Senate vote today, November 19th: Disabled vets care versus subsidies for the UN bureaucracy

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[Ooh-Ah]

Contact your Senators and let them know what you think!

Tomorrow morning the Senate will choose between funding care for disabled
U.S. veterans or subsidies for United Nations (U.N.) bureaucracy.

At issue is S. 1963, the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act,
which would authorize caregiver assistance to veterans disabled since
September 11, 2001. The bill is not paid for, does not provide immediate
assistance, and denies benefits to veterans of conflicts prior to 9/11.

Senator Tom Coburn is offering an amendment (#2785, attached) that would:

1) Make all disabled veterans eligible for the benefit, regardless of
the war in which they were injured;

2) Pay for the new benefits by reducing U.S. contributions to the
U.N.;

and

3) Ensure that the promised benefits become available immediately.

If the Senate rejects the Coburn amendment:

 1) Tens of thousands of veterans who have required caregiver assistance
for decades will be denied the benefits offered to other veterans by this
bill;

2) The national debt, which just reached $12 trillion, would be
increased by more than $3.7 billion to pay for the bill because it contains
no offset for the costs of the new benefits;

and

3) The benefits promised will not be available for at least a year or
more, because the bill provides no immediate funding and the Senate has
already passed the appropriations bill that provides funding for the
Department of Veterans Affairs for the next year without including any
funding for this program.

Earlier this week, the Senate defeated a motion offered by Senator Coburn to
provide funding for veterans caregiver assistance by eliminating
congressional earmarks not requested by the Commander-in-Chief funded by the
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act.

(The vote tally is available HERE).

Senate Democrats held a press conference just last week where they stated
no price is too high <http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/1007620.html to
care for our veterans. While those same Senators a week later voted
against paying the price of care for our veterans with their earmarks, tomorrow
they will have another chance to pay that price with a reduction in payments to
the U.N.



The U.S. government sends over $4 billion a year in taxpayer dollars to
the U.N. with little or no accountability. The U.N. cannot account for tens
of millions spent in Afghanistan on the recent fraudulent election, with most
of the funding coming from the U.S. In one instance, the United Nations
Development Program paid $6.8 million for transportation costs in areas
where no U.N. officials were present. The U.N. procurement task force

found that 43 percent of all U.N. procurement is tainted by fraud, waste, and
abuse. In one year this amounts to over $630 million. The United Nations
headquarters renovation is already $800 million over its initial estimated
price, with U.S. paying the highest amount of any nation for each cost
overrun. The Oil for Food program run at the U.N. provided at least $7.4
billion in illicit revenues to Saddam Hussein's government.



Clearly, providing much needed care to all disabled veterans who
sacrificed to protect our nation and secure peace abroad should be
a higher priority than dumping more money into the bloated and
mismanaged U.N. bureaucracy.

[Freedom2specul8]

Click to add front page to the “topic” and check all of the states. That will increase exposure to the thread 100 fold.

[Freedom2specul8]

Nevermind I’ll get on computer and do it real fast.

[MestaMachine]

See. WE BE THE ACTIVISTS! That’s what I’m talkin’ about.

[Freedom2specul8]

Done..it’s on the front page and all of the state pages.

[Freedom2specul8]

and editiorial and extended news.. Gotta go bump!

[Cicero]

Great idea. I’m sick of funding the UN, which has gradually turned from its founding principles into nothing but a bureaucracy run by thugs, Muslims, Communists, and terrorists.

I was hoping maybe we would act when the Oil for Food scandal broke, and support for the UN had diminished among the voters.

But no.

Who do we want to fund, our veterans, or a bunch of freeloading child sex slavers?

[MestaMachine]

This shoud be a no brainer even amongst the dems with no brains. Unfortunately, it probably isn’t.

[Freedom2specul8]

Bump to frmail... :)

[azishot]

I have passed it along via emails.

What a good idea! (Why didn't I think of that? Smack myself upside the head.)

Will email this far and wide!

[azishot]

You’re welcome, MestaMachine.

This is why I depend on my *pingers*.

Thanks, LucyT.

[IrishPennant]

Oh, Good Lord..I’ll be on the phones first thing!!!! This has got to stop...all of it..and NOW!

[MestaMachine]

Bump for Our Troops

[Freedom2specul8]

Anyone know what time the vote is?

[azishot]

Sorry...I don’t know.

I don’t trust this group at all. Who knows they could be voting on it right now.

[JDoutrider]

Bumpin it up!

[4Liberty]

UN money is wasted money.

[Freedom2specul8]

The un is a waste..and full of freedom grabbers.

[MestaMachine]

This is what is being voted on:

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=a30aaca9-c956-4094-8671-7c1ec004a1cd

This is Coburn’s latest update:

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=RightNow.Home

Coburn’s efforts to improve the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act
November 18, 2009

The Senate will soon debate S. 1963, the Caregiver and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act. The bill contains many provisions regarding caregiver assistance, rural health care for veterans, construction of VA facilities, and several pilot programs. However, the issue that has garnered the most attention is the caregiver assistance.

S.1963 creates a new VA program that provides caregivers of severely disabled wartime veterans the following new benefits. Typically the VA does not provide benefits for non-veterans, this program would be an exception to that. This bill proposes

• monthly stipends for caregivers of disabled wartime veterans (CBO estimates around $2300 per month maximum)
• health coverage for caregivers (if they do not have health insurance)
• travel benefits for caregivers (lodging and per diem when taking veterans to VA hospitals)
• training for caregivers to provide proper medical care and assistance

However, S.1963 as written only provides benefits to veterans injured after September 11, 2001. Also, the bill does not identify a source of funding to pay for the increased spending.

Dr. Coburn’s amendment opens the eligibility for this program to ALL veterans who are severely disabled from wartime service. He also directs that the Secretary of State should transfer funding out of the U.S. contribution to the United Nations to the VA to pay for this program.

If Dr. Coburn’s amendment is not adopted, and S.1963 becomes law, it will exclude a large number of severely disabled wartime veterans from these benefits benefits, maintain funding for the UN, and increase the already massive national debt.

[Brad from Tennessee]

My daughter called me from Denver on Veterans Day. I told her that for the first time in 15 or so years we were having a parade and reception in this little town I live in. She said on the campus where she goes to school veterans were demonstrating because many on them have not yet received GI bill money they were approved for. These are Afghanistan and Iraq veterans.

[Freedom2specul8]

I was just getting ready to post a google search link for that..guess I’ll do it anyway. Can’t use bing on this phone yet.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=S.+1963&btnG=Google+Search