American Bridge

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Ryan And Veterans

Ryan Plan Would  Slash Non-Discretionary Spending, Which Funded Veterans’ Health Care

Ryan Budget Would Slash Funding For Crucial Programs Assisting Vulnerable Individuals, Including Low-Income Housing, Head Start, Child Nutrition Programs, And Home-Delivered Meals For Senior Citizens. “Also striking is Ryan’s slashing of non-defense discretionary spending, which funds everything from veterans’ health care to medical and scientific research, highways, education, national parks, food safety, clean air and clean water enforcement, and border protection and other law enforcement. This part of the budget also funds a number of programs to assist poor or otherwise vulnerable people such as low-income housing; child care for the working poor; Head Start; the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC); and home-delivered meals for seniors. The Budget Control Act of last August substantially cut funding for non-defense discretionary programs by imposing tough annual budget caps, but the Ryan budget would cut these programs nearly $1.2 trillion below the caps. In fact, it would slash funds for non-defense discretionary programs over the coming decade by $800 billion below the level to which that funding would fall if sequestration occurred every year through 2021.” [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 3/21/12]

Ryan Plan Would Slash Benefits For Veterans

The Post Standard: Ryan Plan Would Pay For Tax Cuts On Top Earners And Corporations By Slashing Entitlements, Pell Grants And Benefits For Veterans. According to The Post Standard, “As the GOP continues its war on women, it adds to its victims the weak, disabled, elderly, poor and disadvantaged. Congressman Paul Ryan’s ‘Path to Prosperity,’ lauded by our representative Ann Marie Buerkle as ‘courageous,’ is in fact downright cowardly. Ryan wishes to extend the Bush tax cuts and cut the top tax rate for individuals and corporations from 35 percent to 25 percent. He pays for this by slashing Medicare, Medicaid, Pell Grants, food stamps, low-income housing subsidies and veterans’ health care.” [The Post Standard, 6/9/11]

BRIDGE BRIEFING: Romney’s Record On Veterans

Romney’s Budget Proposals Hurt Benefits For Veterans

Romney’s Budget Plan Cuts $176 Billion From Non-Defense Discretionary Spending By 2016, Including Veterans’ Health Care. According to the Center on Budget And Policy Priorities, “Non-defense discretionary spending would be cut by $176 billion in 2016 — and $1.7 trillion through 2022 — in addition to the deep cuts already reflected in the budget baseline as a result of the caps in the BCA and the appropriations bills passed during 2011. This category of spending covers a wide variety of public services such as aid to elementary and secondary education, veterans’ health care, law enforcement, national parks, environmental protection, and biomedical and scientific research.” [Center on Budget And Policy Priorities, 5/21/12]

Navy Vet Escorted Out of Romney Event

This tracking video shows a veteran being kicked out of a Romney campaign event simply because she was wearing a t-shirt supporting VA health care. She was not disrupting the event, but was off to the side wearing a shirt that said “Vets Against VA Vouchers.”

Last week, Mitt Romney seemed open to the idea of replacing the VA with a voucher system. The VFW is opposed to the proposal.

This footage was filmed by an American Bridge tracker in Columbia, SC, on November 15, 2011.

TPM: Navy Vet Says She Was Kicked Out Of Romney Rally Because She Was Silently Protesting

On November 15, 2011, Talking Points Memo reported:

There are ways to deal with protesters gracefully at a campaign event, and then there’s kicking a Navy veteran out of your rally because she’s wearing a t-shirt you don’t like.