Where to start?
In an August 8 article, USA Today reported that the House and Senate Appropriation Committees were poised to cut funding by half for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) caused by bomb blasts. The funding was to be used for research and treatment of war-related brain injuries as part of the 2007 Defense appropriation bill.
About twenty percent of injured Iraq war veterans suffer from some sort of traumatic brain injury. This Administration wants to cut funding for it but at the same time says "it needs more study."
Further down:
As many Vietnam veterans know, substance abuse often goes hand in hand with PTSD. Among Vietnam veterans seeking treatment for PTSD, 60 to 80 percent have alcohol-use disorders, according to the National Center for PTSD. And things are not looking much better for our current troops.
No, things are not looking better for current troops, because we have crystal methamphetamine now.
Nearly one-quarter of all homeless adults are veterans, and many more veterans who live in poverty are at risk of becoming homeless.
Surely the magical mystical all-knowing and liberating invisible hand of the Free Market will address this problem soon, and add millions of profit-driven dollars of sorely-needed funding for injured veterans.
Well, no. Not really.
After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.
Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif. He's since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he said.
"The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.
If only the Free Markets were allowed to work, this man would own have his own Volvo dealership by now, complete with hot-tubs for his well-treated white caucasian male workers to use on their frequent and generous breaks.
But wait, there's more. If you order now, we'll also send you the Ginsu knives, For Free!
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides funding for forty beds for Arizona's homeless veterans. Isn't that great? Too bad there's about 1,350 of them, though. They'll have to share bunks.
Could be worse. North Dakota has a thousand homeless vets and no DVA funded beds. But you can rest assured that those heroes are all going to sleep warmly tonite because the Free Markets will provide. If only we gave more tax cuts to Paris Hilton and Tom Cruise...
3 comments:
One of the major gripes that I have with the libertarian/free-market set is that it will solve all ills. I honestly heard Ron Paul say in an interview that people don't need universal healthcare because they can just go into any emergency room and will be taken care of. He was serious when he said this. Ugh.
You are so right on with this. Even with San Antonio a few hours away, so many of our vet's in this area cannot get care, they have to wait months for appointments, then arrange transportation to go. The local vet's groups are trying to get a hospital in Brownsville ...but of course there is always that little funding issue. The goverment is too worried right now about building the Mexico/Texas wall to worry about health care for our American Vet's!
But we have to keep troops over there so that all the troops before them who died and were injured wouldn't have made that sacrifice in vain. There's the grieving families too, keep sending kids to die. Let me if you can find any rational quality in this.
from Ruth
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