Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Republicans loyal to Banks, ditch Veterans.

I remember when the Bush administration sent out orders to keep veterans from accessing their benefits by simply not telling them what they needed. Nice thing to do to our returning soldiers.

Republicans even want to privatize veterans health care, putting them at the mercy of insurers hoping to make a profit. And still veterans are overwhelmingly conservative.

Well, let's see how these 2 actions will go over with our vets:
1. House Republicans are pushing legislation to block predatory lending protections for American soldiers, under pressure from the banking lobby.

GOP lawmakers tucked the deregulation item into the National Defense Authorization Act -- a major bill setting the military's funding ... If the banking item is enacted, it would impose a one-year delay on new Department of Defense rules meant to shield military families from abusive terms on payday loans and other forms of high-interest credit. The military has been struggling with the financial impact of predatory lending on service members for years. 

A 2014 report issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau documents a host of abuses targeting troops.
Big bank Republicans know exactly what's going on too:
Big banks have had an ugly relationship with American soldiers lately. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup pursued hundreds of illegal foreclosures against active-duty members of the military, ultimately reaching multiple settlements with the Department of Justice over such practices. As a result, they have embarked on extensive public relations campaigns to repair their image.
Despite efforts by the Democrats, veterans still don't know who's really on there side:
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, will introduce an amendment to the NDAA bill that would strip out the Republican language delaying predatory lending protections. Duckworth told HuffPost the GOP bill would "waste resources undertaking redundant studies and postpone the implementation of valuable protections," adding, "Further delay will put more service members and their families in harm’s way."
GOP opposes Job Training, college tuition, fertility help, benefits to spouses of deceased vets: Republican efforts to require job training in exchange for food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment benefits ring hollow after they turned down a chance to job train veterans:
A divided Senate on Thursday derailed Democratic legislation that would have provided $21 billion for medical, education, and job-training benefits for the nation's veterans. The bill fell victim to election-year disputes over spending and fresh penalties against Iran.

"I personally have a hard time understanding how anyone could vote for tax breaks for billionaires, for millionaires, for large corporations, and then say we don't have the resources to protect our veterans," said Senator Sanders
The problem for the GOP? Too many veterans would get help:
Republicans said there would be no retribution from voters because the Democratic bill would have harmed veterans' services by flooding them with too many people. Republicans criticized (the) bill for using … unspent money from the withdrawal in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sanders' legislation would have provided these GOP opposed services:
1. Making more veterans eligible for in-state college tuition to providing fertility or adoption services for some wounded troops left unable to conceive.

2. The VA would have been given more tools to eat into its backlog of 390,000 benefit claims that have been awaiting action for more than 125 days.
3. Bolstered programs for veterans who suffered sexual abuse, and would have increased dental care and provided more alternative medicine, such as yoga for stress.

4. Benefits for some spouses of deceased veterans would have improved, and aid to relatives caring for a wounded veteran would have been expanded to include those who served before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

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