semantics. But I meant what I said.”

“Two years ago I also told you that we’d keep up the fight in Afghanistan,” he said. “I’ve got to tell you the truth. This is still a very tough fight…. Just as in Iraq, we are going to end this war responsibly.”

The message, coming on the heels of the Republican National Convention and exactly two years after the U.S. ended combat operations in Iraq, was as much an appeal to war-weary voters as it was to the troops he leads. Both constituencies are seen as key voting blocs by Obama’s re-election campaign.

As Obama spoke, his top aides pointed out that campaign rival Mitt Romney made no mention of war – or the troops – in his prime time convention address on Thursday night. It was the first time since 1952 that a Republican nominee failed to mention war, even as the U.S. remains engaged in its longest, according to a review of historical transcripts by the Associated Press.

“In an almost 45-minute speech, Romney didn’t find a moment to mention our troops in Afghanistan or how we’re providing for our veterans when they return home,” said senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod. “So American people last night didn’t get any straight answers from Mitt Romney. They got nothing but evasion, distraction and insults.”
read more here

Obama to order VA to add staff, see suicidal vets within 24 hours
By MEGAN MCCLOSKEY
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 30, 2012

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Friday directing the Department of Veterans Affairs to expand mental health services and suicide prevention efforts.

The president will make the announcement in a speech to troops at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he’ll also hold a roundtable with soldiers and their families.

Much of what's outlined in the executive order are initiatives that were previously announced earlier this summer by the VA.

Obama is instructing the VA to ensure that any veteran with suicidal thoughts is seen by a mental health professional within 24 hours -- a standard already set for the VA, but which the department often fails to meet.
read more here

There is a poll on this blog asking if Congress should be held accountable for military suicides or not. So far over 70% of the respondents voted YES.

The suicides have been going on for far too long with nothing substantial being done for their sake and they began before Obama took office. While Congress has passed bills to "stop" the suicides, they did not work. It is almost as if Congress felt they had to do something so they were willing to do anything to just show they cared.

The Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Bill Oct 23, 2007 was passed but did not do enough to stop the suicides.

The House debates the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act, which directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to develop and implement a comprehensive program to reduce the incidence of suicide among veterans. The bill is named for an Iraq veteran who took his own life, and recognizes the special needs of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and elderly veterans who are at high risk for depression and experience high rates of suicide. The bill follows hearings in the Oversight and Veterans Affairs committees seeking to address the tragic mental anguish experienced by many veterans, and is part of ongoing, comprehensive efforts by the new Congress to make veterans a top priority. Rep. Bruce Braley speaks in favor.

In 2011 they had to come out with Sgt. Coleman S. Bean Reserve Component Suicide Prevention Act

When I was a member of NAMI, I attended a conference when then Senator Obama was running for the Presidency. He sent an aid to address the conference. I asked why people like me were not used to help our veterans heal. She said she'd check it out but apparently when President Obama became Commander-in-Cheif, he didn't get the message. He didn't know how many people were working on Military PTSD and suicides all over the country. If he knew then he would have known that we had used 40 years worth of research to help us all come out with the best way to help our veterans heal. As for me, I've only been doing this for 30 years but I have also been living with it everyday. We could have made great progress in saving their lives if someone in Congress listened. But they held hearing after hearing on the problem and not on the solutions.

We can talk all we want about military suicides but no one has the real total of suicides simply because if they are no longer on active duty and do not have a VA claim, no one is counting them. No one is counting the deaths that could be suicide but could also be accidental. No one is asking why the Suicide Prevention Hotline gets so many calls, yet the suicides still went up. No one is asking why the Bills passed by Congress have not worked anymore than they are asking for any accountability from Congress.

President Obama has proven he cares about our veterans but Congress has not done the same. As the reports come out about Combat veterans surviving combat but dying back home by their own hands, no one is talking about the families and friends left behind or the fact they didn't know what they could have done to help.

The money for the VA budget comes from Congress and they control hiring. We can talk all we want about the wasted money on the conferences, but when we stop and think about how Congress has refused to hire enough workers to do the job, we should all be sick to our stomachs. We can talk about the Federal budget but then we won't look at our own State budget for the VA. But then again, they don't want us to think. They don't want us to think about the Military Suicide Prevention they have been pushing that is a failure under "resiliency" training.

He can enforce his directive all he wants but if they only have what they have already been given, it won't mean a damn thing to them. And I'll have to keep making videos like this one.

Major changes to VA and DOD not right ones or fast enough

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 20, 2014

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, Florida

For over six decades veterans and families have been waiting for sound judgement instead of sound bites out of the Veterans Affairs Committees in the House and the Senate. With each session of congress we've been moved around, twisted and toppled by excuse after excuse following too many promises they didn't live up to.

How many hearings do members of Congress need to hold before they actually listen? We've heard all the testimonies from families after one of their own returned from combat and committed suicide yet the bills coming out of our politicians are repeats of what already failed. The numbers show an increase after decades of using the wrong address to reduce them.

The easy answers have been palatable for the uninformed while the rest of us are gagging from acid reflux. Every issue we deal with everyday have been reported for decades with generation after generation of veterans waiting for someone to finally figure out the right thing to do instead of repeating what has already failed us.

We waited after hard fought battles to have PTSD associated with combat treated properly but what we ended up with were "better than nothing" bills funded into pockets of fat researchers and corporations hell bent on securing their own futures instead of ours. What works best on PTSD is peer support but we see those programs cut. We're promised that the military has been informing families about PTSD but after the funerals too many families sat in front of members of congress and told them point blank no one told them anything at all.

