Watching the debates....i cant believe the Koch Brothers and other GOP big money elites want to privatize the VA. What the fuk is wrong with these people? Republicans are truly strange. Beyond strange....thier absolutely frikin crazy. No one i know and probably you know has ANYTHING truly in common with these fuks. Why do working people all across this nation (and poor white folks of all things) keep voting for these people is beyind me. GOP true agenda is not that well hidden. And yet they get votes.
Homey, the GOP has been wanting to privatize the VA for years that's nothing new. All that bs talk of "market based economy" is just another gimmick to fuck veterans even more
The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention Act was held back from becoming law by (R) Tom Coburn for several years until he finally retired last year because he felt the $22 million price tag should be offset by a reduction in deficit spending. But yet GOP cares about vets, yeah right!
Look at big pharma that's market based and just look at drug prices, it gives rise to greedy, draconian assholes like Martin Skhreli who raised the price of a life savings drug 5000% because he could, that's market base for you. He went before Congress this week and basically said to them "get lost" because he was supported by the same folks who were questioning him.
21 JAN 2015Military.com | by Bryant Jordan
The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to send to the floor legislation intended to help tackle suicide among veterans.
The panel's move comes little more than a week after the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act was
reintroduced to the Senate and following its overwhelming support in the House of Representatives.
The anti-suicide bill was headed for easy passage in December when it failed on a procedural maneuver by since retired Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, who killed it with a legislative hold that prevented a Senate vote. Coburn claimed the bill duplicated existing Veterans Affairs Department programs and that its $22 million price tag was not offset by cuts in other programs.
Veterans groups and military associations condemned the lawmaker's action and vowed to see the bill reintroduced as soon as the new Congress convened earlier this month. With Coburn now out of Congress, there appears to be no opposition to the bill.
The measure is named for a
Marine who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who committed suicide in 2011. He was 28.
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Georgia, said after the unanimous committee vote that the full Senate would quickly pass the bill.
"When you have 8,000 veterans a year committing suicide – which is more veterans than have died in all of Iraq and all of Afghanistan since we've been fighting – then you have a serious problem and this is emergency legislation that we need to pass to help our veterans," Isakson said.
The VA estimates that, on average, some 22 veterans take their own lives each day.
-- Bryant Jordan can be reached at [email protected]
B4L
