Cheapskating and the Spirit of Balls Bluff

The VA's budget for treating traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been cut by 50%, curtesy of the US Senate. Since it is the major injury among our troops in Iraq - put in harms way by that same Senate (as well as a majority of the American public), one would think they might be able to scrape up the measly $7 million to restore the funding. I mean when you consider that our crackerjack FBI just blew through $150 million for a new computer software system that is so bad it had to be immediately scrapped. Or the billions in Iraq we have lost through sheer peculation.

Yet there is an explanation, "Honestly, they would have loved to have funded it, but there were just so many priorities," a spokeswoman for the Senate Appropriations Committee told the paper [USA Today]. "They didn't have any flexibility in such a tight fiscal year."

Military Guy was a little testy about this,

Gee, Honorables, our soldiery and the medical personnel who serve them are sorry that we are surviving injuries that used to kill us - so that these injuries weren't as, um, noticeable as they are now. We beg your indulgence.

One wonders how someone can say something that bloody insensitive and bleeping ignorant with a straight face and not have their head implode? I had to stick my head in the Armorer's Helmet to keep it from exploding...

Oh, I forgot. They really do think we're simpletons with short memory spans.

He has a very interesting plan for taking direct action. Pay heed all you potential voters out there.

Note to the Kansas Congressional Delegation... I'm a medium fish in a small pond - but Kansas is a small pond too. I'll be watching this one, and I will be *very* interested in your staff's responses to my inquiries on the subject. Especially Senator Brownback, as you sit on the Senate appropriations committee in question. But I'll be interested in Senator Robert's views, as you sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Congressman Ryun, as you sit on the House Armed Services Committee.

Is it any wonder that the Latin root, senex, for Senate is the same root word for senile?