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mailmanThe January 17th story "Disabled Vets Will Get Full Pension Under House Plan" is somewhat misleading, although I don't fault the writer for that.

I'm glad Congressman Reed "advocated for the fix in reaction to a provision in the Ryan-Murray budget agreement that impacted the annual cost-of-living adjustment for military retirees."

However, it would have been fairer if he had pointed out that he voted for the Ryan-Murray budget to begin with.

Here's my understanding of what happened:

Democrats and many Republicans, including Reed, voted in mid-December for the Ryan-Murray budget that contained the cuts to veterans' benefits and then went home for Christmas. The budget was at least in part Paul Ryan's baby, and John Boehner pushed it through without allowing the 72 hours for members to read it that he himself had promised.

Ryan even claimed the legislation would not affect veterans disabled in war, which was not true. But once people started pointing out that Republicans could have prevented the cuts to veterans, suddenly Republicans began to say that they were not really cuts, just reductions in the rate of growth.

All this was accounting gimmickry designed to make it look as though the budget deal reduced the deficit and saved money when in fact what Ryan and Murray were doing was undoing the sequestration cuts that actually did save money.

And all of this on the backs of veterans. Goodness knows there's nothing else to "cut"--or grow at a slower rate.

Fast forward to January 15th, when members were being expected to vote on a $1.1 trillion, 1,582-page, omnibus spending bill that they had only had since January 13th, but which did include the fix for disabled veterans mentioned in the article and which 149 members co-sponsored. I figure there was a lot of arm-twisting going on of the "if-you-don't-vote-for-this-behemoth-people-will-think-you're-anti-vet eran" variety. 67 members voted against it anyway (64 Rs and 3Ds); Mr. Reed was not one of them. And so it passed.

Now maybe there's some even more arcane alternate explanation for all of this.  But then again maybe people are tired of inside baseball and longing for straightforward transparency.

If you have never read Angelo Codevilla's article from 2010, "America’s Ruling Class — And The Perils Of Revolution," I urge you to do so. We country class people really must pay closer attention to what the ruling class is doing in the halls of power…and then share the knowledge that results from having paid closer attention.

Sunshine really is the best disinfectant.

Tracy Marisa
Van Etten, NY
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