VA Chief: Shutdown Could Hit Millions of Vets
(Also posted in LBN.)By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
About 3.8 million veterans will not receive disability compensation next month if the partial government shutdown continues into late October, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki says. Some 315,000 veterans and 202,000 surviving spouses and dependents will see pension payments stopped.
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The House has passed legislation that would provide veterans disability, pension and other benefits in the event of a prolonged shutdown. But the White House has urged lawmakers not to take a piecemeal approach to continuing government services.
Shinseki plans to make that case as well, saying it's not the best solution for veterans. He'll note that even if the VA were fully funded, some services to veterans would suffer.
His written testimony (prepared for his scheduled appearance Wednesday before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs) says the Labor Department has largely shut down its VETS program, which provides employment and counseling services to veterans. The Small Business Administration has closed 10 centers focused on helping veterans create and operate businesses. And the Housing and Urban Development Department is not issuing new vouchers to homeless vets, though those relying on vouchers to pay rent will be able to continue using them.
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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/va-secretary-shutdown-hit-millions-vets-20513874
Thanks, GOP! You own this.
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I'll be okay. I don't live from disability check to disability check. By choice, I live pretty frugally, which allows me to have a reserve to cover me and to support political causes, as well as needs in my community, like my local food bank. I send a couple hundred dollars there periodically.
But I have friends for whom an extended shutdown would be catastrophic, not to mention a debt ceiling crash. One vet friend here just passed on, another casualty of cancer. The scary thought is that, among our vets here, he may be the lucky one. 
I have a lot of friends who are struggling already, even before this GOP mess.
On a positive note, though, a group of HS students in my community is building a new home for a Wounded Warrior. They raised more than $60,000 in 2 months, and last I heard they were at $95,000. They closed escrow on a property a few weeks ago, and I got to see it with the students and their teacher recently.
These students, from Lancaster HS in Lancaster, CA are amazing. I felt honored that they wanted me to join them in their photo...
I envy you, because I know only a little about my own ancestry.
I don't think what DU feels about AH matters much. For you, I think it's enough to know that he was a good man, engaged in the great political affairs of his day, who contributed to the founding of our country. How many of us here only WISH we had such a connection to our Founders!
And about those students, I am strictly peripheral, a supporter on the sidelines. These kids (and I hesitate to call them "kids"
are doing this by themselves. I am completely floored by what they have accomplished. I posted about it only to infuse a positive note in this negative atmosphere.
And from what I have come to know of you, you are a beautiful woman, inside and out. Your photos are much better than mine, that's for sure! 
very much! 
