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This comes from a military newsletter I receive...
NO SUPPORT
Bush administration ignores military retirees
What makes me think our military veterans are not getting the respect and support from this administration that they were promised and that they earned in dangerous service to our country?
Could I be influenced by the fact that an army of government lawyers fought Col. Bud Day all the way to the Supreme Court and crushed his petition to get a minor repayment of medical bills of veterans who were promised lifetime free medical care? I see that Sen, Robert Byrd of West Virginia got it for 50,000 miners who had a similar promise. I guess miners are more important.
Last year both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly for the "Concurrent Receipt" bill so veterans' earned disability pay would not continue to be taken out of their own retirement pay. This administration threatened to veto it as too expensive so a compromise was reached where only a few veterans with special circumstances would benefit.
I guess it's who you are and where you die that determines your value to America. If you died in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, the government decided you were worth $1.85 million on average. If you died in the Pentagon that day, or on any day in Iraq, you are worth only $6,000, which is taxable. Service widows do not escape the current anti-veteran bias, either. We pay to insure 50 percent of our retired pay for our wives should we die first. But when they reach age 62 their benefit, which we largely funded is slashed to 35 percent.
Some observant Democrat is going to notice these slurs against military veterans and come to our rescue. Granted, we are not a large, nor wealthy, constituency but we are a voting bunch. If you deduct our votes from the Republicans and add it to the Democrats you would swing a lot of close races.
//name withheld// Colorado Springs
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