e-News 2/12/16

• The President’s Budget: More Spending, Taxes and Debt
• Syria Plunges Further into Chaos
• New North Korean Sanctions to the President’s Desk
• More Soldiers to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province
• Six More Initiatives to Help Veterans
• Salute: Livingston Veterans Remember the Four Chaplains

The President’s Budget: More Spending, Taxes and Debt

Just as I predicted here last week, there were no surprises in the budget the president sent to Congress this week.

Like every one of his previous budgets, President Obama’s newest plan never balances. Not ever.

Like all of his previous proposals, his proposal increases spending by trillions of dollars above what we already cannot afford and takes more money out of the pockets of hardworking taxpayers.

Under the president’s vision, what we spend on interest on our national debt by 2022 will surpass that which we spend to protect and defend our nation.

This is the same approach we have seen time and time again from this Administration that continues to lead America down the same path we have been on for the past seven years: one with fewer jobs, lower wages, less opportunity and less security.

On the other hand, threats to the safety of our homeland grow every day. Terrorism is spreading like a cancer across the world, and adversaries like Russia, Iran, China, and North Korea are increasing aggression.  President Obama's defense budget simply does not do enough to counter these threats. Our country’s security is the highest responsibility of Congress, and I will work with my bipartisan colleagues to produce a bill that provides our Commander in Chief with the resources that our military needs, even if he does not request enough!

The responsibility of the Appropriations Committee now, on which I serve, is to scrutinize this request. We will hold extensive oversight hearings and briefings to make informed, thoughtful, line-by-line funding decisions, on behalf of the American people.    

View the President’s budget here.

Syria Plunges Further into Chaos

Even though terrorism is spreading, the President is proposing to virtually freeze funding for the Global War on Terrorism.  In fact, his Department of Defense suggests “slightly increased activities” in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. 

This appears to be more of the same policies that contributed to the humanitarian, military and security disasters across the Middle East and north Africa.

This week, a Syrian think tank claimed that as many as 470,000 people may have been killed in the civil war and 45% of the population has been displaced.   Read the story in the Guardian here.

Worth a close “read,” Russian Intervention in Syrian War Has Sharply Reduced U.S. Options in  the Thursday New York Timeshere.

Read Roger Cohen’s column, “America’s Syrian Shame” in the New York Times here.

The Syrian catastrophe should teach everyone that when the United States fails to lead and retreats from its global responsibilities, extremely bad things will occur.

New North Korean Sanctions to the President’s Desk

We have moved another step closer to a new round of sanctions against North Korea for flagrant violations of international law by carrying out recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests as well as for other malicious activities, including cybersecurity attacks and human rights abuses.  The House this morning gave final approval to a bill that will cut off a key subsidy for the regime’s weapons of mass destruction program.

The president’s strategy of “strategic patience” with this rogue regime is just not working.  We cannot be patient when a dictator threatens our country and our allies with advanced nuclear weapons.  

Read more about H.R. 757, the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Acthere.

More Soldiers to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province

It will be the largest deployment of American troops outside major bases in Afghanistan since the end of the NATO combat mission in 2014

Read the story, “With War in Afghanistan over, Army prepares to send Infantry Battalion to Helmand Province” in American Legion Magazinehere.

Six More Initiatives to Help Veterans

Representatives of the Jewish War Veterans were in Washington this week to discuss many issues, including the ongoing bureaucratic mess at the Department of Veterans Affairs – delayed decisions on veterans benefits appeals and more reports of denied and deferred medical treatment.

The latest outrage comes from Colorado where staff members at a VA clinic were falsifying records to make it look like they were taking care of veterans when they actually were not. This does not appear to be a matter of cutting a few clerical corners. In dozens of cases, according to a new report from the VA’s own watchdog, employees made it appear as if veterans received same-day appointments when in reality they waited an average of 76 days.

Our veterans deserve better, which is why the House this week approved six more initiatives to address a range of problems at the VA:

1.     Hospital Reform: H.R. 3234 requires the VA to address problems at underperforming facilities and deploy specialists to fix them.

2.     Construction Reform: H.R. 3106 boosts oversight of the VA’s construction process, which has given us such fiascos as a hospital in Denver that ended up more than $1 billion over budget.

3.     Employment, Education, and Healthcare Reform: H.R. 3016 extends the length of time for which newborn babies are eligible for VA care, and gives spouses of fallen servicemembers more time and flexibility to use GI Bill benefits, and closes a loophole that leads to exorbitant tuition expenses.

4.     COLA Reform: H.R. 677 makes the annual cost-of-living adjustment for veterans automatic.

5.     Female Veteran Suicide Prevention: H.R. 2915 builds on the suicide prevention law enacted last year by ensuring that the VA is focused on suicide prevention programs that are most effective for women.

6.     Protecting Student Veterans: H.R. 2360 protects the integrity of the GI Bill by ensuring that schools meet state-specific criteria for accreditation and certification. 

Salute: To American Post 201, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2856 and members of the Jewish War Veterans of Livingston for their touching tribute to the Four Chaplains - Four U.S. Army Chaplains gave up their life jackets and prayed together when their transport ship, the U.S.A.T. Dorchester was torpedoed eighty miles south of Greenland on February 3, 1943. The Chaplains came from different faiths and backgrounds and have come to symbolize selfless service to humanity without regard to race, creed, ethnicity, or religious beliefs.