The attitude of the general public towards our service members has changed for the better since those days of Vietnam…but, in many respects since then, it’s been lip service from those who are responsible for public policies and investment in our Veterans and their families. As an institution, the VA has failed many of us…largely, both as a result of inattention on the part of those elected officials who were supposed to be watching out for our best interest, but also because the managers of that system first lied to themselves and then to the gatekeepers. The Ducey administration has taken it a step further…a further step backwards. He is proposing a $275,000 cut to the Arizona Department of Veterans Services, an agency already deeply lacking in resources. But worse yet, he wants unfettered access to two Veteran service accounts in order to help eliminate a deficit which he and his predecessor helped create over the past 7 years. Once again, the Governor is simultaneously cutting taxes (revenues) for the wealthy and large corporations while cutting Veterans’ services. This is unconscionable and is slap in the face of every one of Arizona’s 550,000 Veterans and their families. Governor Ducey is saying, “Times are tough”…as if we don’t know about tough times as Veterans. It seems that the Governor’s idea of “tough times” is missing the shoe sale at the mall. As he and the state’s leadership pranced off to the mall, we marched to war and came home to a Governor who is now telling us we must sacrifice even more because “Times are tough”…tough times he helped create! Call, write or email the Governor and your legislators and tell them that Veterans and their families are off limits in their effort to correct the financial quagmire they helped to create. And tell them hands off the Veterans’ funds which the Legislature is currently and legally prohibited from sweeping.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:14:30 +0000
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