We were told the DOD has been "training" soldiers to be "resilient" yet they come home and tell us how they didn't feel they could turn to anyone since they were all told if they trained their brains to be tough enough they'd come home "normal" to their families.

In the Warrior Transition Units that thought was reinforced to perfection. While we were told that they were being treated with dignity and respect, they were being abused and after the reporting the Army had to issues orders to stop doing it. It was not until the Dallas Morning News and NBC reporting clued members of Congress in on what soldiers had been talking about for years. The latest bullshit has been about yet another suicide prevention bill not being passed but no one seems to be wondering where the trouble originated from. The answer was clear. Well, at least to most of us living in the real world.

There has been a plethora of bills coming out of Congress but while we hear "peer support" we've all assumed that the peers knew more than the others only to discover they were mostly misinformed. Resilience leaders didn't even understand the basics of PTSD but were expect to take hours of training on the wrong material to lead others out of the valley of death.

Pretty ironic considering that as each family member traveled to tell their stories no one figured out that listening to family members already failed wouldn't do much good. If members of Congress didn't already know how much pain they caused then the bitter tears had little chance of causing any worthy change. The report of "major changes" comes too little and far, far too late for far too many.

2014 Major Changes for Veterans, Military
WUSF News
Bobbie O'Brien
December 26, 2014

Florida state lawmakers granted in-state tuition to all veteran students using their Post 9-11 VA education benefits.

After national reports of long waiting lists linked to some veterans deaths, Gov. Rick Scott ordered Florida regulators to inspect records at the state’s federally run VA hospitals. State inspectors were denied access to the patient records, so the governor sued.

Several local members of congress, including U.S. Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) and U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross (R-FL), held local “veteran intakes” to help expedite their VA claims and appointments.

Congress held hearings looking at the VA health care system and reports of secret waiting lists that led to veteran deaths and poor quality of care. Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), continues to spearhead those investigations.

During his first 100 days in office, the new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert “Bob” McDonald visited VA facilities in the Tampa Bay area.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel resigned, but he remains on the job until his successor is approved. At Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base: Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie took over as commander of the Marines at US Central Command; Col. Daniel Tulley is now commander of MacDill Air Force Base and the 6th Air Mobility Wing.

Army Ranger Lt. Gen. Joe Votel became commander of U.S. Special Operations Command upon the retirement of Navy SEAL Adm. William McRaven who will forever be remembered as the architect of the plan that captured Osama Bin Laden.
read more here

This is what the House Veterans Affairs Committee has been responsible for since 1946, or was supposed to be in charge of.

Legislation Within the Jurisdiction of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs

Veterans' measures generally.
Pensions of all the wars of the U.S., general and special.
Life insurance issued by the government on account of service in the Armed Forces.
Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.
Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.
Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief.
Readjustment of servicemen to civilian life.
National Cemeteries.
Complete Jurisdiction of the Committee
The Department of Veterans Affairs
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was established March 15, 1989, with Cabinet rank, succeeding the Veterans Administration and assuming responsibility for providing federal benefits to veterans and their dependents. Led by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, VA is the second largest of the 14 Cabinet departments and operates nationwide programs of health care assistance services and national cemeteries.
"There are now 22 Standing Committees in the House of Representatives. The number of Members (Representatives) authorized to serve on each Committee has been changed from time to time. There are currently 29 members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs."

Congressional idiots don't do jobs but Military would work through shutdown

This isn't a political blog but I am sick and tired of Congressional idiots not doing their jobs while folks in the military and veterans suffer. They manage to do their jobs to the point where it could cost them their lives but congress can't even manage to work together for the sake of what they got elected to do.

Military would work through shutdown; paychecks could be delayed
Stars and Stripes
By Chris Carroll
Published: September 23, 2013

WASHINGTON – Military troops, including those in conflict zones, may have their paychecks delayed if elected officials in Washington can’t work out a deal to fund government operations in the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1, the Pentagon said Monday.

Large numbers of civilians could be temporarily furloughed, however, and it would require an act of Congress for them to get retroactive pay.

In a memo sent late Monday, Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter told DOD employees that the White House Office of Management and Budget had directed the Pentagon update its plans for a shutdown, as reported by Stars and Stripes last week.

As has been the case in recent years when earlier shutdowns threatened, military members will continue to serve regardless of the funding status of the government, Carter wrote. A large number of civilians would be furloughed if the government shuts down, he said, with civilians deemed necessary for the safety of life and property expected to be required to stay on the job.
read more here

They whined about Affordable Healthcare because there are problems with it. Ok, then why didn't they come up with another way of doing the right thing? Why do they believe government funded health insurance is fine for them but the American people don't deserve it?

They cut food stamps again never once considering that there are veterans on food stamps and a lot of National Guards/Reservist families need food stamps to make up for lost income because they were sent into Afghanistan by the congress. Wounded soldiers still wait for their claims to be approved but congress just whined about that too without ever thinking it is time to fix the VA once and for all so this doesn't keep happening.

They hold stupid hearings on things that really don't matter while billions are spent every year on PTSD and suicide programs that ended up producing more attempted suicides along with completed deaths leaving families behind wondering why nothing the DOD and the VA did worked. After all, these folks survived combat deployments but couldn't survive being back home and congress just funds the same programs that failed while they still whine about "Obamacare" that would at least let them find insurance coverage to cover what the congress screwed up in the first place!

