Bush hates veterans...

...and the Senate R's are standing with him. From the Marine Times...

By two 54-46 votes, the Senate blocked efforts Tuesday to add money for veterans’ health care to the 2005 supplemental appropriations bill.

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, both members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sought to add $1.9 billion to the $80.6 billion wartime emergency supplemental appropriations bill to cover costs of treating returning combat veterans for war-related injuries and to cover shortfalls in funding for VA programs.

The Bush administration sought no VA money as part of its supplemental funding request, and none was included in the version of the bill passed by the House in March.

Kudos to the Upper Left's own Senator Murray for her leadership on this effort. I understand that this was also part of the equation when Senator Akaka was negotiating his support of ANWR drilling. They screwed you, Senator. I hope you're not too disappointed.

Still, it shouldn't have taken any vote swapping to pass this one. The money is badly needed, and it seems to have been targeted for all the right purposes...

Their amendment would have provided $1.975 billion to the VA, with $525 million earmarked for mental health programs, $610 million provided specifically for the treatment of veterans wounded in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, and $840 million evenly divided between VA regions.

Of course, an up and down vote might well have produced a victory for veterans. The Republican leadership wasn't taking any chances, though, and used a procedural gimmick to avoid the question, with an essentially party line vote (I believe Senator Spector was the lone Republican standing up for vets). Next time they're talking about going nuclear because the filibuster is a procedural gimmick itself, remember the lengths they went to disguise their hatred for veterans behind Thad Cochran's procedural shield.

The amendment was blocked by a parliamentary motion from Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, who said the funding is not really an emergency need. The Senate voted in support of Cochran’s position, and then voted again when Murray tried to get the amendment approved even if the funding was not characterized as an emergency. The outcome was the same, with 54 senators voting to block funding and 46 voting to provide it.

Men and women who wore the uniform will suffer after they've completed their service because of the votes of those 54 Senators. Helluva welcome home...


Hat tip to Steve M at No More Mr. Nice Blog for an unusual source for an outrageous story...