(a dKos crosspost at my request. Good stuff. – promoted by kestrel9000)

I get information occasionally from the great Senator from Vermont. Why do I call him a “GREAT” Senator, because of his outstanding work on the behalf of veterans and their families since be becoming a Senator. He is always FOR veterans and programs that HELP them, what more could a veterans WANT from an elected official.

If all Senators voted for veterans programs like Bernie does, then many of these diaries I have written about the Veterans Administration for the past two years would NO|T have had to be written. He CARES and unlike many elected officials on Capitol Hill he does not just pay the lip service as many politicians do, he means what he says, and his record of votes back him up. He “TALKS the walk and WALKS the talk.  If he says it, he means it. A rare commodity these days.

I know I don't have to reiterate this, but many of the “compassionate conservative” republicans claim to “support the troops” but there voting records for the past 7 years show this not to be true, they take photo ops and talk a good game, but the average for a Republican Senator and Congressman is less than 40% FOR veterans budget programs. To me that is not “supporting the troops.

Tomorrow Senator Sanders will be attending another session to the Veteran Affairs Committee on the status of the Research on Gulf War Issue's, you all remember the First Gulf War, the one where we truly had a “coalition of the willing” and other countries actually paid most of the cost of the war, oh and by the way, it only lasted 4 days!  Yea that one. the Build up started in the summer of 1990, and the war in February  and the troops were home by summer of 1991.

This is the war, that Bush, Cheney and Rumesfeld thought they were going to do again, remember the terms, “greeted with flowers and candy”  the “Iraqi Oil will pay for the war” the Bush adminstration guy who was fired for daring to claim the Iraq war might cost as much as 100 billion dollars.

Those were the good old days and about 500 billion ago. Many economic types say that the long term cost of the war NOW might be as high as 2 trillion dollars far into the future, counting the costs that Bush/Cheney want to ignore, health care and compensation for the veterans harmed in this war, people that are going to need decades of support, the severely maimed, PTSD that severe that veterans will never be employed at a job that can support them nor their families.

Bernie is always there for us veterans, I wish more Senators helped our government keep it's PROMISES you remember the one President Bush campaigned on in 2004 “A Promise Made Is A Promise Kept”.

Here is Bernie actually”>http://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=281959″>actually “supporting veterans” on the floor of the Senate

Here is a statement from July 16,2007 on a Vermont VA Program that Bernie wants the VA to implement nationwide as the results show fantastic results

Vermont Veterans Program a Model for the Nation — 07/16/2007

Watch photos and video of the press conference.

An innovative Vermont outreach program for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is the model for a $30-million national pilot project that Senator Bernie Sanders will ask the Senate to approve when it resumes work this week on a defense authorization bill. “My hope is that increased coordination between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs and local and state organizations will mean that veterans and their families will be better informed and more likely to get the care they deserve,’ Sanders said.

Sanders last year secured $1 million for the Vermont National Guard working with the White River Junction VA Medical Center to visit the homes of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  The outreach workers, all veterans themselves, make certain that service members and their families know about available benefits, including mental health care and support programs under the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.  The outreach workers also provide referral services.

“We're very appreciative of the congressional efforts to bring this ground-breaking program to Vermont,” Adjutant General Michael Dubie said. “The outreach program has already helped a number of returning soldiers, airman and their families and we look forward to the continuance of this worthwhile initiative in the future.”

“The National Guard and the White River Junction VA Medical Center continue their close working relationship to insure that Vermonters who have served in uniform and their families receive competent, coordinated and timely services they are entitled by virtue of their selfless service to our nation,” said Gary M. DeGasta, the center director.

Sanders later this week will offer an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would provide $30 million for a national pilot project expanding the Vermont program to other parts of the country.

The Defense Department would be authorized to support outreach programs that support marriage counseling, services for children, suicide prevention, substance abuse awareness and treatment, mental health care, financial counseling, domestic violence awareness and prevention, and employment assistance and other services. The outreach programs also would develop strategies for families to learn how to live with a service member coping with post traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. Sanders’ legislation also would put a special emphasis on face-to-face outreach to veterans and their families who live in rural areas, one of the unique aspects of the Vermont program.

A member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Sanders has worked in Congress to increase resources for veterans. “If anybody thinks that we have had the resources to adequately support the veterans who are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, plus all of our older veterans, they sorely misunderstand the situation,” Sanders said. “I intend to do everything that I can to make sure that the Bush administration, instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, starts adequately funding the V.A. so we don't continue to have the disgraceful situation that we currently do. We need more innovative programs like this one in Vermont that bring resources together to help our veterans.

“If we go to war, what we have to understand is that the cost of war does not stop the day that the war ends,” Sanders concluded. “The cost of war stops when every service member or veteran gets all the help that they and their families deserve as a result of their service to this country.”

To listen to a VPR story on this issue click here.

 
This is a press release and he wants it read so there is no copyright rules here.

I posted this here to remind people what a great person Mr Bernie Sanders is, and how valuable he is to Americans as veterans are neither Republican nor Democratic  they are just Americans and politics should not be at play when we as a nation are taking care of them, no one asked us to serve in a Democratic nor a Republican Army they asked us to Serve the American Army.

Here is a link to Bernie's website page that deal with Veterans
Issueshttp://www.sanders.senate.gov/news/index.cfm?code=Veterans&pheader=Veterans”>Issues>

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