Now they are facing yet another crisis because congress can't manage to get their heads out of their armpits long enough to do their jobs for the sake of the whole country. Something stinks in Washington and it is called CONGRESS!

Second Class Veteran Caregivers Suffer Thanks to Congress

We are second class caregivers for our families and apparently Congress has no problem with that at all. When the Caregivers Bill was passed, they ignored the fact that our families have done it a lot longer than the newer families. Hey, but why would they want to take care of us after they didn't all these years? Why help us and it right for the veterans we care for?

Our generation had to fight for everything available now when Vietnam veterans and families were treated like second class veterans by other groups. Yahoo, we managed to make it better for all veterans. Now Congress tips their hats to our families with a one finger salute.

Yesterday there was a memorial put up for our disabled veterans. It was not funded by the government. No shocker there. The memorial is for all veterans equally but Congress didn't care.

Expansion dim for VA caregiver program
Albuquerque Journal
By Tom Philpott
Syndicated Columnist
PUBLISHED: Monday, October 6, 2014

For older generations of spouses, mothers and other family caregivers of severely disabled veterans, the startling feature of the Family Caregiver Program that Congress enacted in 2010 was its exclusivity.

The unprecedented package of caregiver benefits includes training to help to ensure patient safety; cash stipends to partially compensate for caregiver time and effort; caregiver health coverage if they have none, and guaranteed periods of respite to protect against burnout.

The comprehensive package, however, isn’t available to most family members who are primary caregivers to severely ill and injured veterans.

To control costs, Congress opened the program only to caregivers of veterans severely “injured,” either physically or mentally, in the line of duty on or after Sept. 11, 2001. It is not open to families of severely disabled vets injured before 9/11. It also is not open to post-9/11 veterans who have severe service-connected illnesses, rather than injuries.

Advocates for these forgotten families had hoped a successful launch of a limited program would spur Congress to expand eligibility and end the obvious inequity it created. That hope is set back by a new Government Accountability Office report on the three-year-old Family Caregiver Program, which finds it’s underresourced and, for the most part, in disarray.

All of the research and the studies that Congress relied to shape the program, Atizado added, had focused on caregiver needs for the elderly, not for a younger generation of veterans struggling to re-engage with society.

Atizado noted that most caregivers of severely disabled veterans, including most represented by DAV, aren’t eligible for the comprehensive caregiver benefit, although they want to be and should be.
read more here

Memorial Day: Keeping our troops and veterans first

Memorial Day: Keeping our troops and veterans first
by CONGRESSMAN LLOYD DOGGETT


Each year on Memorial Day, Americans come together to remember those who have sacrificed their lives on behalf of our country in the name of freedom and democracy. The debt owed to them is immeasurable. Without the brave efforts of all the service men and women and their families, our country would not live so freely.

On Memorial Day, as we rightly extol the tremendous contribution and sacrifice of our veterans, we should respond in deeds as well as words. The needs of those who serve do not end on the battlefield, and neither should our obligation to them.

We promise to help them succeed. With this economic crisis, Congress has enacted critical measures to expand educational opportunity and economic relief to make a real difference in the lives of veterans. The new Post 9-11 GI Bill, which took effect in August, restores the promise of a full, four-year college education for our American veterans, which I believe is part of jumpstarting a new American economic recovery, just like after World War II. We have also extended those crucial college benefits to all children of fallen service members since 9-11.

Recognizing that veterans coming home are facing double digit unemployment, as part of the Recovery Act to put Americans back to work rebuilding America, Congress provided nearly 2 million disabled veterans a $250 payment to help make ends meet.

Many of our troops have served multiple tours of duty, with great strain on their families and substantial cost to their finances. In response, Congress provided special $500 payments for every month the 185,000 service members and veterans were forced to serve under stop-loss orders since 2001. Congress also has taken steps to reduce the backlog and wait for veterans trying to access their earned benefits.

We have increased military pay 3.4 percent and expanded TRICARE health benefits. We are building more military child care centers and better barracks and military family housing.

For wounded veterans, Congress just enacted landmark legislation to provide help to family members and other caregivers of disabled, ill or injured veterans, such as training, counseling, and respite care, and to eliminate copayments for catastrophically disabled veterans. Congress also provided family leave benefits for families of our wounded warriors.

With the strong support of veterans organizations, this Congress also has made an unprecedented commitment to veterans’ health care. The veterans budget, hailed as a “cause for celebration,” provides the largest funding increase for health care and other services ever requested by a President – even more than veterans organizations requested.

We have increased the investment in veterans’ health care and services by 60 percent since January 2007 – including the largest single increase in the 78-year history of the VA. This funding has strengthened health care for more than 5 million veterans, resulting in 17,000 new doctors and nurses, and greater access for veterans in rural areas. It has been critical for the 382,000 veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan in need of care this year – with expanded mental health screening and treatment – to treat the signature injuries of the war, PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. We’ve begun to see a real difference in the lives of veterans right here in Central Texas, with expanded services, longer hours and more parking at our Austin Outpatient Clinic.

On 35-acres off Highway 71, we are building the largest veterans’ clinic of its kind anywhere in America. This will triple the size of the existing clinic and double the clinic staff. Three times as much space for healthcare means more care in Austin and fewer trips to Temple or beyond.

For the 1.8 million women who have bravely served, Congress just enacted legislation expanding and improving VA health care services for women veterans, providing care of newborn children of women veterans for the first time in history, and enhancing treatment for PTSD and sexual trauma.

This is government-provided health care that works, and together, we can continually make it work better.

