by James Glaser
November 14, 2005

Since 1950, groups of Veteran advocates like the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Disabled Veterans of America, Blind Veterans of America, and many other groups have been able to sit down with Congress and discuss the type of funding and the type of care our returning veterans need, but those discussions are now to be a thing of the past.

House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) has told those veteran service organizations that their input would no longer be needed before joint House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee meetings.

Arthur H. Wilson, National Adjutant of the Disabled American Veterans said, "Eliminating these joint hearings is an affront to the men and women who have fought and died to protect our Constitutional rights, including their right to petition their government."

This year, Veterans hospitals were under funded by 1.5 billion dollars and it took the hard work of Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash) to shame the Republican majority into putting up the money to help our veterans.

Never does Washington look at the cost of Veteran care, when war is thought about, but VA Hospitals are part of the cost of every war. American troops have been fighting George Bush's War on Terrorism for over four years now, and tens of thousands of those troops are going to need life long medical care.

Supporting the Troops is more than a slogan and every time another veteran is turned away at the VA, another family group knows that our government can not be trusted to take care of those willing to fight for America's freedom, and those family members will be telling a younger generation that the promises made to veterans are just empty words.

We now know that recruitment of new bodies for the service is getting harder all the time. Young people who see a parent who served in the military or a veteran relative get screwed by Washington and the VA, will think long and hard about trusting the words of the Armed Forces Recruiter who talks about how the troops are taken care of.

Right now, the rich and educated have opted out of joining up. Soon the rest of the country will see that "Supporting the Troops" is just a little sign for the car that costs you about five bucks, it sounds patriotic and looks pretty cool on the trunk lid, but it is a sham... like so much of what Washington says now a days.