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Last week, a piece of legislation was blocked by Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA).
This was a bipartisan piece of legislation, but it was flawed.
Toomey blocked it so the flaws could be fixed and block the wasteful spending.
Dems and liberals, however, are pushing the narrative that the GOP does not care about our veterans, which is not true.
Good Reason
The PACT Act is to benefit our veterans suffering health problems from working in or around the toxic burn pits.
Republicans support the legislation, but it has forced spending rather than discretionary spending, which is what Toomey wants fixed, then the bill will be represented and passed.
Democrats got Jon Stewart all riled up, who has become the celebrity face of this cause.
Additionally, Biden jumped all over the opportunity to have a Zoom call with vets and badmouth Republicans.
Biden even sent out a tweet about it…
I planned an unscheduled trip to Capitol Hill this afternoon to meet the families fighting to pass burn pits legislation. A positive COVID test got in the way, but I want to thank @SecVetAffairs for bringing pizza in my place and connecting me with the families via FaceTime. https://t.co/amYm0XrW6x
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 30, 2022
Toomey’s office pushed right back, explaining, “The PACT Act as written includes a budget gimmick that would allow $400 billion of current law spending to be moved from the discretionary to the mandatory spending category.
“This provision is completely unnecessary to achieve the PACT Act’s stated goal of expanding health care and other benefits for veterans.
“However, it would enable an additional $400 billion in future discretionary spending completely unrelated to veterans.
“By failing to remove this gimmick, Congress would effectively be using an important veterans care bill to hide a massive, unrelated spending binge.”
On Sunday, Toomey commented further, stating, “First of all, this is the oldest trick in Washington.
“People take a sympathetic group of Americans, and it could be children with an illness., it could be victims of crime, it could be veterans who have been exposed to toxic chemicals, craft a bill to address their problems, and then sneak in something completely unrelated that they know could never pass on its own and dare Republicans to do anything about it.
“Because they know they’ll unleash their allies in the media and maybe a pseudo celebrity to make up false accusations to try to get us to just swallow what shouldn’t be there.”
He continued, “Let me be very clear.
“Republicans are not opposed to any of the substance of the PACT Act.
“My honest Democratic colleagues will fully acknowledge that my objection, and if I get my way, get my change, it will not change by one penny any spending on any veterans program.
“What I’m trying to do is change a government accounting methodology that is designed to allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree that has nothing to do with veterans and that won’t be in the veteran space.
“They could have agreed to this a month ago and this bill would sail through at any point in time.
“When we strip out this completely unrelated provision worth $400 billion, I will vote for the bill.”
This is why we will never have a Congress that truly works together.
Senator Schumer (D-N.Y.) could have come forward and said that the GOP supports the bill, there is just some language that needs to be cleared up before it passes.
Instead, they made it sound like the GOP is blocking the legislation outright instead of ensuring it does not have wasteful spending, which I think we can all agree is the right path to take here.
Sadly, even the Biden administration is trying to pile on, making utterly false claims, which Toomey also pushed back on.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough stated, “The ($400B) fund is in the bill so that we can ensure … that all this spending for this program is for the veterans exposed to these toxins.
“And so he says it won’t impact our programming – in good conscience, I don’t see that to be the case. In fact, he puts a year-on-year cap on what we spend, and then at the end of 10 years, the fund goes away under his amendment.
“So the impact of that would be, if his estimations are wrong about what will spend in any given year, that means that we may have to ration care for veterans.
“And by the way, that’s not something I’ll sign up to.”
This is totally unambiguously false, and the Secretary should know that.
Nothing in my amendment results in one dime reduction in spending for health care or other benefits for veterans either existent or proposed in the PACT Act. https://t.co/vJnFDtY1TI
— Pat Toomey (US Sen. ret.) (@SenToomey) July 31, 2022
This is how DC operates these days… it is not about cooperation.
Instead, they all want to make the other side look stupid.
No wonder Toomey is stepping away and not going for re-election.