We promise to leave no soldier or veteran behind. On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind.

To all of you veterans – you understand a fundamental truth: our military is not the strongest in the world because of our tanks, our ships, or our fighter jets. Rather, it is because of the dedication, spirit, skill, and bravery demonstrated by men and women, who have put on our uniform for the cause of freedom and the red, white, and blue.

also read
Honoring our Veterans

The military is a lousy healer, congress is a lousy watchdog

The military is a lousy healer, congress is a lousy watchdog
by Chaplain Kathie

Senator Murray is right but when she said "We need to be much further along." it didn't answer why it is we are not.

It is not that the DOD has any excuses left. After all we're talking about 40 years of government funded research on Combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder they had the in their hands. So far they haven't even acknowledged the fact that PTSD caused by combat is a different type of it any more than they have been able to tell the servicemen and women why they have it while others don't. They just keep pushing programs that don't work.

Congress has not held a single person accountable after all the "experts" testified during the endless parade heading into Washington to advise congress. The DOD has held no one accountable for failures. As for groups congress turns to, they end up giving awards to people doing the failing.

As in the case of Dr. Ira Katz was given an award from NAMI after Veterans for Common Sense exposed what he had done.

Congress has been hearing the same stories of suffering veterans and their families, the same stories about what the backlog of claims has been doing to them as the suicides went up along with attempted suicides.

Soldiers are waiting for congress to do their jobs and find solutions. They want to see someone held accountable just as much as they want help!

Invisible wounds of war: The military is a lousy healer
Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog)

Two service members who went into harm’s way to fight America’s 21st Century wars met a different challenge on Monday, facing a battery of TV cameras to talk of what Sen. Patty Murray called “the invisible wounds of war.”

Sgt. Stephen Davis, having been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, had the diagnosis withdrawn and was accused by a doctor of “exaggerating my symptoms.” Sgt. David Leavitt, another victim of PTSD, told his superiors in Afghanistan, “I’m not O.K. I need help.”

He received very little help there, with no followup back home. Leavitt looked down at his service dog and said: She’s save my life and given me purpose.”

The treatment of those who have served and served well — Sgt. Davis earned a purple heart and bronze star, Sgt. Leavitt has done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — has raised the ire of Sen. Murray. She has brought activist leadership to what used to be a Senate backwater as chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

“‘Toughen up!’ they hear that all the time,” Murray said. “I believe that in this day and age, we should be much further along in dealing with military mental health issues. We need to be much further along.”

She has captured the ear of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, but Murray feels Congress should set some parameters. She is introducing legislation called the Mental Health Access Act of 2012, and hopes to make it bipartisan.
read more here

Honoring our veterans takes more than words

JOHN MURTHA Honoring our veterans takes more than words

BY JOHN MURTHA
The Tribune-Democrat

Veterans Day is a time to honor those Americans who answered the call to service and who proudly fought to defend our freedoms.

America owes an immeasurable debt to each of the 23.4 million veterans alive today, including the tens-of-thousands living right here in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Honoring our veterans means more than just words and speeches.

For Congress, it means putting our money where our mouth is and fully funding the Veterans Administration. It means ensuring that our veterans have first-class health care and providing them with access to jobs and higher education.

For too long, the Veterans Administration was under-funded and unable to adequately meet the needs of our veterans. We’ve changed that over the past few years.

The Democratic Congress has made an unprecedented commitment to our nation’s veterans by passing the largest spending increase in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration – a record $16 billion increase in just two years.

For the 5.8 million veterans in the VA health-care system, this increase provides for the hiring of an additional 15,000 VA health-care workers, including 1,700 new doctors and 6,450 nurses.

This means better care, more services, and shorter wait times.

The Veterans Administration will also hire more than 5,200 new caseworkers to reduce the significant backlog in the claims processing system, which will help our veterans get their earned benefits faster.

For the first time since 1979, when gasoline cost less than $1 per gallon, Congress increased the veterans’ mileage reimbursement rate from 11 cents to 41.5 cents per mile.

Veterans in our area who are forced to travel to Pittsburgh or Altoona for care will now be more fairly reimbursed for their travel.

Congress also provided significant research, treatment, and counseling funds for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

It is estimated that more than 300,000 of our returning troops will suffer from these mental-health problems, and we provided over $1.2 billion in just the past two years to take care of these injuries.

We have seen a dramatic increase in suicides in the wake of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Congress passed legislation directing the Veterans Administration to develop a comprehensive suicide prevention program which includes access to mental-health staff and a 24-hour toll-free suicide prevention hotline.

Already some 30,000 veterans, family members and friends have used the hotline, and it has helped to prevent more than 1,200 suicides.

Also this year, Congress passed a new 21st Century GI Education Bill to benefit our service members who have served since Sept. 11, 2001.

The new GI Bill funds a full, four-year public university tuition, provides a monthly living expense, and allows service members to transfer unused educational benefits to their spouse and children.

I was given the opportunity to attend college under the G.I. Bill, and I believe it is our responsibility to ensure that America’s next generation of veterans receives the same higher educational benefits.

Over the past two years, the Democratic Congress has put its money where its mouth is.

The new Congress and President Obama will continue to provide our veterans with the services and benefits worthy of their courage and sacrifice.

On this Veterans Day, let us remember the sacrifices of millions of Americans who answered our nation’s call to service.

While we can never fully repay the debt of gratitude we owe to the men and women who put on the uniform, we can and will work to fulfill our promise of taking care of each and every veteran.

We owe them no less.



