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This Is Why Bernie Sanders Is Pissed
By Charles P. Pierce 5/16/2014 AT 1:45 PM
Photo Illustration by DonkeyHotey via Flickr/Special to The Politics Blog
Vermont's Bernie Sanders presided over the hearing of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee yesterday at which Eric Shinseki got roasted over a slow flame. Sanders was in fine form, thundering away, not merely at Shinseki, and not merely at the likely criminals who fudged reports and shredded documents to cover their own incompetence, but at the way this country has treated veterans in general, especially those returning from the wars launched by the Avignon Presidency.
Cranking up the ol' Wayback machine, this put me in mind of a day back in February, when I was at a press conference in the Capitol, and Sanders had to come out and explain that a carefull crafted piece of legislation regarding veterans benefits had been sunk as part of the ongoing Republican strategy of stalling everything until the country collapses and they can all become Lords Of The Rubble. (I'm paraphrasing a bit.) He was not happy that day, either.
Only two Republicans were willing to vote with Sanders, and the bill died a procedural death. The final straw was an attempt by Republican legislators to hang an amendment onto the bill calling for increased sanctions on Iran. There was also some cheap bullshit thrown around about the budget, most notably by Senator Jefferson Davis Beauregard Sessions of Alabama. There also was, spectacularly, some debate time taken up by, believe it or not, Benghazi, Benghazi!, BENGHAZI!
There was a lot of talk yesterday about how bipartisan the outrage is at the blossoming VA scandal, and how bipartisan the agreement is that we have to do better by the people we send to make war in places around the world. In February, the Republicans had a chance to put up or shut up. They shut up. They should continue to do so.
MORE:http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Please_Listen_To_Bernie_Sanders_About_This
ProSense
(116,464 posts)by Jed Lewison
AP reports on the GOP's successful filibuster of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' veterans benefits bill:
Senate Republicans have blocked a Democratic bill that would enrich health, education and job-training programs for the nation's 22 million veterans.
And why did Republicanswho "won" the vote because "only" 56 senators voted in favor of moving forward with the billdecide to block it?
Republicans complained that the bill was too expensive. And they were upset that Majority Leader Harry Reid prevented a vote on a GOP amendment cutting the bill and adding sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program.
Ah yes, we mustn't be too generous when it comes to the people we ask to defend our country with their lives. Especially not when we're not even able to have a vote on an unrelated piece of legislation, even if that unrelated piece of legislation would make it more likely that we'd send even more veterans to their death, as their Iran sanctions bill would do.
Lovely Republican Party, eh?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/02/27/1280922/-With-just-41-votes-Republican-senators-block-veterans-benefits-bill
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024576498