The Week in Review
Senate Republicans on Thursday scuttled a comprehensive bill by Sen. Bernie Sanders that would have expanded health care, education and job-training programs for veterans. Sanders, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, said he will continue to fight for passage of the bill. “We are not going to give up on our veterans,” he said at a news conference after the vote. “At some point, we are going to pass this legislation.”
Republicans Block Veterans Bill The legislation failed to overcome a Republican parliamentary maneuver that required 60 votes to keep the bill alive. American Legion national commander Daniel M. Dellinger called the Senate action “inexcusable.” He was equally blunt in an interview with The Washington Post. “I don’t know how anyone who voted ‘no’ today can look a veteran in the eye and justify that vote.”
Read the American Legion statement
Watch Sanders’ news conference
‘That’s Outrageous’ Do you remember what happened near the end of the State of the Union address in January? Members of Congress rose to their feet for a standing ovation when President Obama introduced Sgt. 1st Class Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger who was wounded in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan. On CNN on Friday, New Day host Chris Cuomo showed video of congressmen applauding and contrasted that show of support for Americans who serve their country with what happened in the Senate on Thursday. “Republicans did what they do best these days. They just blocked. But blocking our veterans? I don’t have to tell you that that’s outrageous,” Cuomo said.
What’s Iran Got to Do With It? Republicans insisted on adding a provision to the veterans bill that would slap sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. Regardless of the merits of the sanction proposal, Sanders called it “disrespectful” to veterans to insist on putting the unrelated provision in his bill. “Whatever your views are it just does not belong in a veterans bill,” he said.
War Hawks and Deficit Hawks The Senate Republicans, “apparently believe it’s ok to give tax breaks to the largest corporations, the wealthiest families in this country, to spend trillions of dollars on war without figuring out how to pay for it, but when it comes to $21 billion over a 10-year period to take care of veterans and their families, apparently they have difficulty with that.”