U.S. Rep. John Murtha,

D-Johnstown, is chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
http://www.tribune-democrat.com/local/local_story_315221830.html

Where Do Veterans Go When Everyone Stopped Watching?

Soldiers Failed, Veterans Turned Away
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 29, 2015

This is a great example of Congress pushing for "something" to be done to fix what reporters got ahold of.

Demand down for soldiers needing JBLM’s Warrior Transition Battalion reported by Adam Ashton for The Olympian shows how the community stepped up to help take care of the wounded soldiers.

It starts with

On the back of a horse at a farm in Yelm, Mike Buccieri began letting go of the psychological wounds he carried after an Afghan insurgent’s bullet tore into his back and ripped him from the Army life he loved.

He found the equine-based therapy that worked for him when the Army sent him to a Warrior Transition Battalion, a medical unit he had once disparaged as a purgatory for “broken soldiers” on their way to being “kicked out” of the military.

Yet as Congress claims to be investigating the facts discovered by The Dallas News and NBC joint effort to bring the suffering of the wounded to our attention, it has been going on right under their nose and they just didn't care enough to do the right thing before they were forced to even take a look at it.
Remember the scandal at Walter Reed Hospital?

Embarrassed by allegations of mistreated wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007, the Army spent more than $1.2 billion building facilities for its severely injured troops at large posts around the world.

So Congress did "something" about it.

Col. Chris Toner, chief of the Army Warrior Transition Command, told the House Armed Services Committee last month that 4,196 soldiers are enrolled in the program – down from a peak of 12,451 seven years ago.

Despite the falling numbers, Army leaders insist they want to maintain the warrior transition model rather than reuse the costly facilities for a different purpose.

“We’ve come a long way since the days of medical holding companies and long wait times for injured soldiers,” Toner told lawmakers. “We will not return to that setting.”

Yet, when reporters were not watching, this is what happened over and over again across the country to wounded servicemen and women.

Recently, The Dallas Morning News and KXAS-TV documented examples of mistreated patients and verbal abuse at warrior units at Army hospitals in Texas. Their investigation prompted the Army to issue new training guidelines for the soldiers who volunteer to work in warrior transition battalion.

A 2013 Defense Department Inspector General audit of JBLM’s Warrior Transition Battalion documented similar concerns from soldiers and staff members. It spelled out the systemic flaws that have dogged warrior transition battalions since the program launched, such as:

• Inconsistent training for staff members.
• High turnover among the active-duty and Reserve soldiers who oversee patients.
• Frustration among patients who felt stuck in a program of indeterminate length. Some could be enrolled in a battalion for two years or more.
• Barriers to connecting patients with job-training programs in the civilian sector that could prepare them for opportunities after they leave the military.

The report, based on site visits in the summer of 2011, included several revealing comments from anonymous patients and staff members about the pressures they felt inside the battalion.

The Warrior Transition Battalion “steals your soul and puts you in a deeper depression,” one National Guard soldier told the auditors. “They tell me to plan for the future, but they cannot tell me when I can leave.”

So now they'll have empty buildings but it isn't as if they overplanned for the wounded. It is more that the wounded soldiers are no longer in the military.

So what happens to them now? It isn't as if their wounds have vanished. The DOD doesn't have to count them anymore. They don't have to count the number of veterans committing suicide or needing care for PTSD any more than they have to account for the physical needs.

The VA has had trouble for decades as reported by veterans going back to the 70's. Congress has not had to answer for what they failed to do on that end either.

Their latest answer is, "Hey we'll just privatize it" hand out cards so veterans could go see a doctor charging a lot more money for the same work the VA is supposed to be providing. Sure, no wait times in a private office or at hospitals. At least that is what Congress wants us to envision. Guess they never had to rely on what the rest of experience on a daily basis.

This is really simple. Congress has had since 1946 to get it right for our veterans and even longer to get it right for the wounded yet what veterans got were more problems than solutions.

Guess who is to blame? Us. We vote for folks to do a job (both sides) yet never bother to make sure they're doing it. It takes reporters to tell the stories they live with on a daily bases, so God love them for that, however, they forget that we need to be reminded about what happened before that made it this bad. It is for sure that Congress won't blame themselves but veterans do.

Any idea what members of Congress are up to knowing that more and more disabled veterans are heading home from combat? They show no indication of learning from the past about anything so just expect more of the same excuses and a longer line of veterans suffering.

They plan, as in the past, to  have communities step up and take care of them.  Sounds good until you ask about where all the billions a year spent to "care for them" went.  Also sounds good until you wonder what happened to all the money folks donated to huge charities using professional fundraisers to gain millions a year while Congress refuses to hold them accountable.

When it comes to veterans, it seems they can't really count on anyone for very long.

More Veterans Refuse to Surrender to Politicians

The trend is reporters blame the VA. Hey it is a lot easier than actually reporting on the history behind what they are reporting on today as if any of it is new. Veterans don't blame the VA since it is about their lives, they paid attention enough to know that Congress is responsible for what the VA does and does not do. Simple as that is, reporters just don't seem to get it.

The Congress has had jurisdiction over the care of veterans since 1946.

Chronological History of the Department of Veterans Affairs

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives was authorized by enactment of Public Law 601, 79th Congress, which was entitled "Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946."

