Does the Tea Party understand what we owe our veterans?

A few days ago I wrote a post about the Republican party not being a friend to veterans. Apologies if I repeat myself, but clearly the GOP and its Tea Party puppet masters don't give a rat's ass about veterans, their families, or, for that matter, active duty personnel and their families. The checks went out on October 1st. If the shutdown goes on much longer, no one eats next month, or pays their rent, or their car payment, or anything else. The surreal nature of this leaves me searching for the right words..you know, words that are calm and not vulgar. Because I really don't understand how a small group of people could do this and not face arrest and imprisonment. The shutdown and the potential default on our debt ceiling (which none of them apparently understands) is not something we should ever face as a country. Too much is riding on things functioning properly. 

Anyway, here's the promise we make to people who defend us. If you defend us, we will take care of you and yours. It's that simple. As I've said before, my husband is a disabled veteran. As this is now our only source of income, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. I've already made minimum payments this month on bills I typically pay more on. We're trying to limit our grocery shopping in the event that this month's money needs to stretch into next month. Both our boys are adults, live elsewhere, and are employed in non-governmental jobs so there's that. We have only the two of us to be concerned about and we'll be okay. We tend to live simply so we're somewhat used to austerity. It just feels better when it's self-imposed instead of nut job-imposed.

But not everyone will be okay. Most people live from paycheck to paycheck and that includes disabled veterans and their families. We cannot allow a small faction of Congress to tie the country up in knots with their insane ideology. And it doesn't really matter if it's veterans were talking about, or if it's WIC moms. People are already being hurt right now by the behavior of these imbeciles. Everything just stops without money to pay for it. If we let the shutdown continue the casualties will be massive.

Here's the thing.. When you make a promise to people who defend us, you have to follow through on that promise. It's been difficult enough for service members returning home to the economy we have, but if they're wounded, the backlog to even get started with the VA is horrible. And when you factor in the notion that we went to war on a lie, then the lives either damaged or lost make it so much more critical to not abandon them this way. 

The Tea Party Republicans must stop this insanity, grow up, and reopen the government. Then they need to resign and go home in disgrace.

As the shutdown looms..

My husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran who receives benefits from the Veteran's Administration each month. This is what happens when something goes wrong while in service to our country. We promise to take care of our veterans. They take care of us and, in turn, we take care of them. 

Unless you're a Tea Party Republican. Those people don't care about anyone. It's almost as if they're living in an alternate universe that's bleeding into ours. They don't make any sense and clearly do not understand what governing is. These mentally challenged individuals believe that they can control spending by not raising the debt limit. Trying to reason with them only falls on deaf ears. It's a fairly simple concept, really. I'm sure they all have credit cards. If they don't pay off the balance each month, they have to pay, say it with me now, interest or finance charges on the remaining balance. Or, say you finance a car you want to buy. You'll pay a certain amount of interest on that loan. Same thing happens when you buy a home. It all adds to the debt you owe. That's what the debt ceiling thing is. Voting each time to agree to simply pay the bills we've already agreed to incur is stupid and pointless. We owe the money. And although I know that old school Republicans exist, they're either too intimidated by these people, or they just don't care anymore to stop them. And now the Tea Party Republicans want to bail on our fiscal responsibilities. How can they hold office if they don't understand this? If this were a business, they'd be fired.

Somehow, they've even managed to incorporate the idea of freedom, into the equation. Unfortunately all they've really accomplished in my estimation is reducing freedom to an unrecognizable slogan or buzzword. And yet, they seem to be the biggest control freaks around. They want to force women to have vaginal ultrasounds before having an abortion, a constitutionally protected medical procedure. They know they can't win elections so much anymore because of how insane they are so they re-draw the districting lines or find other ways to suppress the vote. It's always in areas that typically vote for Democrats, so I guess they think if they stack the vote in their favor, they'll be back in control.

But let's look at what they do when Republicans (Tea Party or not) are in control. They lied us into two wars. They ended the Assault Weapons Ban. They crashed the economy. They enact laws typically on the state level that endanger workers' rights and women's rights. They seem to favor only protecting corporations instead of protecting people. They don't believe in climate change and they don't care if the earth is polluted out of existence. They pay homage to the 1% because that's who fills their election coffers. And then there's the racism. That filters into everything. It's part of why they voted to reduce the SNAP program by almost 40 billion. And don't even get me started on immigration reform or the whole, corporations are people my friend crap. This is compassionate conservatism at its finest.

And now they want to shut down the government unless we defund the Affordable Care Act. Never mind that the ACA is covering kids until they're 26. Never mind that pre-existing conditions will be covered. Never mind that it's going to save people money. Never mind that millions will have health insurance for maybe the first time ever. Never mind the facts, because as we all have seen, the GOP doesn't ever let facts get in the way of decision-making. Instead, they make stuff up out of whole cloth and expect the rest of us to buy it hook, line and sinker. Well, we're a whole lot smarter than that.

The country is in a mess. Crazy people always come out of the woodwork when these things happen. Many of them were elected to Congress. If we don't get them out of office, our country will never get back on track. The American people deserve better than these lunatics. We cannot stay home in 2014. We have to stand up and tell these morons that we deserve better than what they've given us. Vote.