Senate to IAVA: I can haz skorecardz 2?

OK, in part I, I parsed the House Scorecard votes for IAVA and Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!, the Senate Part is equally useless and flawed.

This one had 9 votes, 4 of which I am punting on for now since they deal with the GI Bill that I will cover in part III. Additionally, once again we see the two extra points (Casey Kasem: Two???) awarded for supporting the Webb GI Bill, and no other versions. That leaves us with 5, one of which was unanimous.

Of the four remaining votes
• The “Enhanced Veterans’ Benefits” vote was 96-1;
• The “Expanded Veterans’ Benefits” vote was 92-3;
• The “Funding Veterans’ Health Care, 2008” vote was 92-1; and
• The “Funding Veterans’ Health Care, 2007” vote, like the one in the House was actually a continuing resolution.

So, I took the liberty of looking up the first three, even though they were nearly unanimous, and just as with the House votes, scoring these is entirely deceptive. Taking the “Funding Veterans’ Health Care, 2008” vote first, I looked it up and found that the sole vote against it was cast by Senator DeMint. Now, I have a buddy on DeMint’s staff, so I looked it up.

Turns out DeMint just hates veterans. He wants them all turned into sausage, and feels there are sufficient heating grates outside that the veterans need to just quit complaining. Well, either that or he didn’t feel it was appropriate to have a $4 BILLION earmark that led to the creation of a park in Beverly Hills. Sayeth the Senior Senator from South Carolina (I does alliteration good):

This is an appalling earmark that takes $4 Billion dollars which should be used to care for the brave men and women who fought for our country and turns it over to build a park for Beverley Hills 90210. We should all be able to agree that a community with an average household income of $125,000 has a sufficient tax base to build a park and doesn’t need a $4 Billion hand out from the federal government. The men and women who wore America’s uniform need the money a lot more than the men and women who wear Prada.

You evil bastard!

DeMint is the lone Senate recipient of an “F” from IAVA, which to me is starting to look pretty damn good.

The sole vote against the “Expanded Veterans’ Benefits” was cast by Senator Vitter of Louisiana. And why did he vote against such a venerable bill? Well, I spoke with a member of his staff on the phone this morning, and then received this explanation:

S. 1315, the Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act of 2007, contained a controversial provision that provides a new, special pension to Filipino veterans from World War II who live in the Philippines, who have no service-related injuries, and who already receive a pension from the Philippine government. The bill would provide a $221 million pension benefit to World War II Filipino veterans who have no war-related injuries and who reside in the Philippines. As American troops are returning home from combat everyday, this is exactly the wrong priority at the wrong time. America should concentrate more resources on caring for our veterans. Yet S.1315 put the needs of non-injured Filipino veterans above the needs of disabled U.S. veterans. It creates a generous government benefit for Filipinos that far exceeds the pension that U.S. veterans get when adjusted for cost of living. This bill would literally take pension money from U.S. veterans to create a pension program overseas. It set’s a horrible precedent that other countries will follow. Who’s next? Iraq soldiers asking for US pension money for freeing their country? Afghanistan fighters? The bottom line is we paid in blood and lives for Philippine freedom. The monies should have been re-directed towards US soldiers and not Philippine’s who were given their freedom with American blood.

Somehow, he still managed to pull out a “B”.

Again, inexplicably IAVA decided to score the vote on the FY 2008 Defense Authorization from December of 2007, a bill that was subsequently vetoed. I am still at a complete loss on why they scored a vote for a bill that was vetoed, instead of the nearly identical bill which became law. I thought perhaps looking at who didn’t vote would be instructive, but it was less so than I anticipated. The one they scored had five Senators not voting, Obama, McCain, Clinton, Biden and Dodd. The identical bill (minus the offending provisions regarding law suits against the Iraq Gov’t) signed into law had 6 non-voting Senators: Obama, McCain, Clinton, Menendez, Thune and Warner. Maybe they have a soft spot for Warner or something? Like I said, it’s inexplicable.

So, doing away with those 3 bills, and excluding the GI Bill votes, we have 1 vote which had any significant impact on the overall votes, the vote on “Funding Veterans’ Health Care, 2007” vote, which as I stated on the House side, was actually a continuing resolution. Senator Coburn of Oklahoma was one of those 15 who voted in opposition, and he did so NOT because of funding for veterans’ health care, but rather because:

One example of the new majority’s dishonesty and irresponsibility is their manipulation of $3.1 billion for defense priorities. By cutting $3.1 billion in defense priorities and using those funds for new spending in this bill – while promising to restore the $3.1 billion for defense at a later date – the new majority is playing an Enron-style shell game with taxpayers. The $3.1 billion that will be restored will go directly to the national debt, which will be paid back by our children and grandchildren. The ongoing problem in Washington is not the Republicans or Democrats but the triumph of short-term political gamesmanship ahead of long-term vision and sacrifice. Both parties continue to live in a fiscal fantasyland in which hard choices can be postponed indefinitely.

Dr. Coburn, not surprisingly perhaps, received a D. And his parents took away his cell phone and he isn’t allowed to date for the next 2 months.

So there you have the Senate scorecard. Once again, long on hyperbole, short on facts.

But, when I start up “Veterans Against Beverly Hills Parks, Robbing US Troops to Pay Filipino Veterans Already Receiving a Pension and Saddling Our Children With Debt” than that fine organization will be properly giving Sens DeMint, Vitter and Coburn an “A”.

But for now, the media gets to label them as opposed to veterans based on votes provided by IAVA that have exactly nothing to do with what IAVA claims they were voting on.

Isn’t politics grand?

I know I promised more on Obama and McCain, I am now going to fold that into another post later on. Also, as has been noted in the other posts comments, looks like the media swallowed the bait on the IAVA scorecard. Also they’ve apparently swallowed the line, the fishing reel and the boat.

Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Politics