Let me begin by stating the obvious. The deficit has nothing to do with this “brilliant” idea to cut the budget by House Republicans. What is it, you ask? Why it’s “supporting the troops” by cutting a $75 MILLION program that provides vouchers for housing for homeless veterans.
Top Senate Democrats raised loud objections Thursday to a plan by Republicans in the House of Representatives that they said would eliminate 10,000 housing vouchers for homeless veterans this year, an effort to save $75 million from the 2011 federal budget.
“I believe it’s immoral,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, urging House Republicans to abandon the plan.
Have you people no decency? Do none of you have a smidgen of conscience? The people you praised and “supported” and the people who put their lives and their bodies and their minds on the line, the people whose lives are in tatters and many of whom suffer from PTSD and traumatic brain injuries, these are the people you want to go after? Really? Is the desire to blow up our government and make it responsive only to your corporate overlords so strong that it outweighs any consideration for the sacrifices these veterans made, the same sacrifices that you applauded so loudly when they were still in service?
I guess it is. Listen to the weaselly responses by Republican House members justifying laying the ax to this program that makes up roughly .00005% of the federal budget.
Republicans defended the plan by noting that thousands of vouchers have gone unclaimed this year.
“The fact of the matter is there will not be a veteran, a homeless vet, that will not get a voucher,” Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, said during a debate on the House floor. “The fact of the matter is there are 30,000 vouchers available today. Only 19,000 of those have been used. There are 11,000 vouchers waiting.”
Gee, that sounds reasonable enough, until you get a little more context about the extent of the problem:
Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, cited a recent federal report that said that more than 76,000 veterans were homeless on any given night in the United States and that veterans were 50 percent more likely to be homeless.
“Yet the majority’s bill turns its back on our homeless vets, leaving them literally out in the cold,” Dicks said.
So, the problem isn’t that we have too many vouchers. The problem is that we have too few vouchers, and the vouchers we have we aren’t getting into the hands of the veterans who need them. What we need is more vouchers and more outreach to homeless veterans letting them know they have a benefit that will get them off the street and into a safe shelter. But that wouln;t fit with the GOP dogma that government can do no right and individuals are better off fending for themselves (except for Exxon Mobil and other mega corporations, that is, who need all the help our tax dollars can give them).
What can I say. This is your Republican Party on steroids, smoking Cuban cigars and drinking Single Malt Scotch and setting fire to the house we all live in because they like to watch people burn to death. They are despicable people, and if they ever control both Congress and the White House again at the same time look out. I expect for these people, slavery would be back on the table. I put nothing past them.
