House Passes The Honoring Our PACT Act For Veterans, Over Republican Opposition

The seditious insurrectionist and Internet troll known as Rep. Lauren Boebert (Q-CO), Democratic lawmaker accuses Boebert of giving tours prior to insurrection, Tim Ryan: Prosecutors reviewing video of Capitol tours given by lawmakers before riot, who engages in performace politics to entertain other QAnon trolls, like heckling President Biden during his State of The Union Address when he was describing a program to aid veterans sickened by burn pits in Iraq ans Afghanistan, Boebert heckled Biden about deaths in Afghanistan while he mentioned his son’s cancer, doesn’t give a shit about our military personnel or veterans.

On Thursday, the House passed President Biden’s program for veterans. House passes bill to expand health care for veterans exposed to toxins; 174 Republicans vote against:

The House on Thursday passed a bill that would expand health-care eligibility for veterans who were exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill is known as the Honoring our PACT Act, the acronym denoting Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics.

The bill, which could provide health coverage for up to 3.5 million veterans, was passed on a vote of 256 to 174, with only 34 Republicans joining all Democrats.

Rep. Boebert, along with her QAnon Internet troll sidekick Marjorie “Q” Greene (who has been stripped of her committee assignments but for some reason still gets to vote) both voted “nay,” proving that they do not give a shit about veterans.

Neither do the seditious Insurrectionists in Arizona’s GQP congressional delegation. Biggs, Gosar, Lesko, and Schweikert, who all voted to overturn election results on January 6, 2021, all voted “nay” on this bill, proving that they do not give a shit about veterans.

Because President Biden asked for it, these knee-jerk partisan hacks voted no.

Among the 174 Republicans opposing the bill were the top three party leaders — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and Reps. Steve Scalise (La.) and Elise Stefanik (N.Y.).

The U.S. military used burn pits throughout Iraq and Afghanistan to dispose of waste, medical and hazardous materials, and jet fuel, exposing veterans to toxins that have caused long-lasting medical problems. Veterans who have been exposed often face difficult disability benefit claims processes with the Department of Veterans Affairs to get necessary health care.

Republicans who voted in opposition argued that the measure, which has a $300 billion price tag over 10 years, would add too much to the country’s deficit and exacerbate backlogs at VA.

Republicans only care about deficits when a Democrat is in the White House. Republicans Fight Deficits Only When A Democrat Is President.

In March 2021, Congress approved the “American Rescue Plan”, which allocated $150 million to the VA to digitize NPRC files.

Stars And Stripes reported earlier this year, Veterans’ benefits claims surge as VA looks to speed up process:

The Department of Veterans Affairs initiated a pilot project in December to automate part of the process for reviewing benefits claims – a change that the agency says has the potential to shorten the time that veterans wait for decisions from 100 days to one or two days.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough announced the project Tuesday, and he described it as an “exciting new effort” that he hopes will “significantly reduce the time it takes to process veterans claims.” The VA created a new team to handle the project called the Office of Automated Benefit Delivery.

* * *

Under the program, a computer algorithm pulls data from the Veterans Health Administration about veterans, including their military service, claims history and medical treatment. If there’s enough medical evidence already in the system, the automated process will draft a proposed rating decision.

If there’s not enough information to make a decision, the automation will request the veteran undergo a compensation and pension exam. C&P exams are part of the traditional process for deciding benefits claims.

All the information is compiled and sent to a VA employee whose job is to rate benefits claims. Those employees make the final decisions, Reynolds said.

On average, the traditional claims process takes about 100 days. Since the pilot project started Dec. 15, the average time to make a decision on those claims is two days or less, Reynolds said. The process takes about 18 days if it’s necessary for a veteran to get a C&P exam, he said.

Be Vet Strong explains, Benefits Backlog May Linger into 2022 (excerpt):

Even with new measures in place to help catch up on backlogged claims and decrease record gathering and processing time, there is still the matter of facing a substantial amount of claims and cases to get through.

• • • VA reports a current workload of around 500,000 cases. Almost 40% of those 500,000 cases have been waiting for more than 125 days, getting close to becoming officially backlogged.
    • Backlogged claims may increase even more this year. Congress may pass pending legislation that adds more respiratory illnesses, cancers and other things that are thought to be connected to burn pit exposure overseas, and other military toxic exposures. This will provide more disability benefits to tens of thousands of veterans, which is great! It will also increase the amount of disability claims needing to be processed.
    • Additional illnesses being approved for disability benefits is a positive thing. However, more measures need to be in place to be able to support the huge increase in claims these new disabilities will create.

Republicans falsely assert that they will “spare no expense for our vets.” That’s total bullshit. Republicans have routinely voted against providing care for our veterans and to adequately fund the VA.

But then they will grandstand about backlogs in the VA system.

