posted
"...The shortfall comes despite assurances from the Bush administration in April that the department would not need additional funds. Murray had urged the Senate to give the VA $2 billion in additional funds then as part of an emergency funding bill for the war and homeland security, but her proposal was defeated.
'When we make the decision to send our troops to war, we also make a promise to care for them when they come home,' Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., said. 'Today's announcement that the VA will need an additional $1 billion to pay for veterans' health care makes it clear that the administration has broken this promise. We must immediately increase funding to ensure that our veterans get the care they have earned.'...."
posted
You probably have no idea how much the VA, like any government agency, wastes money - building an empire of layers of administrative staff with overstaffing and high salaries/benefits.
Give these agencies more money and most of it goes to more wasteful spending.
Cut their budgets and try to force them to cut waste.
Liberals always want to throw money at a problem, instead of solving it.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
Yeah, figures, they also have GI Bill screwed up. A bunch of soldiers in my unit discovered the hard way. A lot of promises to National Guard soldiers aren't being met. I am hearing rumors that house bill 1607 which addresses the new benefits for national guard soldiers activated may not be what it at first appeared to be, if at all. The state benefits that they were supposed to get.....gone, he state (Washington) apparently has run out of money. I mean it's bad enough to lose your job or business, but not get the benefits you were promised, that's just a slap in the face.
-------------------- If it wasn't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. Posts: 1529 | From: Tacoma WA | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Art? that's your answer? to these guys/gals you say tough luck? the libs shafted you? Art, i think you need help.... remember when i said i was angry about tax cuts? what was your response? i'll see if i can find it....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Bush's policy is to use our soldiers then discard them like yesterday's paper.
In public, he brags of his support for our troops and tongue lashes those with concerns about the wars. Behind closed doors, he will not supply our boys and girls with proper equipment and protection. Behind closed doors, he cuts their medical funding.
Our boys and girls come back injured, come back maimed for life, and Bush denies them the medical attention they need and well deserve.
Our troops deserve the absolute best in medical attention regardless of cost. They have sacrificed for us, for our country. We owe those soldiers.
Bush cuts our troops medical needs, diverts that money to his war machines, then stands before America and brags of his patriotism.
Bush is a monster.
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
We can't be concerned with such things - we have to provide good food and care to terrorist prisoners so the liberals can't say we treat them like Nazis would.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Art: We can't be concerned with such things - we have to provide good food and care to terrorist prisoners so the liberals can't say we treat them like Nazis would.
sheesh art, if this is the kind of rhetoric we are gonna see for the next year i think the terrorists will be smiling a bit...
it takes BOTH sides to be unreasonable for there to be a conflict...
and i'm seeing it from both sides..
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
Yeah, Bush has done nothing for the military. You shouldn't take 1 paragraph from an article and read it as gospel. This is where you are blinded by not using your mind and believing everything you read. I'm sure you know that things are written and said to "persuade" the readers opinion of a particular topic and you seem to be eaisly influenced.
Presidential Action
* President Bush commemorated Veterans Day 2005 with a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the courage of America’s Armed Forces. * The President is committed to honoring our Nation’s veterans, and has proposed unprecedented levels of funding for veterans. His Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) represents an increase in overall funding for our Nation’s veterans of almost $20 billion – or 40 percent – since FY 2001. It includes a 41 percent funding increase in veterans’ medical care spending since FY 2001. President Bush’s VA medical care budget increases enable the VA to meet its core medical mission – to serve our highest- priority veterans, including low-income veterans, those with service-related disabilities, and those who need the VA’s specialized services. * Our Nation’s commitments are being kept by our military, and President Bush has a strong record of supporting America’s men and women in uniform and their families. Since 2001, the President has provided four consecutive pay raises for the military, improved military housing for families living on base, and reduced to zero the average housing expenses for military families living off base. In 2003, President Bush requested $87 billion in supplemental funding from Congress to help ensure that the troops fighting the War on Terror have the resources to accomplish their mission, including the newest body armor and vital equipment, hazard pay, and health care. The President has also increased monthly education benefits for reservists and Guard members who have been mobilized to fight the War on Terror, and permanently extended the availability of health care benefits for reservists and their families immediately before and after deployment.
Honoring America’s Veterans President Bush honors America’s veterans and their families who have sacrificed for our Nation. Under President Bush’s leadership, the VA has dramatically improved health care services and the disability claims process, and is reducing the claims backlog and waiting times to receive medical treatment.
