Republicans love to crow about how they and they alone support our troops, but in RepubliSpeak, that only means spending billions to greedy war contractors. Republicans have no concern for the men and women who have put their lives on the line to serve our nation. If they cared, they would not have done this!
Legislation to put veterans to work preserving and restoring national parks and other federal, state and local lands was defeated Wednesday afternoon when Senate Republicans successfully blocked the bill’s advance with a budgetary point of order.
The largely party-line Senate vote of 58-40 fell two votes short of the three-fifths majority needed to overcome the procedural objection. Republicans said the Veterans Job Corps bill violated the Budget Control Act by adding a new program that would increase the deficit.
“They’re going to kill it on a technicality,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said on the floor before the vote. “That’s the bottom line here. That’s what’s going on here, and it’s sad.”
Democrats charged that Republican opposition stemmed from a refusal to support an initiative that originated in the White House. The corps, loosely based on the Civilian Conservation Corps created during the Great Depression, would employ veterans in conservation, resource management and historic preservation projects on public lands. The legislation would also provide for hiring veterans as police officers and firefighters.
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the measure would have “sailed” through the Senate in past years but had been derailed by partisanship. “Blocking a veterans’ jobs bill is a new low,” he said in a statement… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Washington Post>
Photo credit: Anti-Republican Crusaders
Rachel Maddow and former Congressman and Iraq vet Patrick Murphy discuss how Republicans cravenly turned their backs on our vets.
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Murphy is right. This is a disgrace, but it his hardly new. Democrats have routinely supported increased pay for troops and benefits for vets over Republican opposition. I suppose that in the Republican view, our vets are just part of the 47% they disdain.
20 Responses to “Republicans Block Jobs for Vets”
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I have put this on Twitter, fb, and have shared it everywhere! EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO SEE THIS! HOW DISGUSTING CAN YOU GET – WELL, THE GOP AND THE ROMNEY CAMPAIGN HAVE SUNK TO THE LOWEST LEVELS IMAGINABLE!
Despicable Bastards — Empty shells with no moral compass : Our young men and women are even now- this minute -dying and suffering , doing their duty with Honor ; While their representatives in Congress are doing their best to show how disdainful they really are- No concern for anything but the bottom lines of the war profiteers —
I am so ashamed-
Phyllis, you have no reason to be ashamed. These RepublicanTs senators, however, have numerous reasons to be ashamed.
Thank you Maggie! I agree with Patty too.
A Veteran myself, I help a friend of mine who is a former Marine in Tampa Florida area… I make sure he has food and things that I can afford to get him… I'm astonished at this Vote Rubio (R-FL) No…
You deserve commendation.
Republicans continue to work on the strategy that if they block legislation it will make Obama look like a do nothing president.
I hope this makes gaining a Democratic majority in the House a possibility.
Thanks to Akin Democrats should hold majority in the Senate, but don't bet your house on it.
Obama is to conservative for me. Possibly the most conservative Democratic president ever. A House and Senate controlled by Republicans with Obama as president, continues the rule of the hate filled right.
What we really need is a Supermajority in the Senate. Not this year.
This is pure partisan politics, nothing more, nothing less. For a party that claims that the military support them and not the Democrats, the GOP has a funny way of rewarding "loyalty"! And they want to increase the size of the military by 100,000 to fight more illegal wars, but they sure won't look after those troops either. Cannon fodder! That's all they are, cannon fodder for the GOP war machine!
This is nothing more than obstruction, especially when you consider that these four GOP pugilistic political punks were four of the writers of the bill and they got everything that they wanted in the bill. Even these voted against their own bill and thus against the military rank and file. And who will pay for their obstruction but personnel that are so embattled that they commit suicide! Those whose families depend on them, yet they have nothing more to give.
Patrick Murphy is so passionate in his support of military personnel, and rightfully so. Too bad he is not still in the Congress hammering away at these nimrods!
I wonder how many of these idiots actually saw military service? How about live fire military service? My guess is few, if any.
What are the words at a military funeral? — on behalf of a grateful nation. Well, the GOP pugilistic political punks better start showing it.
These are Republicans. Greed trumps gratitude.
Knuckle heads is right! I didn't check, but I am sure McConnell and Paul voted against it, too. They don't care how many lives they destroy so long as they can obstruct Obama and the democrats. I shared this on FAcebook, really don't care how many I make mad on there now.
Both did, Edie. Thanks!
Every Veteran should be told how these RepublicanTs Senators voted on this jobs bill. This is how "grateful" your nation is for your service.
Amen, Patty.
Why is it a ploy to ask the Democrats to honor their agreement to live by the budget agreement. They agreed to no new programs that ad to the deficit. I would love to write a million dollar check to th Wounded worrier program, but I think my bank would be a little upset since I would be 999.000 over drawn. Same thing with this bill.
Welcome Tom: 🙂
It's not the same thing at all, because this bill would not have added to the deficit. It was paid for.
What a joke they say why should we help? It is just a gimmick spending money we don't have. Anything to vote aganist the American people. I guess there sticking with the warped mine of R/R. Will this give them that one vote to win the election?
They hope it will cost Obama votes. That has been the strategy of their sabotage from the beginning.
I have been against every major war that the US has engaged in since my birth, I have refused to engage in their battles, I have never been against the wayward sheep who have chosen to fight them! (I know, not the most patriotic stance right) – I blame the warmongers, not the stewards of their actions! I say if they're going to die and fight for these horrid beings for an ideal that has yet to be realized, they ought to be honored appropriately! The GOP is always going to advance the military corporation, but just as everything else will never reward their slaves – they're above that!
Lee, I have always followed the maxim to honor and care for the warriors, even when I condemn the wars.