Tea-Publicans filibuster the bipartisan Veterans Job Corps bill

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Their Obama Derangement Syndrome has reached such a fevered pitch that Tea-Publicans in the U.S. Senate, some of whom participated in drafting this bipartisan veterans jobs bill, voted against the very bill they helped to draft with a GOP filibuster. They are insane, and this is unforgiveable. Vet jobs bill knocked out in Senate:

Legislation to put veterans to work preserving and restoring national
parks and other federal, state and local lands was defeated Wednesday
afternoon when Senate Republicans successfully blocked the bill’s
advance with a budgetary point of order.

The largely party-line Senate vote of 58-40 fell two votes
short of the three-fifths majority needed to overcome the procedural
objection. Republicans said the Veterans Job Corps bill violated the
Budget Control Act by adding a new program that would increase the
deficit. [$1 billion price tag for the program over five years, i.e., $200 million per year — pocket change in Washington.]

[These are the same people who would readily add $5 trillion to the deficit over the next decade by making the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans permanent.]

* * *

Democrats charged that Republican opposition stemmed from a refusal to support an initiative
that originated in the White House. The corps, loosely based on the
Civilian Conservation Corps created during the Great Depression, would
employ veterans in conservation, resource management and historic
preservation projects on public lands. The legislation would also
provide for hiring veterans as police officers and firefighters.

Senate
Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the measure would have
“sailed” through the Senate in past years but had been derailed by
partisanship. “Blocking a veterans’ jobs bill is a new low,” he said in a
statement.

The organization representing the largest number of post-9/11
veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, expressed outrage at
the outcome, saying the program would have created thousands of jobs.

“Election
politics should never stand in the way of creating job opportunities
for our nation’s veterans, especially with an official 10.9 percent
unemployment rate,” said IAVA founder Paul Rieckhoff. “We hope
constituents, veterans and their families across the country will hold
the Senate accountable for this failure.”

“No veteran who fought
for our nation should have to fight for a job at home, but Republicans
in Washington are blocking a common sense plan to create the Veterans
Jobs Corps and put tens of thousands of veterans back to work,” the
White House said in a statement.

[The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, the country’s two largest veterans’ organizations, also supported the bill.]

* * *

In a bid to attract GOP support, [Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a bill co-sponsor] incorporated all of Sen. Richard Burr's (R-N.C.)
proposals and those of several other Republicans, including measures
that would improve veterans’ access to Internet tools to find jobs, and
make it easier for troops leaving military service to get transition
training for civilian life.

And yet, Tea-Publicans still filibustered this bipartisan bill because the Veterans Job Corps idea is a White House initiative, and their Obama Derangement Syndrome demands that they reject anything the Obama administration proposes.

It will be the men and women of our Armed Forces returning to civilian life who will pay the price for this Tea-Publican insanity.

By the way, only five Republicans, including Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Lisa Murkowski
of Alaska, Dean Heller of Nevada, and Olympia J. Snowe and Susan
Collins of Maine, joined every Democrat in voting for the bill.

Arizona's twin embarrassments, Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain, voted against our veterans out of Obama Derangement Syndrome. We can replace this rank embarrassment Jon Kyl with Dr. Richard Carmona in November. I don't see Carmona voting against our veterans.