Sometimes What You Really Need Is a Potahto

Do you think Sens. Tom Coburn and Mitch McConnell have yellow ribbons on their vehicles? I'm sure they would be willing to go to that length to "support our troops" — unless it clashes with the color of their no doubt fine vehicles. Supporting the troops is one thing, but that degree of shared sacrifice is asking a lot of freedom-loving patriots.

But it would require no personal sacrifice on their parts to vote for the Homeless Women Veterans and Homeless Veterans With Children Act (.pdf).

This bill, S. 1237, was originally introduced (with a somewhat different name) by Sen. Patty Murray of Washington on June 11, 2009. It has taken a year to get it through the Committee on Veterans' Affairs and to the full Senate for approval.

Approval which was denied it yesterday by Sen. McConnell, objecting to the unanimous consent for it which Sen. Murray had requested, on behalf of his fellow Republican, Sen. Coburn.

Sen. Coburn, it seems, is concerned. He is concerned about how the government would pay for the services authorized under this bill, especially since he believes the government should be taking in far less revenue. He supports eliminating the Estate Tax. He supports continuing tax reductions for the wealthy enacted during the Bush administration.

In fact, he supports eliminating the federal Income Tax altogether and replacing it with the Fair Tax, a national sales tax under which every U.S. resident, regardless of race, creed, gender — or income — would pay exactly the same amount of tax on things they freely chose to buy. What could be fairer than that?

But even before we reach this utopia in which the rich person stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the poor person in being taxed as equals, we need to cut spending. So we cannot afford the grants to support job training, counseling, child care services and placement services, including job readiness and literacy and skills training, to facilities and programs which provide services dedicated to homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children, nor the special needs grants to improve their care at VA and other facilities, which Sen. Murray's bill would provide.

In a Senate speech on June 22 urging passage of her bill, Sen. Murray said:

supporting our veterans shouldn’t be about politics—it should be about what kind of country we want the United States to be. And about what our priorities are as a nation.

In his second inaugural address in 1865, President Lincoln said our nation had an obligation to "care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan."

Well, in 2010, I believe we not only need to care for HIM—we need to care for HER. And for his and her families.

This bill is not dead. Sen. Murray has promised to "continue fighting." So, no doubt, will Sen. Coburn.

Some people think politics is irrelevant to their lives, because politicians are all alike. Certainly it can look that way, given the generous capacity for acting in a weaselly and self-serving manner which seems endemic to the species. It's been many a long year since I admired a politician.

That's why it makes sense to me to concentrate on working on behalf of, not politicians or political parties, but specific policies. Politicians are only as useful as the policies they can be induced to support.

Yesterday, Sen. Murray was concerned. Sen. Coburn was concerned. Sen. Mitchell was concerned on Sen. Coburn's behalf, since Sen. Coburn and his concern were evidently required elsewhere.

There was one difference. The senators were not concerned about the same things.

Via