Republicans Continue to Fail Our Veterans

Republicans continue to fail our veterans. Now the new guy is giving the Republicans one of their bigger prizes: he’s signed off on a federal hiring freeze. What the assholes have done by this less than noble effort is to prevent the Veteran’s Administration from hiring any more staff to take care of the thousands of veterans waiting for a fucking appointment. Because after all..it’s not about hiring more people but in fact hiring the right people. These people are so foolish.

To drive all of this home, while on our walk this morning, we received a call from the dental office at the Veteran’s Administration in Portland telling my husband that they were pushing his dental appointment back by 20 more days. He had his upper teeth pulled September 1st and is still waiting for his denture and he’s not even sure that he’s getting it on his next appointment. Without staff, they can’t get through the backlog. Without funding they cannot hire staff. So of course the obvious answer is to freeze any hiring with the ultimate agenda to privatize the VA. Right. We live far enough away from Portland that my husband can seek dental care locally, but rare is the dentist who will accept their fee schedule without endless bullshit. So my husband stays in the system.

When we read an article from USA Today talking about the federal hiring freeze and its impact on veterans, here was his loud response: and he wants to privatize it too? Fuck this guy. It went on from there but it was mostly vulgarity.

I’ve read that veterans have died while awaiting care, while all they want is what was promised them. We send them off to war and give them nothing but crap when they return. They protect us and we let them suffer.

The life of disabled veterans can be challenging enough without Congress interfering with and jeopardizing the health care they’ve been promised. The people who staff VA facilities are compassionate folks who do a great job with what they have but there’s only so much they can do when funding is lacking. And if the Republicans in Congress want to sell a hiring freeze as anything other than a death sentence for veterans then they’re mistaken.

Veterans and their families understand perfectly what this means. For any veteran to have voted for this guy..well, I don’t even know what to say to any of you. I really don’t.

It will be six months since his teeth were pulled by the time my husband sees the dentist again. The care he receives when there is excellent and he appreciates the care they provide. But what he and other veterans contend with falls at the feet of Congress and any administration that disrespects the very people we ask to protect us. When things go sideways, we promise to be there for them. And that’s a forever thing. How is it that these people don’t understand this?

Any business needs income to successfully operate. Governmental agencies are no different. Without adequate funding, they can’t do their jobs. It’s a simple concept really. One that you would think someone qualified to serve in Congress would understand completely. Instead it appears that intelligence and common sense aren’t part of the job requirement.

But we’re gettin’ that wall..

Blessed Be

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