1930
The Veterans Administration was created by Executive Order S.398, signed by President Herbert Hoover on July 21, 1930. At that time, there were 54 hospitals, 4.7 million living veterans, and 31,600 employees.
1933
The Board of Veterans Appeals was established.
1944
On June 22, President Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. (Public Law 346, was passed unanimously by the 78th Congress). This law offered home loan and education benefits to veterans.
1946
The Department of Medicine and Surgery was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, renamed the Veterans Health Administration in 1991.
1953
The Department of Veterans Benefits was established, succeeded in 1989 by the Veterans Benefit Administration.
1973
The National Cemetery System (except for Arlington National Cemetery) was transferred to the VA.
1988
Legislation to elevate VA to Cabinet status was signed by President Reagan.
1989
March 15. VA became the 14th Department in the President's Cabinet.

In other words, it has been up to them to make sure veterans received the care they were promised.

Covering reports has been like living on a rollercoaster ride. Members of Congress wanting to come off as fighting for veterans scream the loudest about absolutely nothing. None of them have the courage to admit that they have continually failed leaving veterans to suffer from neglect.

Why fix the VA if they get so much attention for the problems? Imagine what it would be like if there were few homeless veterans, few suicides, few veterans waiting for claims to be approved and everything was working fine. What would they have to talk about to get the attention of the press?

None of them have admitted this keeps going on and on because they benefit from failing veterans.

It used to be politicians were ashamed to admit their intentions were to kill the VA but now it seems as if they are proud of it. After all, it makes sense to them to turn veterans over to profiteers.

Think about life as a civilian. Ever call a doctor's office for the first time and hear "We're not taking new patients" which happens all the time? We understand that because it is simple common sense that time is limited and if they go over the number of patients they have the time and staff for, they wouldn't be able to serve the patients they already had.

Oh but when the VA says a veteran has to wait for a first appointment everyone is outraged. Did it ever once dawn on them that the VA can't wave a magic wand, make doctors and staff popup at will when more veterans show up and the make them vanish when less veterans need the VA?

It happened when Afghanistan and Iraq veterans were making headlines for their long waits at the VA. Older veterans were sent to the back of the line as a quick answer to the neglect of what Congress failed to do at the same time they were making more veterans with 2 wars.

Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...

That happened because at the same time more OEF and OIF veterans were heading to the VA, Congress had not planned on Vietnam veterans finally seeking help for PTSD and that was back in 2007.

In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Did Congress act? Nope. They complained a lot but that was just about it.

VBA's pending compensation and claims backlog stood at 816,211 as of January 2008, up 188,781 since 2004, said Kerry Baker, associate legislative director of the Disabled Veterans of America, during a Wednesday hearing of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.

Oh, sorry forgot that they ended up increasing the VA budget because there was a billion dollar shortfall.

Guess planning wasn't on their agenda that year either.

The Senate version also includes an amendment that offers $50 million to speed up the processing of disability claims. It would pay for pilot programs to reduce the average waiting time -- which currently is six months -- for rulings on claims.

As of March, the VA reported 879,291 claims were in backlog from the same time last year.

Cullinan says, “This is just the first step in the VA funding process. It gives broad outlines of spending for the Department which the Appropriations Subcommittees will use to find specific amounts and tasks within the VA. The process is not complete until the president signs the Appropriations Bill.” The Federal government’s 2009 fiscal year begins Oct. 1, 2008.

Now, with all that said there is a huge difference between a civilian doctor and the VA. The difference is Congress has the numbers for all the wounded service members along with the number of discharges. They know how many veterans will be entering into the title of "veteran" with how many are able to seek free care for 5 years after service. They know how many veterans they have within the older population and they know where they live. Or, they should know all that but year after year no one has fixed anything to make sure no veteran is left behind.
It happened during decades of neglect committed by Democrats and Republicans but while the press has managed to retain amnesia,

Impaired ability to learn new information following the onset of amnesia (anterograde amnesia) Impaired ability to recall past events and previously familiar information (retrograde amnesia)

veterans have been victimized over and over again.

In 1989 there was a movie, the Legend of Billy Jean and Pat Benatar sang Invincible. It is about an "Average Texas teen, Billie Jean Davy, is caught up in an odd fight for justice. She is usually followed and harrased around by local boys, who, one day, decide to trash her brother's scooter for fun. The boys' father refuses to pay them back the price of the scooter. The fight for "fair is fair" takes the teens around the state and produces an unlikely hero."

"Fair is fair" and the fight for justice is all over this country and more and more veterans refuse to surrender to politicians. Pat Benatar - Invincible

This bloody road remains a mystery.
This sudden darkness fills the air.
What are we waiting for?
Won't anybody help us?
What are we waiting for?
We can't afford to be innocent stand up and face the enemy.
It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible.
This shattered dream you cannot justify.
We're gonna scream until we're satisfied.
What are we running for? We've got the right to be angry.
What are we running for when there's nowhere we can run to anymore?
We can't afford to be innocent
stand up and face the enemy.
It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible.
And with the power of conviction there is no sacrifice.
It's a do or die situation - we will be invincible.

Congress sends message to PTSD veterans BOHICA

BOHICA
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 16, 2014

Members of Congress say they fixed problems with the VA with their latest bill worth billions.

The measure approved Thursday includes $10 billion in emergency spending to help veterans who can't get prompt appointments with VA doctors to obtain outside care; $5 billion to hire doctors, nurses and other medical staff; and about $1.5 billion to lease 27 new clinics across the country.

Sounds great unless you look back at all the other bills congress put out to fix the problems beginning with the first Congress making promises to veterans.

In 1789, with the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the first Congress assumed the burden of paying veterans benefits. The first federal pension legislation was passed in 1789. It continued the pension law passed by the Continental Congress.

