Time Flies!

I'm telling ya, the news last night that Burlington CEDO Boss Michael Monte, 54, is leaving brought back the ol' rush of memories of decades past.

I will always remember seeing Michael, back then the boss at The King Street Youth Center as I recall, in the City Clerk's Office on March Town Meeting Day 1981 - the old City Hall run by Democratic Mayor Gordon Paquette. I also remember Phil Fiermonte being there, and the two Burlington Police Union guys Joe Crepeau and Wayne Hunt. The cops union had endorsed the upstart, loudmouth socialist with the Brooklyn voice who strongly supported "poor people, working people and the elderly." Michael and Phil were also "Sanders for Mayor" folk.

The loudmouth leftist pulled off one of the "biggest" yet narrowest upsets [10-12 votes and 40.1 percent in a lively 4-way] in Vermont political history.

This morning, I'm watching former four-term Peoples Republic of Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders delivering the exact same kind of speech he used to throw at the shocked and stunned Burlington City Council to the United States Senate!

Ol' Bernardo's pitching his amendment to the FY 2008 MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, (H.R. 2642). Says Vermont's junior U.S. Senator:

Some years ago, as a temporary budget bandaid, the Congress intitiated the so-called "rounding-down" of veterans disability benefits and a few other catagories of benefits that affect veterans, their spouses and their children.

Under this "rounding-down" process, every year when we calculate the new disability benefits that veterans receive as a result of their COLAs, the resulting amount is rounded down to the whole dollar.

An example: A veteran receives a check, hypothetically, for $200.99. What we have done is say to that veteran, 'We are taking away every month that 99 cents and you’re going to get a check for $200.'

Now, somebody might say 99 cents is not a lot of money. Multiply it by 12 months and you’re talking about less than $12-a-year. What is the problem?

Well, the problem is if you’re a low income veteran, it does matter. But I think even more significantly than the dollars, what we are saying to that veteran who opens that check sitting in a wheelchair is, ‘We are saving 99 cents a month on you, but by the way, we are giving no-bid contracts out in Iraq which cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, or perhaps, billions of dollars! We’re going to balance the budget on your 99 cents-per-month.’

So the amount of money we’re talking about here is not a whole lot. But symbolically, to thousands of disabled veterans, it really says something about how we in the Congress feel about them. ‘We’re saving 99 cent-a-month.’

Well, you know what I think?

I think we can afford to give them that 99 cents...It’s gonna cost all of $20 million in a bill which is over $100 billion.

So Mr. President this is not a complicated piece of legislation. This is a piece of legislation that says to people who have done as much as a human being can do for this country we are no longer going to nickel-and-dime you. And I hope very much the members of the Senate will join me and the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, the Disabled American Veterans and AMVETS in supporting this legislation.

None of the Republicans wanted to stand up and go on record continuing President George WMD Bush's policy of nickel-and-diming America's veterans.The Sanders Amendment was adopted on a voice vote.

Comments

[Lisa Crean]

Social Security checks are also rounded down, I believe. Oh, but if your Medicare premium is xx.50/month, the Feds round up what they take out of your check! Times how many millions of disabled and senior citizens, times 12 months a year.

Also, the gov pays NO penalty or interest if it's ever discovered they've underpaid your SS benefits, even if the underpayment was egregrious, even if it amounted to tens of thousands of dollars, and went on for years. Not to mention: no apology, no explanation. What would be Average Joe's penalty for underpaying the government? A pair of silver bracelets and a stay at the Graybar Hotel?

[bigbadbrad]

You go get 'em, Bernie!

[Gunner]

Bernie and his exaggerations! A disabled veteran sitting in a wheelchair opening his disability check for $200.99. Now tell me what disabled veteran in a wheelchair only gets $200 per month. Good God, the minimum SSI benefit is over $500.
A veteran in a wheel chair, becoming disabled while enlisted would be looking at a minimum of $1,200 per month and if an officer, much more....plus food stamps, eligibility for Section 8 housing, free medical care, free legal assistance, and who knows what else. The annual value of this package could be as high as $20,000-$25,000 tax free. A retired individual would have to have $400,000-$500,000 invested at 5% to reach the same benefit level.
Not to say that a disabled veteran doesn't deserve the check because they do and probably more, but it drives me crazy when Bernie makes his insane and unsubstantiated statements and no one questions them.