Over at Minnesota Progressive Project, Eric Pusey cites a press release from Representative Betty McCollum in Republicans want to slash funding for homeless vets. Go over and take a look; it's sobering reading.
And McCollum is no alarmist. Earlier this month, Congressional Quarterly Weekly's Eugene Mulero reported in Cutting the Uncuttable: Congress Eyes the VA (via Nexis) that new chair of the House Vets Committee thinks vets can "sacrifice again":
For years, when lawmakers spoke about the need to cut government spending, they always hastened to add that they weren't targeting funding for the nation's veterans.
Indeed, it's been a banner decade for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has seen its budget jump from $61.8 billion in fiscal 2004 to $109.6 billion in fiscal 2010, according to the Congressional Research Service.
But those days appear to be over. Lawmakers have made it clear that despite two wars, the VA won't be getting the kinds of increases it's gotten used to -- and the department will be lucky to hold its budget near current levels. Indeed, some key lawmakers in the GOP-controlled House say the VA could actually see painful cuts in the coming years.
Slashing benefits for veterans would seem to be an extremely politically risky thing to do, but in an age of tea party fervor and growing concern about the national debt, even those programs may no longer be spared from the chopping block.
The man in the middle of all this is Florida Republican Jeff Miller, the new chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, who now has to walk a tightrope to prove himself a committed friend to the nation's vets while still keeping the House majority's commitment to deficit reduction. In a sign of where his priorities may lie, he says he believes veterans are willing to "sacrifice again."
The needs of homeless vets are especially at risk in light of Miller's priorities:
So far, Miller appears willing to confront the dueling functions of his new job. He already dismissed the Obama administration's goal to house every homeless veteran within five years. That initiative is dear to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, who worked closely on it with Miller's predecessor, Bob Filner of California, now the committee's ranking Democrat. At a conference in December, Shinseki noted that an estimated 107,000 veterans remain homeless.
When he was the top Republican on the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health during the 110th Congress, Miller opposed Democratic attempts to authorize a variety of new programs for homeless veterans, complaining that the proposals would hurt organizations already providing care and create a potentially unnecessary therapeutic readjustment program.
And the article goes on to outline what Miller's fate might be if he bucks his priorities and turns aside his party's budget ax in favor of the veterans he is supposed to serve.
Mulero writes:
Most observers expect Miller to follow through on whatever House GOP leaders plan for the VA budget. For one thing, many remember what happened to New Jersey Republican Christopher H. Smith when he chaired the Veterans panel last decade.
When Jim Nicholson, President George W. Bush's secretary for Veterans Affairs, presented the administration's budget proposal at a 2005 committee hearing, Smith, in his role as a veterans' advocate, pressed him to admit that the proposal was at least $1 billion less than what the department sought. But instead of being praised for trying to protect veterans, Smith was roundly criticized by his GOP colleagues for embarrassing his party's president, and Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois stripped him of his chairmanship. After serving 24 years on the committee, Smith then left the panel altogether.
Indiana Republican Steve Buyer, who stayed on message, succeeded him.
In the article, Tim Walz responds to the proposed cuts:
"Attempting to balance the budget on the backs of veterans who have risked life and limb in service of our country is unacceptable."
I agree--and I don't think veterans should have to "sacrifice again." My friend serving now are sacrficing quite enough this very minute, thank you.
Tomorrow is Veterans Day on the Hill in St. Paul--I hope the veterans meeting with Governor Dayton tell him to hold the line on veterans spending on the state level. Let's not sacrifice our vets again, Governor Dayton.
Source: Mulero, Eugene. "Cutting the Uncuttable: Congress Eyes the VA," Congressional Quarterly Weekly, February 5, 2011, Nexis All News database, Accessed Feb. 14, 2011.
Photo: Congressman Walz speaking at a deployment ceremony in Southern Minnesota several years ago
Not surprising, considering the Republicans' last presidential candidate has a crummy record where veterans are concerned: http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1973
Speaking of which, it was Bill Clinton who took the VHA and turned it into America's premier health-care body: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2005/0501.longman.html
Posted by: Phoenix Woman | Feb 15, 2011 at 08:12 AM