* Improving Access to Health Care for Veterans o Increased Health Care Service to Veterans: Since 2001, President Bush’s budget requests have allowed the VA to enroll 2.5 million more veterans in health care services, increase outpatient visits from 44 million to 54 million, and increase the number of prescriptions filled from 98 million in 2001 to 116 million as of August 2004. Under the President’s leadership, 194 new community-based clinics have been opened since 2001 and are now available for veterans. o CARES (Capital Asset Realignment for Enhanced Services): President Bush is seeking to modernize VA facilities and provide more care to more veterans where they need it the most. He has committed $1.5 billion in the FY 2004 and FY 2005 budgets (and additional funding will be requested in the future) to increase outpatient health care services for veterans, build new hospitals, and replace outdated, pre-World War II facilities. The VA is working to better distribute its network of clinics and hospitals, so that the vast majority of veterans will be within 30 miles of a VA community-based outpatient clinic or similar facility. o Expanded Access to Long-Term Care in the Most Non-Intrusive Settings: President Bush’s FY 2005 budget request continues to expand long-term care for veterans through VA facilities, private and state facilities, and non-institutional care programs that allow veterans to live and be cared for near or in the comfort and familiar settings of their homes surrounded by their families. * More Responsive to Veterans o Eliminating the Wait List for Medical Care: This year, the list of veterans waiting more than six months for an appointment for basic medical care – which peaked at 300,000 – has been essentially eliminated. o Cutting the Disability Claims Backlog: The President promised to reduce the disability claims backlog, and, at his request, Congress has provided the VA with the resources it needs to reduce claims. Claims backlogs have dropped from a high of 432,000 and are moving toward a VA goal of 250,000. The volume of claims decisions per month has increased from 40,000 to more than 70,000. The average length of time to process a veteran’s compensation claim has dropped from approximately 230 days to 160 days. o Giving Priority to Service-Connected Needs: Treating veterans with military disabilities, lower incomes, and special needs has always been the VA’s core medical care mission and its highest priority. Under President Bush’s leadership, the VA has established a new scheduling system to ensure that veterans seeking care for a service-connected condition are first in line. No veteran disabled in the service of our Nation will ever be turned away. o Providing Concurrent Receipt of Benefits: The President twice signed legislation providing “concurrent receipt” of both military retired pay and VA disability compensation for those military retirees most deserving – combat-injured and highly-disabled veterans – finally reversing a century-old law preventing concurrent receipt of benefits. * Serving America’s Veterans and Caring for Families of Veterans o Seamless Transition of Benefits for America’s Newest Veterans: Under President Bush’s leadership, the VA is reaching out to 136 military bases to provide America’s newest veterans with the services they have earned and to bring about a seamless transition for new veterans from military to civilian status. To date, more than 32,000 veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have been provided VA care. o Caring for Families of Veterans: The VA makes pensions based on need available to surviving spouses and unmarried children of deceased veterans with wartime experience. President Bush signed the Veterans Benefits Act authorizing new and expanded benefits for disabled veterans, surviving spouses, and children. To comfort families and honor veterans with a hallowed, final resting place, the President signed the National Cemetery Expansion Act of 2003 into law, authorizing the future development of six new national cemeteries across the country. o Help for Homeless Veterans: President Bush’s 2003 budget expanded community grants to all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the first time in history, ensuring that homeless veterans most in need have access to permanent housing, health care, and other support services.
-------------------- Roll Tide Posts: 46 | From: Mobile, Al USA | Registered: Feb 2004
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Bush brags about his "No Child Left Behind" program. America is impressed!
Secretly, Bush cuts funding for that program to a degree the program no longer can function.
Bush brags of Texas making the greatest strides in raising average grades of students, brags of the highest percentage of successful graduation from high school. He even cites school data!
Later, it is discovered there is a wide spread policy of falsifying school data reports. Some are fired, some are indicted. Trail of deceit leads right back to Bush. Texas turns out to have a miserable record on grades and graduation.
You will benefit by researching and reading to discover what is fact, and what is hype.
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
How was Bush involved in getting the school system to falsifying school records - what evidence is there that Bush instituted or even encouraged the school teachers to falsify records.
There is no such evidence. You are unfairly slandering Bush, as is your obsessional agenda.
The school teachers were trying to make themselves look good, falsified scores and grades, got caught, and are being punished.
Happens all the time in one form or another.
It's called human nature.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Art: We can't be concerned with such things - we have to provide good food and care to terrorist prisoners so the liberals can't say we treat them like Nazis would.
sheesh art, if this is the kind of rhetoric we are gonna see for the next year i think the terrorists will be smiling a bit...
it takes BOTH sides to be unreasonable for there to be a conflict...
and i'm seeing it from both sides..
Art: The terrorists are not only smiling, they are jumping with Joy when Durbin says the USA is like Nazis. This makes headlines throughout the Islamic world. Some of our troops will die, along with innocent women and children, as a direct result of what the liberal Durbin said. Now Kenedy says Iraq is a quagmire and the terroists are jumping with joy again.
The problem is not with what conservatives are saying. What liberals are saying is killing our people and our allies. That is the problem.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness. Posts: 4402 | From: Florida | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
"...As governor of Texas, Bush managed to increase the high school drop out rate from 21% to 43% while changing the methodology so that the public thought that the number was actually 2%...."
posted
Purl Gurl: "...As governor of Texas, Bush managed to increase the high school drop out rate from 21% to 43% while changing the methodology so that the public thought that the number was actually 2%...."
Art: Where is evidence for the above quote - how did Bush change what methodology?
posted
It is worth noting that even the relatively small NAEP gains we observed might be somewhat inflated by changes in who takes the test. As mentioned earlier, Haney (2000) provides evidence that exclusion of students with disabilities increased in Texas while decreasing in the nation, and Texas also showed an increase over time in the percentage of students dropping out of school and being held back. All of these factors would have the effect of producing a gain in average test scores that overestimates actual changes in student performance.
and....
