Republicans Don't Want To Extend Benefits To Homeless Veterans

On the one hand, the Republicans think that if they just paint the picture that life in America is falling fast into the big sinkhole, they will retake Congress in the next election. Except ...

The reason we are in this sinkhole is BECAUSE of the Republicans. The won't pass the extensions to the unemployment benefits AND paint those that are out of work as "lazy" and not deserving of said benefits (while they yell and scream that we just CANNOT let the tax cuts to the wealthy expire!!!!). Now they block the bill to help funding additional benefits for the HOMELESS VETERANS! Insanity, I tell you! Just plain insane. Look, the rich don't vote (um, how about that Republican candidate for Gov. of California LOL who hasn't voted in 28 years, but thinks she can be the "governator!") and by alienating the veterans, the seniors, the people of color, who the fuck is going to vote Republican?

Today, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) brought her bill — the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act — to the Senate floor seeking unanimous consent. Murray said the bill would “expand assistance for homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children and would increase funding and extend federal grant programs to address the unique challenges faced by these veterans.” However, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) objected on behalf of Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to this seemingly non-controversial issue:

McCONNELL: Madam president, reserving the right to object and I will have to object on behalf of my colleague Sen. Coburn from Oklahoma. He has concerns about this legislation, particularly as he indicates in a letter that I’ll ask the Senate to appear on the record that it be paid for up front so that the promises that makes the Veterans are in fact kept. So madam president I object.

"This is pretty low, even for Republicans,” the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen said. While Murray pledged to continue to fight for the bill’s passage, Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) spokesperson said “Republicans have their priorities backwards — according to them, it’s OK to give tax breaks to CEOs who send American jobs overseas, but not to help out-of-work Americans and homeless veteran.”