Our Country is Abandoning Its Veterans!!

[Thor]

 As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day with parades and barbecues, America’s veterans face a new tax on prosthetic limbs and other vital medical devices.

The health care overhaul passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama earlier this year contains a new tax on medical devices such as prosthetic limbs, pacemakers, and wheelchairs.  This tax, which its proponents claim will raise $20 billion over the next ten years, contains no exemption for the nation’s 22 million veterans.  In fact, Senate Democrats specifically refused to exempt veterans from the tax.

On March 24 2010, Senate Democrats rejected an amendment offered by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to the healthcare bill.  This amendment (SA 3644) would have prevented the medical device tax from hitting veterans covered by the Veterans Healthcare Program or TRICARE for Life.  This amendment was rejected by a vote of 44-54.   All but five Democrat senators voted in favor of retaining the tax for veterans.

The medical device tax was one of over twenty new or higher taxes in President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.  This permanent new tax is being collected now.

“On March 24, Senate Democrats had the opportunity to exempt our veterans from Obamacare’s new tax on medical devices such as prosthetic limbs.  But 54 Democrats voted against the measure.  They chose to side with the tax-and-spend crowd in Washington over our wounded warriors,”said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.  “This is one of the many reasons Harry Reid and the Democrats did not want Americans to read the 2,500 page health care bill before it was passed.”

In addition to those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Department of Veterans Affairs reports the following number of veterans from America’s wars:

World War II:             2,079,000

Korean War:              2,507,000

Vietnam War:            7,569,000

Desert Shield/Storm:   2,254,000

The following senators voted for the tax:

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Mark Begich (D-AK)
Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Jeff Bingaman (D-NM)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Roland Burris (D-IL)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Ben Cardin (D-MD)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Bob Casey (D-PA)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Chris Dodd (D-CT)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Russ Feingold (D-WI)
Diane Feinstein (D-CA)
Al Franken (D-MN)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Tim Johnson (D-SD)
Edward Kaufman (D-DE)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Pat Leahy (D-VT)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Joe Lieberman (ID-CT)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Bob Menendez (D-NJ)
Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Harry Reid (D-NV)
Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)
Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Arlen Specter (D-PA)
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
Mark Udall (D-CO)
Tom Udall (D-NM)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Read more: http://www.atr.org/wounde...ence-a5175##ixzz0t7WGq1Mj

[debk]

That is just  wrong!!!

This needs to get out to the public...but probably won't.

Would sure go a long way in swaying Independents minds away from Democrats.....

[thundley4]

I put it on my facebook newsfeed, and have emailed it to a few people.

[debk]

I put it on my facebook newsfeed, and have emailed it to a few people.

 

I just commented on it....

[Thor]

I guess I'm interested in this because of some sort of self interest. The neuro gave me a scrip for a walker the other day. However, I'm rebuking that!! My cane works just fine most days. However, I have to face the fact that I will be in a wheelchair someday. It's bad enough being all gimped up and then, one has to pay extra taxes on their needed medical devices?? That's just fucked up as Hogans goat. I just can't wait until November!!

[Revolution]

I don't think "repugnant" does the subject matter of this thread justice. How dispicable.

Would sure go a long way in swaying Independents minds away from Democrats.....

Barry's presidency has been doing a pretty good job of that by itself, but after this? I think I'm swayed.

Anything a Vet needs pertaining to his health should be free of charge in my view. They helped us, so hell, we help them. Doesn't sound all that bad, does it? Instead, we make them hurt in their pocketbook, and physically as a "Thank you?"

That's pretty ass backwards, and I'm not surprised Russ Feingold supports this damn thing. Nothing but a snake.

[NHSparky]

A little overblown, perhaps?

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=19639#more-19639

OK, let’s start with the headline (that wounded warriors will face a tax this Independence Day) and the last sentence (that the tax is being collected now.)

