Asshats in the Congress

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 was passed.

Some of the highlights this bill included are:

• Extension of VA Health Care Eligibility: After discharge, today's veterans had only two years to seek VA care or risk losing access for good. But many service-connected conditions can worsen over time, or take more than two years to become obvious - including Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Veterans now have 5 years to seek care from the VA.

• Pre- and Post-deployment Screenings for Traumatic Brain Injury: The care provided for those suffering from the signature wound of the Iraq war is still woefully inadequate, and this is a big step in the right direction. Pre- and post-deployment screenings will ensure that service members with TBIs will get the treatment and rehabilitation they need.

• Servicemembers Family Medical Leave Act: The families of those caring for severely wounded troops were previously given only three months of job protection. As a result, many spouses and other family members at Walter Reed and other military hospitals have lost their jobs while caring for their injured husband, wife, son or daughter. Job protection expanded to 26 weeks.

Other items include the removal of a restriction on the VA from reaching out to veterans who need care, major improvements to the GI Bill for Reservists and members of the National Guard, increased assistance for Iraqi interpreters who have worked with our troops on the ground in Iraq, and a 3.5% pay raise for the members of our Armed Forces.

Below you will find the names of those who voted against the bill. What I want to know is why? Were they trying to make a political statement? Do they not support the troops? Were they trying to hurt the president by punishing service members and veterans?

Don't they realize that they hold the soldier, his care, and his family hostage when they try to use this bill for political maneuvering?

Nay	WI-2	Baldwin, Tammy [D]
Nay	MA-8	Capuano, Michael [D]
Nay	NY-11	Clarke, Yvette [D]
Nay	MO-5	Cleaver, Emanuel [D]
Nay	MI-14	Conyers, John [D]
Nay	IL-7	Davis, Danny [D]
Nay	OR-4	DeFazio, Peter [D]
Nay	TX-25	Doggett, Lloyd [D]
Nay	TN-2	Duncan, John [R]
Nay	MN-5	Ellison, Keith [D]
Nay	PA-2	Fattah, Chaka [D]
Nay	CA-51	Filner, Bob [D]
Nay	MA-4	Frank, Barney [D]
Nay	VA-5	Goode, Virgil [R]
Nay	AZ-7	Grijalva, Raul [D]
Nay	IL-4	Gutierrez, Luis [D]
Nay	NY-22	Hinchey, Maurice [D]
Nay	IL-2	Jackson, Jesse [D] (Not that Jesse Jackson)
Nay	TX-18	Jackson-Lee, Sheila [D]
Nay	OH-11	Jones, Stephanie [D]
Nay	OH-10	Kucinich, Dennis [D] (declared a victory by attaching a $10 million gulf-war illness research appropriation to the bill--But voted against the bill's passage.)
Nay	CA-9	Lee, Barbara [D]
Nay	GA-5	Lewis, John [D]
Nay	MA-7	Markey, Edward [D]
Nay	WA-7	McDermott, James [D]
Nay	MA-3	McGovern, James [D]
Nay	NY-6	Meeks, Gregory [D]
Nay	ME-2	Michaud, Michael [D]
Nay	CA-7	Miller, George [D]
Nay	WI-4	Moore, Gwen [D]
Nay	MA-1	Olver, John [D]
Nay	NJ-6	Pallone, Frank [D]
Nay	AZ-4	Pastor, Edward [D]
Nay	NJ-10	Payne, Donald [D]
Nay	WI-6	Petri, Thomas [R]
Nay	IL-9	Schakowsky, Janice [D]
Nay	WI-5	Sensenbrenner, F. [R]
Nay	NY-16	Serrano, José [D]
Nay	CA-13	Stark, Fortney [D]
Nay	MA-6	Tierney, John [D]
Nay	NY-10	Towns, Edolphus [D]
Nay	NY-12	Velazquez, Nydia [D]
Nay	CA-35	Waters, Maxine [D]
Nay	CA-33	Watson, Diane [D]
Nay	VT-0	Welch, Peter [D]
Nay	CA-6	Woolsey, Lynn [D]
Nay	OR-1	Wu, David [D]
Nay	MD-4	Wynn, Albert [D]
Nay	KY-3	Yarmuth, John [D]

Also, these asshats decided not to vote. Either thy couldn't be bothered with it, or they knew that their vote wouldn't swing the vote and didn't want to be included with the nay-sayers, or they just had better things to do with their time.

No Vote	IN-7	Carson, Julia [D]
No Vote	WY-0	Cubin, Barbara [R]
No Vote	OR-5	Hooley, Darlene [D]
No Vote	CA-52	Hunter, Duncan [R]
No Vote	LA-1	Jindal, Bobby [R]
No Vote	GA-8	Marshall, James [D]
No Vote	UT-2	Matheson, Jim [D]
No Vote	CA-42	Miller, Gary [R]
No Vote	TX-19	Neugebauer, Randy [R]
No Vote	TX-14	Paul, Ronald [R]
No Vote	SC-5	Spratt, John [D]
No Vote	CO-6	Tancredo, Thomas [R]