Walter Reed - Symbol of Republican Incompetence

I've seen it posted on blogs that the crisis at Walter Reed and other VA facilities is Bill Clinton's fault. He, they say, cut the budget for the facilities and for the military in general. While a number of the cuts happened on Bill's watch, truth is found in basic civics: The Congress holds the purse strings.

The Congress during Clinton's administration was Republican-controlled. They wanted a "peace dividend" following the fall of the Wall and the failure of communism. The Congress, with their power of the purse, cut funding for the Military, putting many of us out and reducing the number of bases, hospitals and facilities to treat the wounded.

So, the Republicans set the situation up. Furthering the incompetence was the current Administration. Their rosy-eyed predictions of easy victory, of tanks rolling over roses proved untrue. We armed but didn't armor our troops and they began to be injured in large numbers. The Pentagon reports about 27,000 wounded but if you take their own killed to wounded ratio, the number becomes closer to 56,000. That's a bunch more than the military health system was prepared or funded to treat.

So the next time a GOPer talks about supporting the truth, smile sweetly and ask them why they defunded Walter Reed and other military hospitals during the Clinton administration and why Bush didn't fund them when the need was known.