Fuck them! The Biden administration is actually providing care for our Veterans and is making serious efforts at clearing the backlog of claims at the VA with the limited funding available from Congress.

As Be Vet Strong explains:

Backlogged claims first garnered national attention and concern in 2013, when overdue claims numbered around 610,000.

Before the Covid pandemic, there were an estimated 70,000 backlogged disability claims in Veterans Affairs. As of spring 2021, that number was around 210,000 [one-third of what is was a decade ago.] Veteran Affairs reported that the number of backlogged claims has been reduced by 10% in the last few weeks, but that realistically it will be the end of 2022 before numbers go back down to pre-Covid amounts.

The Post continues:

Under the House bill, 23 health conditions, including respiratory conditions and cancers, would be considered to have either been caused by or exacerbated by military service, meaning veterans with these conditions would no longer have to prove that they were caused by their exposure to the toxins.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), during a news conference Thursday, said she was “amazed and surprised” by Republicans’ criticism of the bill’s price tag.

“It’s a cost of war,” Pelosi said. “For the Republicans to go to the floor and say that veterans really don’t want this help because it’s going to cost money, and they’re more concerned about the budget [than] they are about their health. Oh, really? You just gave tax cuts in 2017 to the richest people in America.”

“Tax cuts for the rich, cancer for our veterans,” she added. “That’s how we see this discussion.”

* * *

Addressing burn pits and their effects has also been a priority of President Biden, who brought up the issue during his State of the Union address Tuesday.

Biden said Congress has to do more to assist veterans experiencing long-lasting health issues after being exposed to toxins while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying it was an issue close to his heart. For years, Biden has said the death of his son Beau might have been caused by exposure to toxins while he served in Iraq and Kosovo. Beau Biden was a major in the Army National Guard.

“I’ve always believed that we have a sacred obligation to equip those we send to war, and care for those and their families when they come home,” Biden said during his address.

The House bill was introduced by House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and pushed by Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), a physician. On the House floor Thursday, Ruiz argued that the House owed it to veterans and those who lost a loved one to toxins to pass the bill.

“This is a self-inflicted DOD wound that our military did to our service members, and now they are dying as delayed casualties of war due to those exposures,” Ruiz said. “We need to save lives today.”

Advocates and lawmakers, including Pelosi, rallied in favor of the bill Wednesday. The legislation has received backing from veterans groups and advocates, including comedian Jon Stewart, who has long advocated for veterans and 9/11 first responders and victims.

“The learning curve of this country over how we treat our veterans when they come home from war is so painfully slow, the pace is unacceptable,” Stewart said at the Wednesday rally, where he also dismissed criticism that the bill is too expensive.

“If we can’t bear the consequences of war, maybe we should consider not starting so many,” he said.

Takano said at the event Wednesday that “if we are to support the cost of starting and sustaining war, we must acknowledge the financial costs of supporting those veterans it creates when it comes home. We cannot renege on our responsibility because of sticker shock. We have a moral obligation to America’s veterans.”

The Senate bill, which passed in February with bipartisan support, only extends how long post-9/11 combat veterans are guaranteed VA care by expanding a window of health-care eligibility from five to 10 years after they’ve been discharged.

The Senate and House bills must be reconciled and a final version passed by Congress before heading to the president.

Based upon his long-time advocacy for 9/11 First Responders and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Jon Stewart is now considering running for office. Jon Stewart hints office run and says GOP lawmakers see Putin as ‘ideological brother’:

Comedian Jon Stewart hinted at a possible run for office in a podcast released Thursday, saying it’s impossible not to consider one looking at the “s***heads” in Congress. He also slammed Republicans for viewing Putin as “an ideological brother.”

“Oh, god. How do you not?” Stewart said of running for office while speaking on the Sway podcast. “How do you not when you watch all that and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, what is — this is terrible.'”

The former host of The Daily Show admitted that he wasn’t sure if he had the temperament for office, according to the interview.

Compared to what? MAGA/QAnon performance politics trolls have no business in public office.

“It’s having the patience, like, ‘How come that person gets to still be here? Make that person leave!'” Stewart said when asked about the behaviors of former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.

Stewart also ripped GOP lawmakers for allegedly defending Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“I think for years, it’s been pretty clear that they would much rather do a deal with Putin than [Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat],” Stewart argued in regards to the 45th president and his Republican allies.

“They view Putin as a defender of Western civilization. They view him as an ideological brother.”

On the topic of running for office, he added, “I also think there’s a lot that goes around that has nothing to do with passion or care about issues or wanting to help people, that has to do with fundraising, and the way the game is played and the lack of perspective on it.”

“Sometimes I feel like, well, I can be more effective on the outside than on the inside,” the Emmy Award-winner, who has visited Congress on several occasions to advocate for 9/11 victims, continued.