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Message From the National Coordinator, Editor
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at; williamgast@wesupportthevets.com jmeet me in St Louis Mr. President July 24,2003 The pressure is on July 18,2003 This week's progress May27,2003 where are they now? June 15,2003 Promises made, promises kept? June 2,2003
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July 24,2003 PRESS RELEASE Meet me in St Louis, Mr. President
August 23rd, 2003 is the date of the American Legion convention in St. Louis, Mo. According to Mr. Mark Seavey, they are expecting 17000 delegates and members.
The President is a usual guest speaker for veteran’s organizations at their convention so this is no big news release. Probably would not hit the evening news until perhaps the day that the President takes the stage ands delivers another message of gratitude to those that have given so much for their country. Television will carry his remarks and the Legionnaires will applaud loudly and rush for the photo opp.
Perhaps.
That is usually the way it would all take place.
This year’s convention and speech has more meaning to more than Legion members and veteran non members.
There is a second speaker scheduled on the program that veterans are waiting to hear. It’s Congressman Jim Marshall of Georgia. Marshall is a freshman Democrat and decorated Vietnam veteran. He is also the chosen spokesperson for America’s 600,000 retired disabled veterans because of his actions in Congress. He has proven he can “walk the walk that other only talk” on veterans concerns—mainly the tax on disabled veterans which is the subject of HR303. Legislation written this year and submitted as “Restoration of Retired Pay for Disabled Veterans” instead of the historical Concurrent Receipt labels it has carried for over eighteen years. Marshall has labeled the Bill a tax on retired disabled veterans. The reason for the interest in what will be presented at this convention is high with disabled veterans is, President Bush has stated that if presented with HR303 for signature, he will veto. Last year after both Congress and Senate had agreed that it was time to correct this injustice, speaker Dennis Hastert refused to submit it for vote and it died an agonizing death. This year Congressman Jim Marshall saw the process being repeated and submitted a “Discharge Petition” which was A procedural broadside to those that were holding the bill.
This was a broadside because of the 354 cosponsors on the bill, many were Republicans. When the Congressmen signed as a cosponsor on the proposed HR303 legislation, they were indicating support for the bill as written—Full Restoration of retired pay. When Marshall submitted the Discharge petition to move the bill to the floor for vote—the Republican Congressional leadership choked and instructed their party members to withhold their signatures. This was an unexpected move and left the signed Republican cosponsors hanging outside as obvious partisan politicos. In order to spare Bush from the embarrassment and public relations fiasco of a veto, Dennis Hastert is trying to establish damage control by taking a compromise to the President that would phase in a program that would cover only 90,000 seriously disabled veterans. No deal-no compromise say the vets. The track record of “promises made as promises kept” by this administration speaks for itself.
It’s this standoff that has the disabled vets concerned and watching St. Louis. Many are vocal about the possibility of Bush using the moment to diffuse remarks by Marshall by announcing a “phased-in five year plan” to take care of the retired disabled veterans. Just what they don’t want because they say that once the bill is amended to cover only the few that will qualify, they will never see the injustice corrected. They point to the so called “compromise” enacted last year for the most severely disabled retirees with combat related injuries or illness ( Agent Orange). The plan has been stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire of rule-making and debate on who would qualify. The result is only for less than 5 percent of all disabled career military.
Enter the American public. Disabled veterans grouped and prepared to fix bayonets when they heard of a conversation between party leaders indicating a less than full restoration of the retired pay. Because one of the objections used by opponents of the legislation was the cost involved, vets started sending checks to the President to help fund HR303. The checks were a symbolic amount of $.50 cents each. Spearheaded by their website, http://wesupportthevets.com, they have sent over 1,833 checks as of July 22 without a single one being cashed so far. In addition to the campaign of the $.50 check, the vets are starting “shoe trees” all across the United States. These are locations where supporters are bringing their old tennis shoes marked “HR303” and hanging them for the public to see and ask questions. Some locations have well worn combat boots and medals hanging from the tree. The shoes will come down from the trees they say when HR303 is released from captivity by the Republicans.
The Republican Congressmen are already writing Carl Rove, the Republican Party watch captain about the response they are getting at their local offices. They say the vets aren’t bluffing about their intentions for 2004.
It will be an interesting convention this year if the disabled vets can find a tree outside the convention hall to hang some shoes with HR303 on them. Just so the delegates are reminded of the parliamentary procedures being played by Republicans in the Congress. 30 |