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Veterans should not be the target of budget cuts

The Bush administration is again showing its true colors. After giving the upper 2 percent huge tax reductions and spending billions and billions of dollars on a war that did not have to be fought, it seeks to lower the deficit by adding to the financial burden of veterans by doubling their prescription copay and asking for a $250 charge to use the VA facilities.

This is the same administration that sent our troops off to war without enough flak jackets and without properly armored vehicles. They say they support our troops and love those photo ops with our young men and women who are serving our country but never miss a chance to cut back on veterans' benefits.

I would ask those who have the magnetic "Support Our Troops" signs on their vehicles to really show support for our troops and write to their elected representatives to let them know that the place to cut is not with our veterans who have served honorably.

They deserve health care equivalent to what George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice have.

Speak out against higher copay

Re: Budget for VA targets copays, Feb. 7.

No, no, no!

Too many veterans have copaid with their lives, and the ones who survive need and deserve the care they are entitled to.

Cynthia R. Church, a spokeswoman for the Department of Veteran Affairs can defend this administration's record all she wants with the VA budget increase from 2001 to 2005 of a whopping 40 percent (10 percent a year).

Why is it that so many veterans still wait for the health care they need now? No, not this time, Mr. President! Find somewhere else to "slice and dice" in financing your war on Iraq.

I urge all veterans to start speaking up against this copay increase. If we don't take a stance, these poor Americans defending our country now will have less than nothing compared to nothing for those that did.

"A bag of pills and be on your way!"

Paying for past fiscal irresponsibility

I am a veteran and I am fighting mad. I served my country in the Navy (submarines) and spent a total of 16 years in the service and Reserves. For the past two years, I have used the services of the Brooksville VA Clinic, which is exemplary, and am happy to pay the $7 copay per month for my medication. The president's new budget calls for an increase in the copay to $15 per month and a $250 tax to be paid by some vets for the privilege of using the VA health care system.

I guess this means that some of us have to pay for the president's past fiscal irresponsibility: tax cuts for the wealthy and a mind-boggling deficit. My heart goes out to all the veterans of the Gulf War and now this war in Iraq. The order of the day is: "Once your services are no longer needed, you're on your own."

Wake up, veterans. Call or write your senators and representatives, and support your local veterans' organization. We need all the help we can muster.

Families hurt by budget cuts

Re: Bush's budget cuts.

Where are this administration's priorities? Where are the family values this administration espoused?

The administration wants to cut aid that helps lower-middle class and low income families: cutting child care funding, food stamps, Medicaid, heating fuel for the poor and elderly, and trade schools. His mantra of "No Child Left Behind" rings rather false with this budget proposal as he is proposing cuts to education.

His so-called concern for our men and women in uniform also rings false. What about the veterans who have served and are currently serving this country? That's right, he wants to cut spending for veterans.

And the budget cuts go on and on. Yet he wants to make permanent the tax cuts for the rich. Isn't there a disconnect here?

It's time for everybody to stop listening to sound bites and take a good look at what's happening under the Bush administration. We must show a united front and say: No more, Mr. Bush!

Problems left unsolved

The president assures us that his proposed domestic spending cuts are not only necessary, but are also targeted at programs that are not working. We should all be asking why these programs are not working, as he tells us.

Fair enough, but these programs are targeted at specific problems. Removing a failing program without replacing it with an effective one leaves a problem unsolved. An unsolved problem is your child, or my child, without adequate education; your mother, or my mother, without access to the health benefits she needs; your neighborhood, or my neighborhood, with broken-down buildings and crumbling infrastructure.

Let's do away with failing programs, Mr. President, but not leave our children, our friends and our neighbors without any help at all.

Rice and Gonzales earned "no' votes

Re: So much for backing minorities, letter, Feb. 7.

As a black person I must say that I totally agree with the votes against the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzales. These "no" votes had nothing to do with race or minority status but with the right people filling the right jobs. Rice and Gonzales are simply the wrong people for the positions they were given. It was their positions on the issues that caused the no votes, and only they can be held responsible for their positions.

Had I had a vote on these two individuals, I would have voted no.

I personally think they were confirmed because of their race and not their abilities. We have come to the point where if a senator dares to vote against a person of color he or she is labeled racist. Call it "blackmail" if you wish! These confirmations did nothing to further the public's trust in the running of our government.

Judged by their character

Re: So much for backing minorities, letter.

Regarding the question of where the Democrats stand on minorities:

The Senate Democrats voted on "the content of their character, not the color of their skin."

[Last modified February 10, 2005, 00:26:16]