Editorial: Shame on Congress for abandoning veterans
In this Nov. 19, 2011 fie photo the U.S. Capitol building is seen in Washington. Credit: AP
On their way out the door to seek re-election, members of the 112th Congress have given us one more glaring piece of evidence of their utter fecklessness: At a time when veterans suffer from an official unemployment rate of nearly 11 percent -- and real unemployment of almost twice that -- and are falling into homelessness and committing suicide, the Senate killed a $1-billion bill to create a Veterans Jobs Corps, similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
Senate Republicans stood almost unanimously against the bill, arguing that it would add to the deficit, because they didn't like President Barack Obama's ideas for offsetting the costs.
The bill's biggest problem seemed to be its authorship. Though Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and other groups have been pushing the idea for a long time, Obama proposed it, and Republicans are in no mood to give him a victory. Still, they are right in their argument that Senate Democrats advanced it to embarrass Republicans, and it had no real chance in the GOP-controlled House anyway.
There's plenty of blame to go around, including senators who wrote parts of the bill but didn't back it on a key rules vote Wednesday.
Again, politicians who use we-love-our-veterans rhetoric have failed to deliver real help. Now the 200,000 or so jobless vets will have to wait until next year. It's a perfect exit line for a Congress that has richly earned its microscopic approval ratings.
