A recent analysis by HUD and the VA has revealed the distressing statistic that military veterans make up 16 percent of our nation’s homeless, while comprising only 10 percent of its adult population—a problem that is worsening as vets return from Afghanistan and Iraq. While there are many forces underlying this disproportion, congressional reluctance to legislate veteran-friendly programs surely tops the list.
Why the indifference to veterans’ needs? There’s a movement among some in the House and Senate that would indiscriminately oppose any social program that does not pay for itself. Many programs designed to help veterans don’t meet that standard.
A more appreciative and humane view, as expressed by one legislator, is that our servicemen and women have “paid at the office.”
If you care about fair treatment of our returning vets, and of all vets, I urge you to pay attention not so much to what our legislators say, as to what they do; that is, how they vote. Say what they will—and most will say anything to get elected—their votes on Capitol Hill speak loudest. Many web sites make it easy to monitor congressional activity. One excellent site for assessing how your elected officials vote on the key issues that affect our veterans is provided by the nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America’s “2010 Congressional Report Card.” Here you can learn what those key issues are, see how your congresspersons have voted on each of them, and view the resulting grade they earned. Legislators that Central Coast voters have helped elect score excellent-to-poor grades, from A (Barbara Boxer) to D (Kevin McCarthy).
When election time rolls around, try mapping what those who are up for re-election say against how they have actually voted. Not surprisingly, in many cases there is a huge discrepancy.
This article appears in Mar 17-24, 2011.