Veterans Denied

After a vote last week, Veterans will not be getting a new jobs program, not from this Senate. Republican senators blocked a vote on the Veterans Job Corps Bill after generating excuses to oppose the bill exploited a technicality to deny thousands of veterans a shot at getting hired as police officers, firefighters and parks workers, among other possible employment opportunities.

Veterans Job Corps Act of 2012, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), sought to lower unemployment among military veterans, giving grants to federal, state, and local agencies, which in turn would hire veterans -- giving priority to those who served on or after 9/11 -- to work as first-responders and in conservation jobs at national parks.

This bill was fully paid for, and entirely bipartisan. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) had his own set of ideas for the bill, and Murray incorporated all of them into her legislation.

And yet, all but five Senate Republicans voted to kill it anyway. Even Burr sided with his party to defeat the bill, and it was filled with his provisions.

I find this vote to be very interesting for a number of reasons. First being the fact that this bill was blocked so close to a presidential election. It seems that there are some conservatives are so against President Obama that they refuse to pass any bill that may improve his presidential term regardless of what the bill could do for Americans. I also find this interesting because the Republican party has traditionally been the party supported by veterans and military fans. It was noted by man that when reviewing both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the Republicans failed to make the military and military families a priority while the Democrats included military families throughout the convention. What I find the most interesting about this decision is that no one is really talking about this.

How does it look when a representative helps write and construct a bill, but then doesn't vote for it? This bill was paid for and was to help the men and women who fought for our country get jobs, how does this not get passed?

--Krystal