How much more effective was her group’s lobbying, with a sitting member of Congress helping arrange and coordinate the lobbying?

J.

You mean she was consistent in her position and tried to rally support for it thru numerous channels? The horror!

She also neglected to mention this position on her ethics and financial reports to Congress…

J.

President Obama is drawing high praise from veterans’ service organizations for proposing a Department of Veterans Affairs budget that would exceed by $1.3 billion what even VSOs suggested be spent next year.

No president before ever offered a VA spending plan that surpassed in size the “Independent Budget” presented to Congress by major veterans groups. Obama seeks to fulfill several high-profile promises made to veterans during his presidential campaign including a big increase in VA healthcare budgets.

But it was a new and unpopular proposal being studied by the administration that created uncomfortable moments for VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki when he made separate appearances Tuesday before the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees.

Obama’s VA budget outline, with full details promised by late April, would raise VA spending to $112.8 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That’s an increase of $15 billion, or 15 percent, over the current budget.

What? Increase the VA budget 15 percent? Obama hates the troops!

It’s not support for free trade and commerce that surprises me. It’s the willingness to accept Mexican trucks and drivers on U.S. highways that surprises me.

A great number of your ideological fellow travelers aren’t fond of the plan.

But that wasn’t the issue. It was for billing Blue Cross (if the soldier in question already has BC/BS) for service related injuries, which they don’t do now. The whole “making vets pay for their own care” is a made-up thing by the – ahem – “liberal media.”
But the whole things been dropped, so it’s a moot point.

O….k…..

What?

Skip it.

Reasonably accurate comments based on the person having made a fair attempt to obtain actual knowledge of what they are talking about. But I won’t hold my breath.

Just kind of pictured you as one of those “New World Order” conspiracy theorists.

O….k…..

What?

Just kind of pictured you as one of those “New World Order” conspiracy theorists.

Apologize for any inconvenience.

Wow. From claiming he proposed it to claiming he wasn’t even consulted on it in under 2 hours.

You really don’t know what you’re talking about, do you?

I’m just surprised you are too.

Why would you be surprised? What, in anything that I’ve said here or anywhere, would lead you to believe I didn’t support free trade and commerce?

I am, actually. I’m just surprised you are too.

I really wouldn’t worry about a carbon tariff pissing off SFC B. I’d worry a lot more about a carbon tariff pissing off every other country on Earth which does trade with the US. And, really, I thought I was being a bit hyperbolic with my “Gates is the only one to not cause a front page screw up”. “Make the plant unlivable” tops that.

You’re right. The Bush team handled these things so so much better.

And in two months the Obama team has managed to make things even worse.

I can’t wait until May so “This is Bush’s Fault” can be retired.

LaHood is a Republican.
Gates is a holdover from the Republican Bush regime.

Shinseki’s warning to use ‘on the order of several hundred thousand’ troops in Iraq were ignored and that’s why there have been over 4,000 American troops that died, and nealry ten times that that were injured, and untold hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.

Chu is brilliant and while a carbon tax and carbon tariff might piss of SFC B and his right wing friends it might just be the only thing to keep the planet livable, assuming that’s a even a concern of the right wing.

Apparently SFC B is a Limbaugh ditto head and his one talent is telling more lies than can be briefly responded to.

What’s weirdly sad is that many of Obama’s cabinet picks are conservative centrists but the Limbaugh Party has become so extreme that just “conservative centrist” isn’t good enough for them.

Holy moley! You’re in favor of the cross border trucking program?

Um, yeah. Why aren’t you? It reduces the cost of goods since it eliminates the need to transfer from Mexican to US trucks. It also allowed US trucks to operate in Mexico.

When did you stop believing the US had to live up to the responsibilities it incurs when it ratifies treaties with foreign countries?

You’re right. The Bush team handled these things so so much better.

Holy moley! You’re in favor of the cross border trucking program?

Let’s see, economic crisis, AIG bonuses, alienating allies, and possibly getting into a trade war with one of our neighbors. We’re not even at the two month mark.