Why Do The Republicans always tout "Support Our Troops"......?

Question

BUT THEY SLASHED HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR RETURNING VETERANS 3 YEARS AGO?

I can't comprehend why anyone, even Republicans would do this to our fighting men & women. Help me out here please.

Proof? Ok....
VA Cuts Some Veterans' Access to healthcare.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A4064-2003Jan16
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/05/25/loc_VAhealthcare.html

Also, please know that I'm not trying to slam Republicans, I'm just asking a question about how the cuts to the GI Bill Of Rights.

To ~family matters~☺: "Unless you muster out of the military upon return. Then you are a civilian. no longer in the military and no longer their responsibility. You know, "i quit my job, can you still take care of me?"
I certainly hope you are a very small minority in your view. Kicking a veteran to the curb after his service is over is a horrible thought and I can't believe you really meant this.
They are NOT just a "civilian", THEY ARE VETERANS. And They deserve a LIFE TIME of health care benefits from our government after risking life and limb for said government.
Don't you think that veterans rights fall somewhere under "family matters"?

Answer 1

It is just a political thing to gain points with segments of the voting population to say "support our troops." It is a clean, no cost statement; everyone is in sympathy with the poor soldiers who must risk their lives every day. It is terrible, outrageous! Republicans need to look like good guys, and good guys are caring, compassionate guys. So they support agendas that do not actually change the basic way the system functions (severely limiting opportunities for the poor and uneducated and disenfranchised). These "compassionate" republicans like issues like abortion and troop support because these allow them to present an image of conscientiousness.

As far as legislators in Congress reducing the financing for veterans benefits, they have their own take on the issues, their own spin. For example, a Republican might say that he really wants the money to go to "truly needy" veterans, so he seems compassionate. But what about the vets that come back in one piece and are able to work? Are they truly needy? These legislators do not know very well, first hand, what the sufferings of veterans are like. Their contact with injured soldiers are generally photo ops.

The Republicans, regardless of appearances, are not really evil. They just have a way of separating themselves from real emotional and spiritual understanding of the wide array of human experience - the pregnant 15 year-old and the 95 year-old on a fixed income, the 16 year old boy in the ghetto with only violent role models around him and the 30 year old who has been on death row in Georgia for twelve years.

These images are very hard for Republican legislators to relate to. Many of these legislators are from wealthy families. They simply don't appreciate the actual position of so many Americans. Their children often go to private schools. They have health care, and cannot easily relate to people who are uninsured. They live in relatively safe communities; the murders happen several miles away, in an entirely different neighborhood.
Many of these Republicans get elected with special attention to issues involving taxation. All middle class and upper class people would like to pay lower taxes. Wouldn't we all like to have more money always!!! The Republicans play upon this desire to pay lower taxes, and they get elected this way (GW Bush himself was "elected" in 2000 on a promise to mortgage the entire country to the tune of trillions of dollars! And his promist was kept! The balanced budget of 2000 is now totally unbalanced.)

You, writer, are thinking in terms of fairness and decency. But religious teaching informs that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Inadvertently, many people, Republicans and Democrats also, often develop a kind of special regard for money. We've only got 100 percent of total caring space and thinking space between our ears. Whatever regard is given over to money takes away from the regard that might be given to living things like human beings. And this is the explanation of the scriptural admonition, "the love of money is the root of all evil."

Keep caring. It is important to care. All hope is there.

Answer 2

We have been getting the shaft left and right when it comes to benefits that out glorious politicians promise us things and always seem to retract on them when they get into a budget mess. For the past two years they have been working on a plan to raise costs on medical care they promised us for free years ago for serving 20 years. We get a meager cost of living increase and now they want us to pay an exorbant amounts for additional co-payments on prescriptions and also pay large deductables. They finally backed down on it this year but I don't doubt it will be back on the table for review again next year and it gets passed. Veteran Organizations have been doing theit best to get it kicked out but It's an election year and that's why they backed down this year on a bill to increase costs to us. It never seems to amaze me that they can raise their own salaries and become miillionaires but can't take care of the promises they make to us. It's not only the Republicans but Democrats as well. Some how we need to get back to the basics of government by the people and for the people and get those damned self-serving professional politicians out of office.

Answer 3

I am a soldier of the U.S. Army. I volunteered to serve my country because I believe it is my duty and the "right" thing to do as a young man straight out of high school. The pay grade, the perks, and benefits are just icing on the cake.

Answer 4

And I am sure you can prove this right? I have never heard this before. I seem to remember that the benefits went up. Unless you muster out of the military upon return. Then you are a civilian. no longer in the military and no longer their responsibility. You know, "i quit my job, can you still take care of me?" Pretty good attempt at spinning this one. but you have failed.

Answer 5

(1) Please substantiate this claim of yours. I haven't noticed a difference in the quality of my care, before or after my first tour in Iraq from 2003-2004.

(2) If anything, the emphasis on health care is far greater than ever before. I can't count the number of times I have been inoculated. I can't count the number of times I've had teeth checked, blood drawn, and filled out survey after survey on everything from mental health issues to physical ailments related to deployment.

I can't comprehend where you get this assertion of yours from, Questioner. Help us out, please (and use documentation as well).

As for the rest of you who took this statement at face value and went off the deep end with your tangential monologues, try a reality check.

Answer 6

Hello troll

http://www.factcheck.org/article144.html

Answer 7

someone like reba k said that republicans (repuglycans) dont care about the troops in iraq but thats a bunch of bs. you cant assume all republicans are like that, you just said that half of the nation doesnt support our troops. so yeah. think before you generalize

Answer 8

I can't see the logic either. I think most repubs would insist that they hadn't cut the budget for vets, or they would insist that Bush really really really hated to do it, and he is such a godly man that he cried and wailed but he just had to do it because economically there was no other choice...etc...etc...

They put my brother into harms way to make themselves a whole lot of money. They do NOT have my support!

Answer 9

"Support Our Troops" really means "Support Our Dollar Potential!"

Historically, RepUGLYcans have gone to war for the money.

Rumsfeld's management of billions in Pentagon funds (by transferring cash to his war profiteering contractor friends) shows clearly that RepUGLYcans don't give a hoot about American troops and that's why other countries have pulled out of this phony war.

"Save Our Troops" should be the common cry.

Answer 10

Simply because the Republicans are trying to come up with a lame excuse to "justify" the war to the American people.