“The number of disability claims pending with the Department of Veterans Affairs is nearly 900,000, with more than 600,000 in the system for more than 125 days.”
Last week I talked to the executive producer for CBS evening news who had read my post on the backlog at the VA, and Hollis Williams being denied help many times over the last five years that I believe contributed to his death. I do not know if they did a story, or, are going to. What I do know, is, Veterans who suffer from PTSD will go without help another day.
https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/disgraceful-va-backlog/
What I am suggesting is that a $.05 cent a bullet tax be levied on all ammunition sold in the United States in order to raise funds to provide emergency help to Vets until their cases can be decided. We need to establish a triage, a military stand down – today! This new tax can also help homeless vets.
Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) tried to pass a bill that would levy a 5 cent tax on bullets in order to restore a mental health program.
More and more Americans are seeing owning and firing a gun as the manly thing to do. Gun Crazies are going hog wild at firing ranges. How much more of man would they be if they knew every time they pulled their trigger, a real warrior was given help?
I suffer from PTSD due to standing up to the Mafia in Boston who terroized me and my neighbors. They paid our manager to go round and beat down our doors with a basball bat. When I came home and found three guys knocking down walls to a building on Beacon Hill built in 1790, I told them to stop. They asked my name, and told me they have a bullet for me and my friends. I told them until the day of delivery, they had better get a building permit. Thugs with guns think laws are for weak people. In their eyes, weak people don’t own guns.
Yesterday, Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, was arrested for sexual assault. Was his female victim armed at the time? Krusinski was put in charge of protecting our female soldiers from being molested and raped in the service, which causes PTSD. Does this Dude own a gun? How many times did he fire it?
I will be posting on The Emascuation of a Unarmed Peacenik in America.
“The estimated $55 million that his tax would raise annually would go to restoring a program providing mental health programs for children with the aim of preventing violence.”
The NRA opposed this bill, but, would they stand up to a bill and tax that directly helps a million Vets who suffer due to being in a deadly battle?
Jon Presco
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Air Force Secretary Michael Donley Monday to express his “outrage and disgust” after the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response branch chief was arrested and charged early Sunday morning with sexual battery.
Emasculation is the removal of the genitalia of a male, both the penis and the testicles. Removal of the testicles alone is castration.
By extension, the word has also come to mean to render a male less of a man, or to make a male feel less of a man by humiliation. This metaphorical usage of the word is much more common than the application of its literal meaning. It can also mean the reduction or removal of force behind a statute or legislation: for example, “the Triennial Act was emasculated by the Cavalier Parliament”.
It’s difficult to get precise numbers on how many bullets are sold in the consumer market in the U.S. each year. The Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (split off from the ATF a decade ago, not that anyone noticed) collects an 11% tax on ammo sales by manufacturers. That tax serves as a rough proxy for demand, and government statistics show receipts soared from $68 million in 2000 to $129 million in 2008 and $172 million in calendar 2009, President Obama’s first full year in office. That would imply wholesale bullet sales of about $1.6 billion, or possibly retail sales of $3 billion. Consumer retail purchases of clothing and footwear last year, by comparison, were about $327 billion according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
A bill that would create a nickel-per-bullet tax to pay for mental health programs aimed at reducing gun violence hit a roadblock in a legislative committee Monday.
The Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee put AB 760 on “suspense” where it will be required to undergo more study on its financial effects before it can be reconsidered.
Assemblyman Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) said he is hopeful his bill will be able to make it to the Assembly floor. He said it is a response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six adults.
“Gun violence is disturbingly prevalent both here in California and across the country,” Dickinson told the committee.
He said gun violence resulted in 5,700 people hospitalized or killed in California in 2011. “We know that taxing ammunition can provide a stable source of revenue to meaningfully target gun violence prevention,” he added.
The estimated $55 million that his tax would raise annually would go to restoring a program providing mental health programs for children with the aim of preventing violence.
The state Board of Equalization noted in a review that the proposed tax would be in addition to an existing sales tax on bullets, and it said the new tax could become a burden to businesses.
The measure was opposed by activists for gun owners, including Edward Worley, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn. In testifying before the Assembly panel, Worley held up a box of ammunition that costs $1.45 and that he said would face $2.50 in taxes under the legislation.
“What we are here to oppose is an excessive tax,” he told the committee.
It turns out 2009 may have been a high-water mark for ammo sales, since TTB statistics show tax receipts fell to $157 million in 2012 (the final number might be amended as manufacturers submit their final returns). Overall taxes on firearms and ammo have climbed over the Obama years due to rising gun sales, with the TTB’s total take rising from $454 million in 2009 to $493 million last year. In the fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 30, the combined taxes on firearms and ammo climbed to $158 million, possibly implying a record-breaking $600 million fiscal year.
(Another aside: The TTB takes in $23 billion a year in taxes, making it the third-largest U.S. tax agency and probably the most efficient, generating $449 for every $1 it spends. The gun and ammo taxes are forwarded directly to the Fish and Wildlife Restoration Fund.)
Will today’s ammo hoarders be rewarded like gold buyers in 1972, or will they wind up like the folks who bought Bitcoins at $30 and watched them fall to two bucks a couple years ago? (The current price, readers note, is above $200 in what some are calling a speculation-induced bubble.)
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called Air Force Secretary Michael Donley Monday to express his “outrage and disgust” after the Air Force’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response branch chief was arrested and charged early Sunday morning with sexual battery.
