Told Ya

Tweedledee and Tweedledum. AP (07.16.05):

"Fellow Republicans warned House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay more than a year ago that the government would come up short - by at least $750 million - for veterans' health care. The leaders' response: Fire the messengers. Now that the Bush administration has acknowledged a shortfall of at least $1.2 billion, embarrassed Republicans are scrambling to fill the gap." GOP Scrambles to Fill Veterans' Shortfall

Nice. At least $1.2 billion short. At least. Gee, think it'll go higher? Can't say they weren't warned. "New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith (R - NJ4), as chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, had told the House GOP leadership that the Veterans Affairs Department needed at least $2.5 billion more in its budget. The Senate passed a bill with that increase; the House's bill was $750 million short." "Smith and 30 other Republicans wrote to their leaders in March 2004 to make the point that lawmakers who were not the usual outspoken advocates for veterans were troubled by the move. Failure to come up with the additional $2.5 billion, they contended, could mean higher co-payments and "rationing of health care services, leading to long waiting times or other equally unacceptable reductions in services to veterans." Not only were they ignored, Smith got booted from the chair by the House leadership because he "was right about a billion-dollar shortfall in veterans benefits, and Nicholson's Bush administration was wrong." In Bush's Washington? Huh. Imagine that. He was replaced by Steve Buyer (R - IN4), who seems to have a talent for pissing people off, especially veterans. "Veterans groups are particularly angry with Buyer, who was specially chosen by the House leadership to chair the House Veterans Affairs Committee to keep spending down. Buyer was selected to replace Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.), who had alienated House leaders by pushing for high levels of spending on veterans programs." "Buyer recently sparked new controversy in an interview published by the American Legion Magazine in which he said the department should concentrate on serving a 'core constituency,' and he disputed assertions that 'all veterans are veterans and all veterans should be treated the same.'" Shockingly, the Democrats are making political hay from all of this, characterizing the problem "as another example of the GOP and the White House taking a shortsighted approach to the cost of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and criticize their commitment to the troops."