Dems Give Away Veteran’s Benefits
on 09/28/2007 at 08:33 AM
Thanks you congress critter! Tighten that screw in my back a little bit more!
A USAF Vet!
Say it with me: “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions”.
Now, let’s stop for a second and look into this a little bit before we react.
The US took over the Phillipines in 1898, wresting control of the islands from Spain in the Spanish-American War. When the treaty was signed, we paid Spain $20 million for them. The same deal got us Guam and Puerto Rico, along with Cuba.
Not to go into too much detail, but as soon as Spain was gone, the Filipinos formed their own government and declared independence. The USA did not recognize this, which lead to an immediate small war over there that lasted until 1913. So the USA now had a colony. Many people were unhappy and uncomfortable with this, so to condense a whole lot of history into a paragraph, the Phillipines became a Commonwealth and were scheduled for full independence in 1946. This was the Tydings-McDuffie Act. A part of that act required all the citizens of the Philippines to pledge allegiance to the United States until
independence, and authorized the President of the United States to order the induction of the Commonwealth Army into the U.S. Armed Forces at any time during pre-independence period. This is exactly what FDR did on July 26, 1941.When WWII came along, the Fillipinos served with US troops as US troops, although their units were a bit murky. Some were “Scouts”, some were “Guerillas”, some served directly with American troops. When the islands fell to the Japs and we surrendered, Fillipino troops suffered the same fate as US troops: the Bataan Death March and POW imprisionment, where they died by the thousands just like American troops did.
When the GI Bill came along in 1944 these soldiers were included in it.
Towards the end of the war things got muddy. There was one bunch of guerilla fighters called the Hukbalahap who were pro-communist (remember that “Uncle Joe” was our pal in those days). Also the Commonwealth President signed an order that inducted “recognized” guerilla units into the regular Commonwealth Army, which made them de facto US troops and allowed them to get paid by Uncle Sam. This caused a rush to join up, and a fair amount of falsification - it was the same kind of rush you’d get by putting up a sign that said “free money”. The Hukbalahap guerillas were not privy to this deal, even though they had fought many actions against the Japanese. Politics, eh?
To confuse things a bit more, at the time the US made it difficult for asians to immigrate. But the laws in force then made a large allowance for foreigners serving in our armed forces. Basically they got citizenship as a Thank You. So in 1945 we had hundreds of thousands of Fillipino soldiers who could become American citizens on the spot; this caused the Commonwealth government to worry that too many of its able bodied men would go to America instead of staying in the islands and rebuilding the country after it’s destruction in the war. So in 1946 - in theory to make the Commonwealth government happy - the US rescinded this privilege, and cut the veteran’s benefits that were also part of that package. This was the Rescission Act of 1946.
Soldiers of 66 other countries served with, as, and under American forces in that war. All of those troops were given veteran’s benefits. Only the Filipinos were excluded. The Phillipines had gone from being a direct US colony to a US commonwealth; it’s citizens were de-facto American citizens at the time of the war. The Philippines even had a representative in Congress, just like Puerto Rico did then and does now. So does Guam.
This fight over benefits has been going on for more than 60 years. In years past, some benefits have been given back to these veterans, but by and large they are still legally second class soldiers.
“America will never forget nor abandon those who fought or fight for America” is our stance, but to finally solve this issue by cutting the benefits of others is the wrong approach.
background links:
http://www.naffaa.org/2005naffaa/filvetsbg.html
http://usfilvets.tripod.com/id10.html
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/4/10/filipinoVigilHonorsVeteransSo what I’m saying is, the parts that piss me off are 1) this looks like double-dealing by our government that has been going on for generations, and 2) the robbing Peter to pay Paul aspect of the current bill is wrong, though the attempt to rectify mistakes made in 1946 is right.
What part of the whole thing is bugging you Mr. C? Let’s discuss.
Here is the part that bugs me:
Currently, low-income veterans over 65 are eligible for Special Monthly Pension (SMP) if they have a 100% disability (A&A rate) or a 60% or greater disability (housebound rate). This bill will require veterans to have --two-- disabilities rated at 100 percent each, or one disability rated at 100 percent and one rated at 60 percent or greater to receive the A&A or housebound SMPs, respectively. [Senate Report 110-148]Yes sir only our vaulted and oh-so-patriotic (and Constitutionally bound) Democrats can figure cutting benefits to US (citizen) soldiers to pay foreign soldiers acceptable.
If this was committed to in 1946 - you can damn well bet the bank on the fact that the Dems back then figured out a way to ignore and avoid it. But now that they don’t like the current Administration (and let’s not forget - because there is a War on & the #s of Vets who qualify in that mid range is rising) - they want to take away a benefit from them.
These people have no decency about them at all.
We need to institute a new rule - all Bills stand alone - no earmarks, no pork, no amendments to hide all the destructive, expensive, government growing and worthless crap that would not stand the light of day.
And in addition to that why in the heck doesn’t our vaulted media publish that weeks bills in the ‘news’ papers - so that joe & jane America can actually see what their Congresscritters are voting on?!?
Yeah I already know the answers to my own questions - common sense does not live in US politics anymore.
What part of Public Servant do these people even grasp anymore?
Why, both parts Wardmama! They do things in secret, like hide the authorship of earmarks. And they act as your superiors, doing things “for your own good”. Even when the voice of the people is heard loud and clear they try to reintroduce legislation that they alone back (DREAM act, for example. Also Hillarycare) So they are neither Public nor Servants.
Fire the lot of them and start over.