Hence, how much a Texas student's proficiency in reading and math actually improved depends almost entirely on whether the assessment of that student's skills relies on NAEP scores (which are based on national content frameworks) or TAAS scores (which are based on tests that are aligned with Texas' own content standards and are administered by the classroom teacher).
answer your question?
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
During that time period in Texas, almost all teachers were left with no choice but to teach to the test. Classroom time was devoted entirely to preparing students to pass that special test sponsored by Bush.
No true teaching was effected.
Bush also passed down the line only the "normal" students were to be tested. Those with disabilites, underachievers, many in minority groups and others, were disqualified from testing, and not added to data.
Bush's tests were rigged.
Teachers only teaching to pass the test, a large percentage of kids not taking the test, not reporting actual drop out rate, lots of cheating going on, cheating on results and, moreover, cheating children out of a decent education dooming those kids to be less successful in life. All of that for nothing more than Bush's public appearance; his political agenda.
One of his platform planks is his being an "Education President" which is, ludicrous.
I find it morally repugnant Bush would cheat Texas children out of an education to advance his political career. As president, he is cheating all American children.
Children _always_ are first in priority.
"Yall don't need no education! Look at me!"
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I get some of the most advanced care in the world, provided by the Veterans administration..
My exposure to agent orange in Viet Nam probably is the couse of the onset of Evans Syndrome..It is a very complex idiopathic desease that kills many..
It is also extremely rare..
The Veterans admin. and OHSU has saved my life on several occasions [ when I come out of remission ]
Purl Gurl, you don't know what your talking about..
Posts: 10729 | From: oregon | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
We have a friend, Carl, who served after Korea and before Vietnam. Few years back he had bypass heart surgery through the VA. They saved his life, although other facilities could have done the same.
Yes, the VA provides the best care they can but could do better if Bush hadn't slashed their funding. Carl's biggest complaint is it takes weeks, even months, to attain a doctor's visit. He says they are slow, understaffed and cannot provide good personal attention.
This really isn't the fault of the VA, but rather the fault of Bush AND Congress for not taking care of our veterans.
I recall our government first said "Agent Orange" problems were a myth. How long did it take our government to recognize Agent Orange, to recognize traumatic stress? Decade? Two decades?
Another problem, not so bad today, is previously those vets who lost limbs were either not given prosthetic devices or given the cheapest found.
Lots of problems can be identified, many of which have been addressed over the years.
Those problems are contributed to both Republicans and Democrats, alike. Both are to blame.
My point is not to discount the VA hospitals but rather to highlight Bush's hypocrisy. He presents himself as all out for our vets, then slashes their medical funds, behind their backs.
Wasn't Bush AWOL during Vietnam? Yes.
Bush is not a patriotic American.
You need to read my articles for comprehension.
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
I would think a veteran, such as yourself, would be accustomed to hearing expressions much like, "Drippy Dick" or "Beans and Dicks" maybe even "S**t on a Shingle."
Beaucoup dinky dau, yes?
Are we to debate my lively use of words or to debate Bush slashing VA funding?
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I've known very well educated women who could give ya a hell of a run for the money in the lively use of words department....
I expect more from a English Professor.! It deminishes the impact of your words when you do it..
Posts: 10729 | From: oregon | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
It all boils down to putting in methods to help other people whether it be education or whatever. No matter what the case is there are going to be people who benefit and those who don't. There is no method that works for everybody 100% so the libs will take the negative side and spin it as Bush's fault or a failed policy, not giving you the other side. This is what Purl is a master at. They have no solution other than to bash the President. Purl, you might have an ounce of credibility if you wouldn't blame Bush everytime your power goes out or your car breaks down. You sound too much like Michael Moore.
-------------------- Roll Tide Posts: 46 | From: Mobile, Al USA | Registered: Feb 2004
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Purl Gurl, do you have any idea how many times you have damn near got me singing The Star Bangled Banner and America the beautiful when you really get me Po'd I would sing the ARMY song , but I can't remember it.....Some day I will start to singing and they'll come with a net!
Posts: 10729 | From: oregon | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Time to fall a leaning alder on the back lot... Help out in the garden and mow da lawn... I am just teasing ya Purl..I can handle your imaginative writings..Later
Posts: 10729 | From: oregon | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Today, our senate quickly approved funding for our troop's medical needs, one point five billion dollars for the VA, despite Bush's protests.
Upon approval, George Bush quickly reversed his stance on cutting our troop's medical benefits. Further pressure from his own Republican party persuaded him to change his mind. His party cited "embarrassment" over cutting our troop's benefits.
Bush sent his cronies in to request more money for the VA, after the senate provided funds on their own. Bush will probably claim credit for funding the VA, although our senate provided those funds, despite Bush protesting.
How dare Bush speak at Fort Bragg while secretly stabbing our troops in the back.
Posts: 7504 | Registered: Dec 2003
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