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Republicans backed themselves into a corner on veterans care bill, and they're struggling to get out [1]

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Date: 2022-08-01

Say this for retiring Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey: He has consistently opposed the bill to extend care for toxic burn pit-related illnesses to veterans. He didn’t just change his mind because he didn’t like a completely unrelated thing Democrats did. Toomey has an amendment to the bill that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said could get a vote. But advocates for veterans say the amendment is unacceptable.

“What Toomey’s amendment wants to do is make sure that our sick and dying veterans have the pleasure that our 9/11 first responders at Ground Zero had of having to come back to Washington, hat in hand, riddled with cancer, and march through the halls of the Hill begging for money every year,” comedian and advocate Jon Stewart said on ABC’s This Week.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough made the same point about Toomey’s amendment, saying on CNN’s State of the Union, “the outcome of that will be rationing of care for vets, which is something I just can’t sign up for.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, constitutionally unable to see a contentious issue and not try to parlay it into attention for himself, dove into fighting with Stewart, embracing Toomey’s claims about the bill creating funding for unrelated issues.

But again: “It’s nonsense,” Stewart said in a Twitter video. “There’s nothing in the bill that is not related to veterans’ spending. … This is for veterans who suffered health effects from burn pits and other toxins. That is it!”

Stewart called on Cruz and other Republicans to “pass the bill you already had passed.” Several of the Republicans, including Cruz, claimed they want to pass it, they just can’t support this version that is a single sentence different from the one they already supported. The PACT Act “is a bill I support. It’s a bill most senators support,” Cruz said.

x Sen. Bill Cassidy on the veterans health care bill he just voted against: "I strongly support it." pic.twitter.com/YXVBRD84Jo — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2022

x Jon Stewart on Meet the Press: "They've all just got this mumbo jumbo about 'a budgetary gimmick,' but nothing changed. This isn't my opinion. It is on Congress dot gov. The text of the bill they voted for June 14th is the same bill." pic.twitter.com/3UrbueV9bq — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 31, 2022

Republicans backed themselves into a corner here. They lashed out at the first bill they could after Democrats surprised them by reaching a deal for a significant reconciliation spending bill with Sen. Joe Manchin, and whoops, it turned out that people notice and get angry when you reverse yourself to try to block a bill you previously supported and the bill involves extending care to veterans who have cancer and respiratory illnesses as a direct result of their time on military deployments. Now Republicans are frantically trying to find a way to pretend they didn’t do the thing it’s totally obvious they did.

Schumer is bringing the bill back for a vote, giving Toomey a vote on his amendment. But vote that amendment down and then force Republicans to vote on the bill as a whole. Don’t give an inch.

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