Snap Fact #313 - President Obama Fights for Veterans’ Jobs; While GOP Blocks Veterans Jobs Bill and Romney Insults Veterans!

For the past decade, America has sent its military in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these men and women have done multiple tours of duty in an inhospitable region of burning desert and rugged mountains. They face extremes of temperature and go out to do their jobs each day wondering if it will be their last. 

Many of these men and women have come home to America with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Many of these soldiers and others find it difficult to find work. In a number of past SNAP CAPs (see #241, #254, #275), we described how President Obama reached out to Veterans multiple times. 

Due to GOP Congressional intransigence, President Obama went out on his own and announced partnerships with small business and corporations to help give returning Veterans the skills they need to re-enter the workforce and to find jobs thru a jobs bank. 

On September 19, 2012, President Obama’s latest effort to help Veterans find jobs was once again rebuffed in the Senate when the GOP unbelievably choked a Veterans Jobs Bill. “. . . Republicans on Wednesday afternoon blocked a vote on the Veterans Job Corps Bill after Jeff Sessions of Alabama raised a point of order — he said the bill violated a cap on spending agreed to by Congress last year. 

The bill’s sponsor, Patty Murray of Washington, correctly pointed out the fallacy of Sessions’ objection. She stated that his theory is not relevent since the cost of the bill was fully offset by new revenues. She said Mr. Sessions and his party colleagues had been furiously generating excuses to oppose the bill, and were now exploiting a specious technicality to deny thousands of veterans a shot at getting hired as police officers, firefighters and parks workers, among other opportunities. 

Democrats fell two votes shy of the 60-vote majority needed to waive Sessions objection, forcing the legislation back to committee. . .”

Blocking Veterans jobs is a dishonor for a country that has relied on these men and women who were sent into combat in Iraq by the Bush Administration based on the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) lie. Men and women sent to war without adequate body armor by the very same GOP Administration. 

To add real insult to real injury these very heroes are counted as a part of the “indolent 47%” that Mitt Romney inaccurately referred to in the leaked Boca Raton FL fundraiser videotape. They are surely a part of the 47% of the country that Romney claims pays no federal income taxes. He described them as "victims" who fail to take "personal responsibility" for their lives. 

Fact checking reveals that of the 47% Romney alleges are lazy and irresponsible, 61% do pay taxes. Besides soldiers, many of the remainder are seniors, the disabled, the working poor, and children. As for the military personnel, these honorable men and women who risk their lives to keep America safe are exempt from paying income taxes on their meager service pay while they are taking responsibility to keep their own lives and to protect the lives and freedom of their fellow Americans. 

Romney not only slurred these honorable men and women in not mentioning their service at the GOP convention, he slurred them while addressing wealthy donors who paid $50,000 a plate to hear him speak that day I Boca Raton. It certainly takes a lot of "chutzpah ' (nerve) and mendacity to insult Veterans along with half the population of the U.S. 

President Obama correctly said that a president represents and serves 100% of the American people. But then again, one only has to look at Romney's disgraceful record as Governor of Massachusetts in regards to Veterans: ". . .. He sought to cut state hiring preferences for veterans and tried to cut funding for veterans outreach programs. He tried to increase user fees for long-term care for veterans and even sought to cut funding for the care of veterans' graves. And he tried to combine veterans' services with the state's Office of Elder Affairs. . . While wasting tens of thousands of dollars for new television sets for his staff, Romney forced blind citizens -- including many veterans -- to pay a tax. 

Under Romney, Massachusetts began a policy of requiring the blind to carry "a certificate of blindness." The blind were required to pay $10 annually for the certificate and $15 every four years for a blind identification card. 

Romney's disgraceful comments and GOP inaction towards Veterans Jobs shows a basic contempt for anyone who is not in the top 2% and who relies on the helping hand of government when there is a need. If Romney and his allies get their way, Veterans, Seniors, the poor will surely feel the brunt of Romney's foolish draconian policies, all to the detriment of the citizens of America.