According to Veteran Journal, sequestration is a charade that was not supposed to happen:
” Designed by Congress as a measure so drastic that it would never be allowed to happen, the sequestration of funds in the government that went into effect on the first of March has gone into effect and now each political side is trying to spin its effects in a storm of bravado and inaction that could possibly last until mid-term elections next year.
While Texans are treated to the farce of Congressional Democrats whining about their staff being “priced out” of a good meal at the House cafeteria , have to deal with the charade of the Sugarland & Conroe air traffic control tower closures (shock, could it be politics!), and are embarrassed by the 55 other shameful fear-mongering campaign tactics publicized, there’s been little mention of a new website www.openthebooks.com, where you can search United States government spending. Thank you Pajamas Media!
I have to give inspirational credit to Texas Congressional Democrats Eddie Bernice Johnson, Pete Gallegos and Gene Green for sending this letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner. In it, these disgraceful politicians (remember, the sequester was designed by them and was not supposed to happen) used the loss of military contributions to Texas economic activity to justify their fear-mongering. Not one honest word of the deceptive measure Congress perpetrated on us was highlighted in the Houston Chronicle article written about this disingenuous & faux-outrage letter to Boehner and Eric Cantor.
So I was motivated to search the web for sites focused on transparency in public spending.
The result? www.openthebooks.com
A search of Federal salaries for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Texas for the year 2011 seemed a good place to start. Over 500 Federal Department of Veterans Affairs employees in Texas were paid a salary over $200,000 each in the year 2011. The rough total? Approximately $130,676,000. And don’t forget benefits are not included.
Congress allowed the MI tax deduction to expire resulting in VA borrowers losing their mortgage insurance tax deduction of over $5350 while VA bureaucrats live large. The Pentagon does away with Tuition Assistance programs for active duty military members while over 4600 job openings were posted on USAJobs.gov. And Texas Congressmen have the nerve to send a faux-outrage letter to the Speaker and Majority Leader.
Disgraceful.
UPDATE: While writing this post, I found a Washington Times article dated March 21st reporting the restoration of the Tuition Assistance program. The restored funding was in the Pentagon CR passed by the Senate on Wednesday & passed by the House last Thursday. Let me get this straight. Congress created the environment allowing the MI tax deduction and TAP to expire. Then this same Congress facilitated a public outcry enabling these same elected officials to appear to come to the rescue of our military? Absolutely appalling.
Until Conservatives UNITE under one umbrella and address all the issues floating around, we are going to get whipped. Basically, the common theme here is disloyalty and treason.
Tea Party will need to widen its range and give more air time to transformative immigration, globalization,protecting our culture and language, in addition to the spending mantra. In France, the RIGHT is powered up, we need to take a look at the techniques. It seems we have good-hearted patriots that are on the receiving end of a never-ending cycle of misleading politicians.
Ms. Larsen: The VA is a poor place to look for examples of unconscionably high government salaries. One of the major functions of the VA is to run hospitals for our veterans. A lot of doctors work in those hospitals and a lot are specialists who could make a boatload of money in private practice. The government has to pay them high salaries to get them to go to work for the VA and provide decent medical care for those of my brothers who risked their lives for this country.
Of course, if you don’t think our veterans should get top quality medical care, I guess we could fire those doctors and hire cheaper ones.
Ah yes, the VA is a great place to look for examples of unconscionable government spending. Remember Arleen Ocasio, the Director of Veteran Affairs cemetary director? What SHE did was quite unconscionable….my point, at the end of the post, is how disgraceful it is for government (in the form of Congress) to have let the MI and TAP expire and then after a public outcry, have the audacity to reinstate the two programs and then take credit for “helping” to pass the Legislation.
P.S. My husband is retired military; nice try.