(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
With soldiers still in unstable Iraq, as Afghanistan comes out of the winter months with still the ever growing destructive dangers, after a decade of no sacrifice by the country while more then willing to spend on no bid contracts and private armies and decades of underfunding the Veterans Administration the Country owes it’s soldiers their families and the veterans community much more then what is being requested and absolutely no cuts!
Don’t forget, those who ordered these two conflicts and are now out of Government, they and those around them are very wealthy individuals, adding to their wealth from these wars and received an extension to their huge tax cuts also a decade long now.
Click on photo to Download the entire
Independent Budget FY 2012 {258page pdf}. To view without downloadingFeb. 14, 2011 PRNewswire-USNewswire — Four of the nation’s leading veterans service organizations are urging the Administration and Congress to invest $65.3 billion to sufficiently meet veterans health-care and veterans benefits needs. For the Department of Veterans Affairs, the administration has proposed $61.9 billion in discretionary spending for fiscal year 2012. The budget proposal now goes to Congress for consideration.
The recommendation is contained in The Independent Budget (IB) at Independent Budget an annual comprehensive budget and policy document, by veterans for veterans. In its 25th year, the IB is coauthored by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Paralyzed Veterans of America (Paralyzed Veterans), and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW).
In light of the country’s current fiscal circumstances, the coauthors are pleased that the President’s proposed budget has given veterans an overall increase-even though it does not meet the overall figure recommended in the IB. The organizations, however, have concerns regarding reductions in the key areas of medical and prosthetic research, and construction, as well as unspecified efficiencies.
The Independent Budget recommends $55 billion for health care, $620 million for medical and prosthetic research, $2.3 billion for benefits processing and $2.8 billion for major and minor construction.
“Our nation is at a crossroads, and we have many difficult decisions ahead of us. So now more than ever we must continue to recognize the needs of our returning veterans as a top national priority and a moral imperative,” said AMVETS National Commander Jerry Hotop. “Full implementation of The Independent Budget recommendations will ensure the sufficient and timely funding of VA, which is crucial to delivering the health care and benefits each of our veterans has earned through their sustained sacrifices. The honorable and selfless service of our American heroes deserves no less.” {continued}
We should have started investing in this over four decades ago. It would have led to better care and understanding for All Veterans of our conflicts, mostly of choice, instead of ignoring us, as well as the civilian populations and those who live thru traumatic life experiences. A change in how we do foreign policy, doing it as we preach we are, so as not to lead to wars of choice on lies and more likely then not what we’ve been doing the past decade now, plus, in creating more hatreds and possibilities of more conflicts and international criminal terrorism!
02/14/2011 – President Obama’s fiscal 2012 budget proposes $7.2 billion in funding to research and treat the invisible wounds of war: post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.
The Veterans Affairs Department said it plans to spend $6 billion in 2012 to enhance its ability to provide the best possible specialized care for those with PTSD, TBI and other mental health needs.
This is a $765 million, or 14.6 percent, increase over VA’s entire proposed 2011 budget for mental health, which, in addition to PTSD and TBI treatment, covers substance abuse treatment, mental health care for the homeless and inpatient treatment. {continued}
While their two wars of choice are still combat theaters, especially Afghanistan the chopping begins anew. and who will get the brunt of the criticism for delayed claims etc. why the VA of course, even by the Veterans who still think there’s a conservative republican party and see nothing wrong in the Country still not Sacrificing. The VA systems have been underfunded far to long and it costs more in this game of constant catchup!
February 14, 2011 – The House Appropriations Committee sliced $160 million from the Veterans Affairs Department’s 2011 information technology budget in a broad spending plan that the panel introduced late Friday to cut $100 billion from this year’s federal budget.
The 2011 continuing resolution sets the department’s IT budget at $3.147 billion, 5.1 percent below the $3.307 billion VA requested. The Appropriations Committee said the budget cuts reflect savings VA achieved from canceling projects.
The cuts made by the Republican-controlled committee slice $15.5 million more from VA for canceled programs than the Democrat-controlled committee did last December in its failed continuing resolution, which approved cuts totaling $144.5 million.
The Senate Appropriations Committee in December 2010 also approved cutting VA’s IT budget by $144.5 million in its 2011 continuing resolution, but the full Senate did not adopt the legislation. {continued}
And while cutting:
There are two things the leaders of the new majority in the House of Representatives have made clear since they began to assume the reins of power three months ago. They would:
* Cut spending
* Eliminate earmarksThose two frequently repeated objectives are being translated into legislation in a 359-page bill filed on the House floor Friday evening-legislation that will be considered by the full House later this week without the benefit of hearings or even committee deliberation. As promised, the bill contains a breathtaking list of program cuts and terminations. {continued}
My how a few decades and new wars of choice have changed what we do and say. One way the Country chose to ignore us Vietnam Veterans, especially as to PTSD and Agent Orange, were to not only denie and ignore something was very wrong but look at most of us as returning drug addicts, picking up the habits while in-country. We were even portrayed as such in movies and TV drama’s. As we’ve seen and read over these last years we’re sending soldiers, already doing multiple tours, back into theater on drugs and quickly prescribing same when they return. Just the below articles subject title speaks volumes.
As it approaches its tenth year, our nation’s longest war is showing signs of waning. Meanwhile, our soldiers are falling apart.
From a series of portraits documenting the stress faced by Marines patrolling Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. The men in these pictures have no known health problems themselves.(Photo: Louis Palu/Zuma Press)
Feb 6, 2011 – The first time I meet David Booth, a 39-year-old former medic and surgeon’s assistant who retired this past spring after nineteen years in the active Army Reserve, I make the awkward mistake of proposing we go out to lunch. It seems a natural suggestion. The weather is still warm, and he has told me to meet him in the lobby of his office downtown, so I assume he wants to go out, not back to his desk, when I show up around noon. But it turns out that in the six months he has been at his job, Booth has never left his office in the middle of the day, except to run across the street, and he is simply too polite to say so. From the moment we step outside, it’s clear how unusual this excursion is for him. As we walk, he hews close to the buildings on his right (“If a building’s to my right, no one is going to walk by me on my right”), and when we arrive at the restaurant, he quietly takes a seat at the table closest to the door, his back against the wall. His large brown eyes immediately start darting around.
“How’s your sleep?” I ask him.
“I don’t,” he answers.
Depending on the war, post-traumatic stress can have many expressions, but this war, because of its omnipresent suicide bombers and roadside explosives, seems to have disproportionately rendered its soldiers afraid of two things: driving and crowds. Movie theaters, subway cars, densely packed spaces-all can pose problems for soldiers, because marketplaces are frequent targets for explosions; so can any vehicle, because IEDs are this war’s lethal booby trap of choice. {continued}
A Country Demands ‘Sacrifice’, Not!!