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Vfw Will Defeat Bachmann Plan

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allan

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  • HadIt.com Elder

fwd from: Colonel Dan

VFW Will Defeat Bachmann Plan

WASHINGTON (January 28, 2011) — America's oldest and largest major combat veterans' organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to cut $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress," said Richard L. Eubank, the national commander of the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.

On her website, the three-term congresswoman lists more than $400 billion in suggestions to cut federal spending. The VA suggestion would cap increases to VA healthcare spending, and reduce disability compensation to account for Social Security Disability Insurance payments — in other words, an offset. She says her plan is intended to generate discussion.

"The only discussion the VFW wants is to tell the congresswoman that her plan is totally out of step with America's commitment to our veterans," said Eubank, a retired Marine and Vietnam combat veteran from Eugene, Ore.

"There are certain things you do not do when our nation is at war, and at the top of that list is not caring for our wounded and disabled servicemen and women when they return home," he said. "I want the congresswoman to join us in a tour of the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and Poly Trauma Center the next time she's in her home district to witness firsthand the great work the VA does every day to heal their wounds and ease their pain. Then I want her to look those disabled veterans in the eye and tell them their service and sacrifice is too expensive for the nation to bear.

"The day this nation can't afford to take care of her veterans is the day this nation should quit creating them," said Eubank.

-30-

"Keep on, Keepin' on"

Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan"

See my web site at:

http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/

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I'm not talking about that tax bill, if we work, we pay taxes, that's a given. I'm talking about a general bill that says you owe money because the government spent it all!

I still say its the tax bill.....

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Social Security Disability is plain Insurance. Every one who pays into social security also pays an insurance premium and also to fund medicare. I am waiting for these sleazy politicians to deny Veterans Health Insurance cause we have the VA. Look at all the money the government would save if they do that.

Hey instead of cutting Vets 4.5 billion why not cut Egypt and Israel off

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We will let this thread stand for now

BUT REMEMBER - NO POLITICS !

No more who was or is a good or poor POTUS.

Nothing regarding Dems or Repub's.

Our mission regards veterans benefits and if something try's to reduce or cut them,

stick with that and the thread can remain open for discussion.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

The complete Bachmann plan

Potential Spending Cuts and Estimated Money Saved

Agriculture:

$20 Billion Replace farm subsidies with farmer savings accounts, eliminating the Foreign Agriculture Service, merging and

trimming budget of four agriculture outreach and research agencies, and funding the Food Safety and Inspection

Service with user fees.

Community:

$8 Billion Eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program, Rural Utilities Service, Economic Development

Administration, Neighbor-Works America, Appalachian Regional Commission, Denali Commission, Minority

Development Business Agency, and Delta Regional Authority, and consolidate the Rural Housing and

Development Programs and convert them into block grants.

Education (2 options):

1: $31 Billion Abolish US Department Of Education, and invest half (of $46 Billion budget) back to states by block grants, and

return Pell Grants to 2009 levels

2: $29 Billion Scale back Department of Education, Stop payout of the balance of the stimulus incentive grants for Race to the

Top, eliminate duplicative grants, and return Pell Grant to 2009 levels

Energy and the Environment:

$10.9 Billion Eliminate and reduce certain block grant and devolve EPA grants, restructure Power Marketing

Administrations to be market-based, eliminate Science to Achieve Results Program

Government Reform:

$44 Billion Halve federal program payment errors by 2012, especially by reducing Medicare errors and earned income tax

credit errors, tighten oversight by spending $5 billion on new resources, such as updated computer systems, and

then recover $49 billion in payment errors.

$20 Billion Rescind unobligated balances after 36 months.

$24.5 Billion Halve the $25 billion spent to maintain vacant federal properties, cut federal employee travel to 4 Billion, suspend

acquisition of federal office space, trim federal office fleet by 20%, eliminate Presidential Election Campaign Fund,

cut down on federal employee credit cards, and require federal employees to fly domestic coach.

Health Care:

$12.2 Billion Reform Medigap, require Medicare home health co-payments, eliminate Maternal and Child Health block grant,

eliminate Title X family planning, eliminate National Health Service corps, eliminate health professions grant, and

repeal rural health outreach and flexibility grants, and defund Planned Parenthood and affiliated Federal grants to

abortion facilities – federal, state, local

Unknown Repeal Obamacare (larger savings in later years).

Homeland Security:

$2.7 Billion Eliminate most DHS grants to and allow states to finance themselves.

Interior:

$1.7 Billion Open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to leasing. (The savings are

leasing revenues, which are classified as negative spending in the federal budget), and suspend other federal land

purchases.

International:

$4 Billion Eliminate the Development Assistance Program, State Department education and cultural exchange programs,

International Trade Administration’s trade promotions, the democracy fund, International Trade Commission,

Trade and Development Agency, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, East-West Center, US Institute of

Peace, Japan-US Friendship Commission

Justice:

$7.8 Billion Eliminate all Justice Department grants except those from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Institute

of Justice, thereby empowering states to finance their own justice programs, eliminate Legal Services Corporation,

DOJ Community Relations Service, National Drug Control Policy, State Justice Institute, and Reduce funding of

DOJ Civil Rights division.