“Secretary Hagel expressed outrage and disgust over the troubling allegation and emphasized that this matter will be dealt with swiftly and decisively,” said George Little, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, in a statement.
Arlington County police officers arrested Air Force Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, 41, in the early morning hours of Sunday morning in a Northern Virginia parking lot near Crystal City Gentleman’s Club and Restaurant — a strip club one mile from the Pentagon. He was accused of fondling a woman near the strip club before the female victim fought him off, according to the police report.
“A drunken male subject approached a female victim in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks,” Arlington police officers wrote in the report. “The victim fought the suspect off as he attempted to touch her again and alerted police.”
http://www.gunandgame.com/forums/powder-keg/97846-range-crazies-tell-me-you-stories.html
“We need direct and public involvement from you to establish a clear plan to end the backlog once and for all,” states the letter to Obama, which was put together by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Dean Heller, (R-Nev.) and signed by more than two-thirds of Senate members.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130426va-has-failed-our-veterans.html
Krusinski was released on $5,000 bail. He is shown with scratches to his face in the mug shot taken shortly after his arrest. Arlington police officials would not say if those scratches were caused in the alleged altercation with the victim.
Air Force leaders chose Krusinski to lead the program that works to protect airmen from the type of attack he is charged with committing. The Air Force immediately removed Krusinski from his position at the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program, according to Maj. Eric Badger, an Air Force spokesman. He had served in the position for about two months.
Krusinki’s arrest comes at a time when Air Force officials are under intense scrutiny as the service has accrued multiple sexual assault scandals in the past two years.
“We need direct and public involvement from you to establish a clear plan to end the backlog once and for all,” states the letter to Obama, which was put together by Sens. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Dean Heller, (R-Nev.) and signed by more than two-thirds of Senate members.
http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20130426va-has-failed-our-veterans.html
“Duck fans attending last Saturday’s Spring Game at Autzen Stadium brought in over 66,000 pounds of food and donated $1,650 to Food for Lane County, giving the local agency enough resources to provide 56,776 meals to local people in need of food.
Fans were asked to contribute at least three cans of food in lieu of paying admission to the game, which was attended by over 38,000 fans.”
WASHINGTON —
Major changes are happening at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in the wake of a Channel 2 Action News investigation.
Channel 2′s Scott MacFarlane broke the story last week of executives at the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur pocketing big salary bonuses even amid complaints of mismanagement inside the building.
MacFarlane learned late Monday that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is cancelling some executive bonus pay for 2013.
Many of the top brass in the department will have to get by on their six-figure salaries alone, no bonuses.
Executives who work in the Veterans Benefits Administration are the ones being cut off. Those are the execs who are in charge of ensuring local veterans get all the benefits they are due.
The VA said it will instead funnel the bonus money into reducing the long backlog of benefits claims so many of those local veterans are facing.
MacFarlane’s investigation found the VA handed out $2.7 million in bonus pay to top-level executives in 2011, including tens of thousands of dollars to top officials in Decatur in the past couple of years.
Records show former Atlanta VA Medical Center Director James Clark pocketed a $13,000 bonus in 2011 and another $17,000 worth of salary bonuses in 2010.
MacFarlane’s investigation found Charles Sepich, head of the VA’s Southeast Network, was given a $13,000 bonus even before his arrival in Georgia.
A former regional director, Lawrence Biro, received $18,000 in bonuses.
Those executives received those bonuses despite findings that the Atlanta VA management botched how it handled high-risk patients during roughly the same time period.
An audit showed two Atlanta veterans showing suicidal tendencies sought help, got lost in red tape and then killed themselves.
It’s also about the same time another person with a history of substance abuse was overlooked, overdosed and died.
The report said a mental health patient managed to roam free in the building for hours and injected testosterone around the same time as well.
MacFarlane’s investigation triggered a flood of emails and tweets across the country. The moratorium on executive bonuses would impact only officials in the Veterans Benefits Administration offices of the VA, and not necessarily affect veterans’ hospital managers.
“While I commend the VA for taking steps to eliminate the backlog and eliminating bonuses for executives, these policies should have been implemented long ago. More reforms are needed, such as eliminating the practice of official time and implementing audit recommendations. At a time when so many soldiers are returning from war, and in light of the recent deaths in Atlanta, the VA must prioritize veterans’ health and well-being above all else,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia, in a an email statement to MacFarlane.
Rep. Jeff Miller, the chairman of the U.S. House Veterans Affairs Committee, which oversees the VA, said he’s also considering formal hearings to investigate what’s been happening in Decatur.
“It’s about time VA stopped rewarding employees and managers for falling behind. One can only wonder what effect this sort of policy may have had if VA had instituted it years ago,” Miller told MacFarlane.
The number of disability claims pending with the Department of Veterans Affairs is nearly 900,000, with more than 600,000 in the system for more than 125 days.
The letter noted that the number of pending claims has grown by over 2,000 percent in the last four years despite a 40 percent increase in the VA’s budget over that time.
Veterans in some VA regional offices, including Baltimore, can wait a year or more to have their claims resolved
“Our veterans now need to hear from the President about how he plans to bring the number of veterans in the backlog to zero,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has called for the appointment of a presidential commission to examine the issue.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough
Other veterans groups, including Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, oppose the creation of a commission, saying that the issue has been studied enough and that more action and fewer words are needed.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told reporters this month that Obama has made clearing out the backlog an administration priority. “Nobody is going to be more impatient about this than the guy we’re reporting to on a regular basis . . . the president,”
Rosamond Press 
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