To the creation of the Veterans Administration in 1929 and 1933 when President Roosevelt gained the authority to issue new veterans benefits.

First House Committee on Veterans Affairs in 1946, moving on up to when President Ronald Reagan appointed the first Secretary of Veterans Affairs in 1988.

President Reagan signed legislation in 1988 to elevate VA to Cabinet status and, on March 15, 1989, the Veterans Administration became the Department of Veterans Affairs. Edward J. Derwinski, VA administrator at the time, was appointed the first Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

When you consider how long this nation has depended on men and women risking their lives for the rest of us, it is harder to believe most of the things members of Congress say.

When some people talk, they use certain words and we think we know what they mean, but words are so tricky. Believe me, since I come from Massachusetts but live in Florida. You have no idea how much time is taken up explaining what I just said because our words are much different. (Ok so is the accent.) I use the word "wicked" when I want to exaggerate something. Some people hear the word "wicked" and think it is bad. In this case, the two meanings came crashing together.

(Don't even try to turn this into a patch. Only one company is being authorized to do it.)

BOHICA

BOHICA stands for bend over, here it comes again. It is an item of acronym slang which grew to regular use amongst the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War.

It is used colloquially to indicate that an adverse situation is about to repeat itself, and that acquiescence is the wisest course of action. It is commonly understood as a reference to being sodomized. An alternative etymology relates the expression to the days of sail and avoiding being struck by the boom, which would swing around the mast due to shifts in wind or the vessel's course.

Although it originated in the United States military forces, and is still commonly used by United States Air Force fighter crew chiefs and armament crews, its usage has spread to civilian environments, used to describe unavoidable, unpleasant situations that have inconvenienced someone before and are about to yet again.

In 2010 the VA rules changed to make it easier to have PTSD claims approved.

The VA is liberalizing the standard for veterans complaining PTSD by relaxing the evidence requirements for proving an in-service stressful event or stressor, streamlining the processing of PTSD claims which will result in veterans receiving more timely decisions.

This sounded really good but Congress didn't manage to increase mental health teams and claims processors enough to cover the flood of veterans finally trying to get the treatment and compensation they needed. The next step was changing the diagnosis so that more would not meet the criteria for PTSD. "About 1 in 3 soldiers found to have PTSD under the previous diagnostic standards were missed by the new criteria, according to today’s research in the journal the Lancet Psychiatry." Hey, it made sense to them for a reason. So bend over, here it comes again. Make it sound as if they were doing something to make it right for veterans and then take it away when they were not looking.

The latest part of the new Bill is to allow veterans to seek private healthcare if the VA is unable to deliver what they need, where they need it. Ok, and how well did it work after all these years they needed to put out another bill? It was happening in the 90's long before this latest Bill. It is called Fee Basis

The Fee Basis Unit processes payment to non-VA providers who have been issued formal authorizations by the medical center to deliver care. For example, the Washington DC VA Medical Center does not provide certain women’s health services. When such services are determined necessary, a VA provider will initiate a consult, requesting approval to send the patient to a non-VA provider. If that request for an non-VA authorization is approved, the Fee Basis office will process payment to the provider after the services are provided. By law, VA payment for services not authorized in advance is strictly limited.

This isn't the worst of it considering the VA has to treat what the military is doing to the troops before they even get to the VA. The Army started Comprehensive Soldier Fitness in 2009 designed to train soldiers to be resilient.

This is the meaning of resilient

: able to become strong, healthy, or successful again after something bad happens

: able to return to an original shape after being pulled, stretched, pressed, bent, etc.

: characterized or marked by resilience: as

a : capable of withstanding shock without permanent deformation or rupture
b : tending to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change

Resilient does not mean forever. Corelle has dish sets that last a long time. I have the same set I bought when I got married 30 years ago and some cups my Aunt had given me long before that. We use them everyday. These plates hold up to a lot but if you drop one on a tile floor, they shatter into millions of pieces. They are resilient but not indestructible. CSF made soldiers think they were not supposed to feel anything enough to make them change, or as General Ray Odierno put it last year when talking about military suicides going up, "Some of it is just personal make-up. Intestinal fortitude. Mental toughness that ensures that people are able to deal with stressful situations."

This was a horrifying move and clearly put soldiers at risk. Once they received the message they could train their brains to be "resilient" they assumed the worst within themselves and being mentally weak was part of it. Didn't matter what 40 years of research had discovered. Didn't matter that researchers started to look at the connection between combat and what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in WWI.

No matter how much Congress spent year after year the number of suicides went up and so did "bad paper discharges" in the thousands by every branch of the military. At least they stopped shooting soldiers for being cowards and malingering.


Courage

mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty

That is the point missed whenever you hear someone say "resilient" especially when talking about combat veterans.

Surviving youth enough to want to join the military is resilient.

Surviving basic training or boot camp is resilient.

Surviving deployment is resilient.

Doing everything you had to do while deployed into combat zones no matter how much pain you were in is beyond resilient.

That is far more valuable than being resilient. Being "resilient" won't give you what you need to take a bullet for the soldier next to you but being courageous will. This is what Congress still doesn't get. They just keep passing bills and spending on programs that have been failures on a massive scale.

What is it that veterans want in return for service? Simple. To be able to live as veterans among the civilians without having to sacrifice their futures because members of Congress have gotten away with decades of twisting words to make them sound as if they care.

