On the USA TODAY’s website today they have two very important stories being told about our military troops. 

The first being that of, “Age, mold assail military barracks”.  They tell the story of our soldiers fight to keep mold out of their showers during the summers and keeping the heating system working properly in their barracks across America.  Some barracks had to be closed down because they were falling apart.  Some of these buildings are a century old.  Maintenance budgets being limited causes even more grief.

I find this disgusting.  What is that $5000.00 per second, according to Senate Majority Leader Reid, being spent on that he says is funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

I know from my own home town’s experience that some of that money may have been wasted redesigning National Guard Armories.  Nobody 'lives' there.  Thousands were spent improving the ‘appearance’ of our armory.  From what I can tell, after being inside, nothing was improved inside the building.

President Bush and the Republican Party have done nothing but ‘’brag’ about being the ‘ones’ to have ‘supported’ our troops over the past 5 years.  They’ve demanded billions of dollars over the years for the un-necessary war they started in Iraq – apparently they’ve used it to help improve the Iraqi people’s lives instead of our own troops medical facilities and living quarters.

The second story is about, “GI benefits stymie funding bill”.  This time it’s the Democrat leadership that is retreating from a plan that includes an improved education benefit for post-9/11 veterans.  Some Democrats are concerned about expanding a permanent entitlement program without paying for it.

The Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary estimate showing it would cost $51.8 billion over 10 years. Annual costs would rise throughout the period, CBO said, reaching $7 billion a year in 2018.

That would make it the most expensive new entitlement program created by Congress since the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2003. That benefit was estimated at the time to cost about $400 billion over 10 years, a figure that has increased since then.

While this is admirable for Democrats to be concerned about the taxpayer dollars, unlike the Republicans have been over the past 7 plus years, they are bulking on the ‘wrong’ issue.

This plan would entitle veterans with at least three years' cumulative active-duty service, including National Guard and Reserve members, to a full ride at any public university in the country.

In 5 years we have spent $875 billion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

These men and women voluntarily gave up at least 3 years of their lives for their country – but we can’t ‘afford’ to pay for their education?  Just $51.8 billion over 10 years?  What a disgrace.

Somebody awhile back said that Barack Obama, in order to get more Independent voters on his side, needed to tell Democrats and Republicans something they don’t ‘want’ to hear.  Well Senator Obama, here you go - two BIG TIME stories.