POLITICS - One GOP Senator's Demonstration of "Supporting the Troops"

"Senator Tom Coburn holding up Veterans benefits bill" by Karen Harper, San Francisco Examiner

Senator Tom Coburn (R), Oklahoma, the same Tom Coburn who advised Senator John Ensign to end the affair he was having by paying off the husband of his mistress, is the single senator in the US holding up a Veterans benefit bill that would aid health care givers of veterans returning home after fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to The Marine Times, Coburn is using an informal but legal practice of putting a bill on hold to prevent consideration of S 1963, the Veterans' Caregiver and Omnibus Health Benefits Act of 2009.

When asked by reporters why he was putting a hold on the veterans benefit bill, Coburn said he opposed the bill because he doesn't know how the bill will be funded. When a reporter pointed out to him that he had voted for funding for the Afghanistan and Iraq wars amounting to trillions of dollars, Coburn excused himself by saying that he did that the first year he was in the Senate. He went on to say he only voted for funding for the war one time. Coburn seems to have forgotten that he voted for funding for the wars again in 2006.

Opposition to funding for veterans isn't new to Senator Coburn. S 1963 was introduced after Coburn put a hold on two earlier Veterans Health Care benefits bills, the Veterans Health Care Authorization Act of 2009 and the Veterans' Insurance and Benefits Enhancement Act of 2009. The two previous bills, S 252 and S 728 respectively were combined into the new S 1963 in an effort to get around Coburn's earlier opposition to veterans benefit bills.

The veterans who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan deserve America's support and a majority of representatives in Washington agree. The bill is a bipartisan bill that is largely agreed on by both Republicans and Democrats, but Senator Coburn has successfully blocked the bill that would benefit veterans.

Thirteen military and veterans groups have banded together in an effort to force Coburn to release his hold up of S 1963 including The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Military Order of the Purple Heart, AmVets, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to name a few.

When Steve Robertson, legislative director for the American Legion contacted Coburn's staff about the holds on the earlier veterans benefit bills, Senator Coburn's aides tried to get Robertson to discourage veterans from calling the senator's office.