Take care of their wounds and pay compensation when their service caused the loss of being able to work for paychecks but you better make damn sure caring for their wounds is actually what they need and the best there is instead of pushing what failed. Take care of the widows and orphans because while they were in fact GI. ("Government issue - supplies (as food or clothing or ammunition) issued by the government") they belonged to the rest of the family first and they were the last to say goodbye.

Veterans Fighting Wars and 114 Sessions of Congress

Veterans were supposed to receive more than "gratefulness" from this nation even before it was a nation.

From the beginning, the English colonies in North America provided pensions for disabled veterans. The first law in the colonies on pensions, enacted in 1636 by Plymouth, provided money to those disabled in the colony’s defense against Indians.

Other colonies followed Plymouth’s example.

Members of Congress have been in charge of how veterans are treated in this country since beginning of it. So why do they forget that as they are responsible for everything they complain about?

History of the VA

Revolutionary War

In 1776 the Continental Congress sought to encourage enlistments and curtail desertions with the nation’s first pension law. It granted half pay for life in cases of loss of limb or other serious disability.

At most, only 3,000 Revolutionary War veterans ever drew any pension. Later, grants of public land were made to those who served to the end of the war.

1812 National effort to provide medical care for disabled veterans. 

Civil War
1862 Congress established National Cemetery System to provide burial for the many Union dead of the Civil War.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, the nation had about 80,000 war veterans. By the end of the war in 1865, another 1.9 million veterans had been added to the rolls. This included only veterans of Union forces. Confederate soldiers received no federal veterans benefits until 1958, when Congress pardoned Confederate servicemembers and extended benefits to the single remaining survivor.

Immediately after the Civil War, the number of disabled veterans in need was so great that Congress in 1865 authorized the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. The name was changed to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1873.

First Veterans Group

After the Civil War, veterans organized to seek increased benefits. The Grand Army of the Republic, consisting of Union veterans of the Civil War, was the largest veterans organization emerging from the war.

As part of the effort between 1865 and 1870 to rebury battlefield casualties, 70 national cemeteries were opened and 300,000 remains gathered and reburied. Of the total buried, 142,000 were unknown. In 1873 Congress authorized national cemetery burial for all honorably discharged Union veterans.

Aid and Attendance

The Consolidation Act in 1873 revised pension legislation, paying on the degree of disability rather than the service rank. The Act also began the aid and attendance program, in which a disabled veteran is paid to hire a nurse or housekeeper.

Until 1890, Civil War pensions were granted only to servicemen discharged because of illness or disability attributable to military service. The Dependent Pension Act of 1890 substantially broadened the scope of eligibility, providing pensions to veterans incapable of manual labor. Within the next three years the number of veterans on the pension roll increased from 489,000 to 996,000 and expenditures doubled. Legislation passed in the 19th century had established a general pension system that could be applied to future pension recipients. As a consequence, new pension laws did not follow the Spanish-American War in 1898 or the Philippine Insurrection, 1899 to 1901.

The first important pension law in the 20th century was the Sherwood Act of 1912, which awarded pensions to all veterans. A similar law in the 19th century had limited recipients to Revolutionary War veterans. Under the Sherwood Act, veterans of the Mexican War and Union veterans of the Civil War could receive pensions automatically at age 62, regardless of whether they were sick or disabled.

As a result, the record shows that of the 429,354 Civil War veterans on pension rolls in 1914, only 52,572 qualified on grounds of disability.

Veterans Protest 1932

As the Depression worsened, veterans began calling for immediate payment of their “bonuses,” as the certificates came to be called. In March 1932, a small group of veterans from Oregon began marching to Washington, D.C., to demand payment. Word of the march spread like wildfire and soon small bands of unemployed veterans from across the country began descending on the nation’s capital.

There is no way of knowing how many veterans joined the “Bonus Expeditionary Forces,” as the marchers were called. By the summer, some estimates put the force at between 15,000 and 40,000. They camped wherever they could. Some slept in abandoned buildings or erected tents. But many lived in makeshift shacks along the mudflats of the Anacostia River. With no sanitation facilities, living conditions quickly deteriorated in the “shanty town.”

Veterans Administration Created 1930

President Hoover, in his 1929 State of the Union message, proposed consolidating agencies administering veterans benefits. The following year Congress created the Veterans Administration by uniting three bureaus — the previously independent Veterans’ Bureau, the Bureau of Pensions and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. President Hoover signed the executive order establishing the VA on July 21, 1930.

GI Bill of Rights Servicemen's Readjustment Act 1944


Veterans Preference Act 1944

VA Hospitals and Waiting in Line

On Feb. 1, 1946, Bradley reported that the VA was operating 97 hospitals with a total bed capacity of 82,241 patients. Hospital construction then in progress projected another 13,594 beds. Money was available for another 12,706 beds with the construction of 25 more hospitals and additions to 11 others. But because of the demobilization, the total number of veterans would jump to more than 15 million within a few months. The existing VA hospitals were soon filled to capacity, and there were waiting lists for admission at practically all hospitals. In addition, there were 26,057 nonservice-connected cases on the hospital waiting list. Until more VA hospitals could be opened, the Navy and Army both made beds available.

To handle the dramatic increase in veterans claims, VA Central Office staff was increased in two years from 16,966 to 22,008. In the same period, field staff, charged with providing medical care, education benefits, disability payments, home loans and other benefits, rose from 54,689 employees to 96,047.

Every session of Congress, from the 1st to this 114th, have managed to forget that no matter which party controlled what got done and what went wrong, to blame everyone but themselves.  They are still doing it.