First off, the tax in question is actually applied to the manufacturers, not the end user. In discussions with the ATR folks this morning they keep pressing that the tax will be passed along to the end user in terms of higher prices. True, as any ECON 101 class would show you. However, two things bear pointing out.

1) The tax does not actually go into effect until 2012. ATR apparently missed HR 4872, the reconciliation bill, wherein Section 4191 governs the tax on medical devices, and states “Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to sales after December 31, 2012.” (ATR admitted in an email to me that they had missed the change in effective date.) So, I guess they will “face” it, in the sense that it is over 2 years away, but take heart, the Mayan Calendar runs out 10 days before the tax kicks in, and there haven’t been any regulatory hearings on how this would be effectuated.

2) “Wounded Warriors” won’t pay the direct cost anyway. If you are wounded in service, and require one of these devices, the cost is $0. If the manufacturer decides to pass along a 7 percent tax to the veteran, the cost would be $0, plus a 7 percent tax of $0.

Read the rest at the link.

[Thor]

OK, so it affects every military retiree ........ or those on Tricare and don't have that particular problem "service connected".....

[JLO]

OK, so it affects every military retiree ........ or those on Tricare and don't have that particular problem "service connected".....

I really don't know what to make of that.  My partner of 22 years is a VN PTSD veteran,

We are still together and will be to the end, I'm certain.

[AllosaursRus]

A little overblown, perhaps?

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?p=19639#more-19639

OK, let’s start with the headline (that wounded warriors will face a tax this Independence Day) and the last sentence (that the tax is being collected now.)

First off, the tax in question is actually applied to the manufacturers, not the end user. In discussions with the ATR folks this morning they keep pressing that the tax will be passed along to the end user in terms of higher prices. True, as any ECON 101 class would show you. However, two things bear pointing out.

1) The tax does not actually go into effect until 2012. ATR apparently missed HR 4872, the reconciliation bill, wherein Section 4191 governs the tax on medical devices, and states “Effective Date- The amendments made by this section shall apply to sales after December 31, 2012.” (ATR admitted in an email to me that they had missed the change in effective date.) So, I guess they will “face” it, in the sense that it is over 2 years away, but take heart, the Mayan Calendar runs out 10 days before the tax kicks in, and there haven’t been any regulatory hearings on how this would be effectuated.

2) “Wounded Warriors” won’t pay the direct cost anyway. If you are wounded in service, and require one of these devices, the cost is $0. If the manufacturer decides to pass along a 7 percent tax to the veteran, the cost would be $0, plus a 7 percent tax of $0.

Read the rest at the link.

Uh, is it really a good idea to be raising the prices on the disabled no matter who they are? Most disabled individuals get by on disability. Not exactly the portion of our society that can afford increased costs.

It's just a low down dirty way for DemoncRaps to try and steal more money from those least able to afford it!

[Hawkwarrior2]

Our veterans are far more important than people who are too lazy to earn enough money to buy insurance! And I love how the dems think that putting new taxes on healthcare will increase the amount of people who can afford healthcare.

[vesta111]

Same-O-Same-O

Nixion did the same damn thing in 1970, we were at the height of the VM war and the military hospitals were scrambling for enough money to get  our evaced men and woman the artificial limbs and PT they needed.

At Trippler Army Hospital on OUHU HI. every dependent that needed a hospital stay was rushed in and out as fast as possible as every extra penny their care cost was taken from the wounded Vets.

This was told to me by a doctor at Trippler when I refused to abort my baby due to my kidney failure.  They literally unhooked my IV and sent me home as I had refused to follow the doctors orders. 

Oh yes this is history repeating itself again, but, what a difference from the days of the civil war days when at the end of the war those with amputated limbs had to find their one way home, hitching rides on farmers carts, no pain medication, no medical care to prevent infection.

My Moms  G.grandfather came home from Atlanta GA. missing a leg and was Crazy as a loon.

He live another 30 years or so but was a raving maniac.