Labor:

$7.4 Billion Eliminate federal job training programs, Job Corps, and Senior Community Service Employment Program, and

improve screening for food stamp eligibility

Science

$1.9 Billion Reduce National Science Foundation funding to 2008 levels, eliminate National Science Foundation spending on

elementary and secondary education, and eliminate business subsidies from the National Institute of Standards and

Technology.

Transportation:

$60.7 Billion Devolve the federal highway program and most transit spending to the states, Privatize TSA, FAA, and Amtrack.

Eliminate grants to large and medium airports, eliminate the Maritime Administration, and the Essential Air Service

Program.

Treasury:

$26.7 Billion Eliminate the additional child refundable credit, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.

Veterans:

$4.5 Billion Cap increases in Department of Veterans Affairs health care spending, and reduce disability compensation to

account for SS disability payments. Reduce Veterans’ Disability Compensation to account for Social Security

Disability Insurance payments.

Other:

$60 Billion Repeal unspent stimulus spending.

$16 Billion Eliminate all congressional earmarks (FC)

$8 Billion Switch to using the “Superlative CPI” in funding calculations.

$7 Billion Impose 3 yr pay freeze on federal workers and DoD civilians (FC)

$6.7 Billion Eliminate Federal Communications Commission funding for school Internet service, eliminate National

Community Service programs, Institute of Museum and Library Services, National Endowment for the humanities,

National Mediation Board, National Endowment for the Arts, Army Corp of Engineer funding for beach

replenishment projects, Commission of fine arts, National Council on Historic Preservation, and ban project labor

agreements on all federally funded construction projects.

$6 Billion Repeal the Davis–Bacon Act.

$2 Billion Repeal Dodd-Frank (based on 5yr CBO Estimates)

$1.4 Billion Repeal Food Safety & Modernization Act

Defense:

$35.6 Billion According to Secretary Gates ( $178 Billion 5 year projections)

I am the wife of a totally disabled service-connected disabled veteran. This proposal is a crock of ****. Veterans who receive Social Security Disability in addition to V.A. compensation usually do so because they have work credits from civilian work in separate time intervals from their military service. Military wage credits are usually not the tiebreaker that qualify a veteran for enough wage credits to receive benefits. Two years in a row now veterans and the disabled have not receive cost of living adjustments from Social Security and V.A., yet the disabled and disadvantaged may have to sacrifice more in order to help balance the federal budget. Since the government stopped giving annual cost of living adjustments I have found myself in the kitchen making more soups, stews and chilis and using less frozen foods in order to cut our family's grocery bill. I believe that veterans and their families should not have to foot the pricetage for wars our government conducted that were at one time costing about one million dollars a day. I also believe that we need to find other ways to balance the federal budget. I know that recently I was really disturbed to learn of another cost saving measure by the government. I just learned that here in Montana when a veteran dies at a V.A. hospital, that veteran's body is cremated and the ashes are put in a mass grave unless the body is claimed by a family member. Heck, I had the mistaken impression that if a veteran dies in a V.A. hospital that V.A. pays for a burial, a coffin, and a grave marker for each dead veteran; Boy was I wrong about that.

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Although I know I sounded cold and heartless in an earlier post, I will say a couple of more things. For so many years people would tell me the old..."if I had stayed in I could retire now.. Most, in reality could not endure the poor, substandard living conditions, nor the abusive environment and jumped ship as soon as they could. At least, among those receiving gov't funds, disabled vets have "earned" theirs. Cannot say whether all are real or true, but the disabled have earned their pensions. Chronic pain is never easy to measure.

I remember seeing a special on 60 Minutes or something about a family in Mississippi that had too many kids and the parents had taught them to act like imbeciles/idiots so as to receive SSD for the children. The parents were receiving about a grand a month for the kids. When they turned 18, the $$$ stopped and the parents kicked the kids out of the house- with no education and no way to earn a living because they did not go to school (because they were "disabled"). The disabled vet will be in competition with these kind of folks for gov't spending. Them and the aged immigrants who have no money and no pensions who are allowed to immigrate to the land of "free money." I was never asked whether opening these floodgates of spending were good and the politicians that I voted for to say "NO" to this spending did not win too often (go figure.)

I also think that the disabled vet will spend his pension a lot more effectively than ANY congressional politician who have a skill for throwing good money after bad.

The real question is how does the energy to fight a Michelle Bachmann turn into a force that demands the gov't be accountable for all that it spends and to make the gov't a wise steward of our resources. I know I have seen far more idle employees standing around NOT working in VA Medical Centers than in commercially run outfits. I have seen VA employee Shop Stewards and employee parking near the entry doors where parking for severely disabled SHOULD be.

The VA is paying millions for SOLAR panels at medical centers - some in real nice locations...like cloudy and cold Connecticut, in areas that they will NEVER have a payback..but the installations are payback of another, political sort. There probably are significant cuts that can be made at the VA medical level, of course we never see the stats or numbers but we will cry aloud if anyone says to "cut:"

I think Michelle Bachmann is not the problem. The problem is runaway gov't spending. After I retires, I went to college under the Vocational Rehab plan. In one of my required Social Studies classes, teh teacher was outlining how wonderful gov't spending was so progressive and with each program she spoke about the young kids were nodding their heads up and down saying "yes, yes" like it was a great idea. When I raised my hand and asked who was going to pay for all of the gov't spending required to bestow these wonderful benefits to the masses I was the bad guy! I guess I still am.

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