Unhappy Meals

The Island of Balta reports that some wounded soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed are being required to pay for their own meals. Balta comments:

These people are sent into a hell hole that their government told them is necessary, and while they're stuck in a hospital after being wounded (sometimes quite seriously), our government is again trying to make some of them pay for their own meals. What kind of message can this send? Oh yeah, this war is clearly necessary, but we just can't afford to pay for your meals. Hey, we need to cut taxes!

Can anyone, anywhere give me a genuine reason why the U.S. military should charge wounded Iraq war veterans for their own meals? I don't care if they're receiving outpatient treatment, I don't care what the excuse is, if they're living at a hospital taking care of wounded soldiers, there is no reason they should have to pay for their own meals.

This is categorically reprehensible. As if it weren’t bad enough that the soldiers convalescing at Walter Reed have to ask for phone cards to call their loved ones thousands of miles away, now they (not all, but some) are being told they have to pay for their own food. How many phone cards and meals might the $240,00 paid to Armstrong Williams, or the $21,500 paid to Maggie Gallagher, or the $10,000 paid to Michael McManus have bought? How many phone cards and meals might the money spent on NINE GODDAMNED INAUGURAL BALLS have bought?

Mr. Furious recently mentioned speaking to someone who voted for Bush solely for the great tax breaks he keeps giving her. Well, you parsimonious bitch, and all the greedy assholes like you, how does it feel to know you keep getting richer by taking the food out of soldiers’ mouths? Support the troops, do you? Get stuffed, you stingy cunts.