# Veterans As Political Pawns Again



## Rocky (Nov 22, 2006)

*VFW CHIEF BLASTS GOP SENATORS FOR HOLDING UP VA FUNDING BILL -- *
*“Our elected officials need to pass the budget and do the jobs they were *
*elected to do. Supporting our veterans and those who serve in *
*uniform are nonpartisan, nonnegotiable issues.”*







Gary Kurpius, the new National Commander of the VFW, is not a happy veteran.
And, Kurpius is right.  We have small people playing little games in Congress with veterans' healthcare hanging in the balance.
Contact your Senators now...let's get this budget passed.  Click here...
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm 
Statement here... http://www.vfw.org/index.cfm?fa=news.newsDtl&did=3684 
Statement below: 
---------------  *

VFW Commander Furious at 3 Republican Senators*
*

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2006-–The national commander of the nation’s largest organization of combat veterans is furious that three Republican senators are holding hostage the passage of key fiscal year 2007 funding bills that prevent the federal government from improving upon the programs and services it provides to America’s veterans, servicemembers and their families.

Gary Kurpius, the commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., said the actions this week by Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jeff Sessions of Alabama were “nothing short of pure partisan politics and sheer arrogance towards the new Democrat- controlled 110th Congress.”

At issue are spending bills that the administration and most in Congress want to pass this year before the 109th Congress ends. By holding up the process, the three senators are undercutting vital prosthetic and traumatic brain-injury research for returning troops, delaying staffing increases and infrastructure improvements within the Department of Veterans Affairs, and exacerbating an already out of control VA backlog that exceeds 820,000 claims. The government’s fiscal year began October 1.

“There are 351,000 veterans in Oklahoma, 412,000 in South Carolina and 422,000 in Alabama who are going to be directly impacted by their senators who have put politics above their constituency,” said Kurpius, a Vietnam veteran from Anchorage.

“What occurred on November 7 was an exact reversal of what occurred in 1994 when Republicans swept control of both houses of Congress,” he said. “These three senators obviously forgot that it is the will of the people that keeps them in office, not their political party.”

Kurpius is now calling on all veterans and servicemembers to contact their U.S. senators to bring pressure upon Coburn, DeMint and Sessions before the 109th Congress adjourns next month. Contact your senator. (Click here... 
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm )

“Our war is against an enemy that wants to destroy everything American; it is not a war between Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “Our elected officials need to pass the budget and do the jobs they were elected to do. Supporting our veterans and those who serve in uniform are nonpartisan, nonnegotiable issues.” *


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