Burn pit bill

Comedian Jon Stewart erupts after Republicans vote against military burn pits bill (msn.com)

The news article read " Republicans vote against military burn pits bill!"

Did the republican’s really vote against the bill or were they trying to prevent democrats from having another pork barrel for their pet projects.

It seems to me that any bill our politicians, from either party, come up with, they will always add ways to spend additional money on other things. To me, it sounds like that could be happening here.

If one penny isn’t for veteran’s care, it should not be signed into law, as often is when one of these bills are passed. By the time they get done spending money on their pet projects, there is little money for the actual bill.

Vets need help now, not years from now while pet projects are in the work.

The burn pits are the boomer’s children and grandchildren's version of Agent Orange. The politicians spent years denying Agent Orange was causing cancer, while thousands of vets were dying from it and now, just like with agent Orange, they are blaming each other for not doing something to help.

It’s an undisputed fact that rare cancers and respiratory illnesses were found to have been caused by fumes from burning everything from rubber, chemical waste, ammunitions and human feces in the burn pits.

Inside the news article it stated: “a technical correction held up the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, then Republican Pat Toomey blocked a quick procedural passage in the Senate, citing concerns with how money was appropriated in the bill.

The bill, without Toomey's amendment, came up for a final vote in the Senate late on Wednesday, and it won the support of 55 senators, five votes short of the 60 needed for passage.”

The news article didn’t say what Toomey’s amendment was, just mentioned it as a cause.

Here is what that amendment says:

Toomey: Congress Must Protect Veterans Care Bill from Being Used as Vehicle for Massive Unrelated Spending Binge

 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) today spoke on the Senate floor about his effort to fix a flaw in the PACT Act. As currently written, the bill would enable $400 billion over the next 10 years in spending completely unrelated to veterans. Senator Toomey’s technical fix does not reduce spending on veterans by even $1 or affect the expansion of care and benefits in the underlying bill.

Watch the Senator’s remarks here.

The PACT Act as written includes a budget gimmick that would allow $400 billion of current law spending to be moved from the discretionary to the mandatory spending category. This provision is completely unnecessary to achieve the PACT Act’s stated goal of expanding health care and other benefits for veterans. However, it would enable an additional $400 billion in future discretionary spending completely unrelated to veterans. By failing to remove this gimmick, Congress would effectively be using an important veteran’s care bill to hide a massive, unrelated spending binge.

What do you think the true story is?