I have some relatively good news on the veterans' benefits front: though the House passed the nefarious H.R. 3016, which slashes benefits provided to our veterans and their survivors by the Post-9.11 G.I. Bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee has released their version of the omnibus veterans services bill without those cuts. Whose brilliant idea was it to cut veterans' benefits in an election year anyway? Seems to me even the lamest candidates in the most gerrymandered districts could utterly humiliate incumbents merely by advertising their vote on H.R. 3016. Anyway, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America helps you tell your Congressfolk to reject the House's attempt to cut veterans' benefits. If we're going to keep sending our troops to foreign lands to do impossible tasks, not that we ever should, and thus risk having entire generations return to us as mere shells of people, we at least have the obligation to take proper care of them when they get back -- and not sacrifice them to some obscure fiscal or philosophical point.
Meanwhile, the reactionary U.S. Chamber of Commerce has the False Claims Act in its sights. Why? Because the False Claims Act punishes those who would defraud our government, and thus also defraud the people who own our government and who pay taxes to our government. That would be you, and also me. No doubt the Chamber's spokeshacks can utter inanities about so-called whistleblowers bringing frivolous lawsuits as if we don't have people called judges who can help defend us against frivolous lawsuits, but, really, this should be very easy: why does the Chamber hate patriotic Americans who expose wrongdoing by federal contractors? Can it really be that they value federal contractor profits more than they value decent Americans who risk everything, including their family, their life, and their livelihood, to protect the taxpayer? Hence the National Whistleblowers Center helps you demand that Congress protect the False Claims Act from right-wing attacks. Let's remind Congress that corporate apologists don't get all the say about everything around here: we do.
Comments