Jon Stewart celebrates after Senate passes bill to assist veterans exposed to toxins | US Senate | The Guardian
By: the Guardian
looks like fascists finally realized that being the party of anti-choice and anti-veterans probably wasn't a good look heading towards the midterms...
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
After a week of anger and criticism from veterans groups and advocates, including the comedian Jon Stewart, Senate Republicans finally agreed to pass a bill that expands healthcare and benefits to veterans exposed to toxins.
"I'm not sure I've ever seen this situation where people who have already given so much had to fight so hard to get so little," said Stewart, who joined veterans to push for the bill. "I hope we learned a lesson."
Known as the Pact Act, the bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday night in an 86-11 vote.
It will provide assistance to veterans who were exposed to harmful chemicals during their service, such as Agent Orange during the Vietnam war, or toxins from pits used to burn military waste in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Department of Defense estimates that about 3.5 million service members could have been exposed to burn pits in the Middle East. Such chemicals can cause respiratory illnesses and cancer to those exposed, medical experts said.
Currently veterans have had to prove that illnesses were connected to their service, and the Department of Veterans Affairs did not consider exposure to toxins a service-related condition. The department has denied about 75% of veterans' burn pit claims.
The Pact Act passed the House last month and had support from a majority of Republican senators until last week, when a coalition of them held up the bill's passage. The senators said they no longer supported the bill after Democrats announced they reached a deal on a major tax and climate bill on Wednesday.
Veteran advocates sharply denounced the Republicans' U-turn. Stewart called them "stab-vets-in-the-back senators". Protests erupted outside the Capitol.
On Tuesday night, the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, announced that he and his Republican counterpart, the minority leader, Mitch McConnell, had reached a deal on the bill. At a news conference, McConnell said Republicans' objections were part of the "legislative process".
"These kind of back and forths happen all the time in the legislative process, you've observed that over the years," he said. "I think in the end, the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the final result."
Joe Biden praised the bill's passage, saying: "We should all take pride in this moment." In his most recent State of the Union address earlier this year, the US president mentioned that his son Beau, who served a year-long tour of Iraq and later died of brain cancer, could have been a victim of burn pit toxins.
"The Pact Act will be the biggest expansion of [veterans affairs] healthcare in decades," Biden tweeted. "We'll never be able to repay the debt we owe to those who have worn the uniform, but today, Congress delivered on a promise to our veterans and their families."
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3+ months to go and still plenty of opportunities left to shoot themselves in the feet. dumb asses...
Love this man.
The republican scum will make sure to let us know what hateful scum they are and don't give a shit about anyone but themselves and lining their pockets.
FUCK THEM!
Some of us, last week predicated that this would pass before the Senate goes on recess. It would have passed last week if Schumer had allowed the amendment vote then. Normal back and forth jockeying.
exactly. it's not the first time republicans used veterans as political pawns and it won't be the last.
When was the first time?
don't you know? can you enlighten us on your own article? would you like to watch your deflective off topic and no value comments disappear again?
Typical MO
You will delete or not regardless of my comment. There is nothing wrong with admitting that don’t know when that has happened.
Prime example trumpturd who called all veterans who lost their lives losers.
How anyone can support that scum is so mind boggling but turds will be turds
Always the victim
Well, time to turn in.
It's been fun as always
Need my beauty sleep or I get cranky
LOL
go play your word games somewhere else if you have an issue with the moderation in TG's groups. I consider this conversation over and any more beyond as meta.
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Always fun to watch the non serving in the military Rand Paul with his usual bull shit stunts.
Happy that it passed.
What a pity these scum need to be shamed into doing the right thing.
to republicans, dead soldiers are a political asset and living veterans are an economic liability.
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retrumplicans can definitely count on the votes of those that have reneged on their oath to defend the constitution, can't they?
Yup but I call them trumpturd enablers/supporters
But a turd by any other name . . .
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Good to see something being done after Democrats cut funding for so much during their rule.
democrats cut funding for veterans? prove it. what an impotent comment.
All he's got.
How stupid is that. So the VA that is suppose to be healthcare for veterans is deciding what care will be given depending on if people can prove they were in service at the time...
What bullshit.
They served, they get the benefits. They don't get to pick and choose which sickness they will treat.
they pulled the same shit on the victims of agent orange for decades.
I’m a veteran and I choose to avoid VA health care. I take my Medicare and my Army Tricare for Life to public doctors and hospitals. The VA has decades old history of poor service but at great government expense. I think that I had gone to them with my Stage 4 cancer, I would be dead now.
I think I have heard that from other veterans, that they use tri-care.
A number in my family use the VA. My BIL and sister both 20 plus year veterans use it as does my son. I do not for a number of reasons and some others in my family do not. I would say it's a 50/50 split.
I'm entitled to VA medical, IHS medical and medicare and I choose medicare with supplement. My reasoning is that I don't use IHS because there are many more that need it and cannot afford other medical and I can so it's important to me that they have a chance. I don't use the VA because of the care that I received some years back.
my experience with the VA in getting help for my dav-dad was a shit show. it's a last resort medical treatment for our country's most valuable resource, and that is a disgrace to the legacy of america.