Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized Sen. Pat Toomey’s blocking of a bill that would provide care to veterans who have been exposed to toxic chemicals overseas.
“I say to Senator Toomey, if you don’t believe we can afford to take care of our veterans suffering from toxic burn pit exposure, then you should not have approved funding to go to war,” saidSanders (I-Vt.), votedAuthorize the U.S. war on Afghanistan, but not against the invasion of Iraq.
“Taking care of our veterans is the cost of war — period,” Sanders added. “End of discussion.”
U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries have used burn pits to dispose off waste from military bases. warningsSuch a method is possible riskedThe large-scale emission of toxic fumes can expose both American troops as well as civilians. civilians living nearby. According to the Pentagon, 3.5 million U.S. soldiers have experienced health problems from exposure to toxic chemicals from burn pits.
“In some locations, the fires were massive operations,” the Military Times notes. “At Joint Base Balad — one of the largest military bases in Iraq — the burn pit covered nearly 10 acres, with the resulting smoke passing over the entire base as winds shifted… Numerous studies and reports have suggested links between the poor air quality and rare cancers found in increasing numbers among post-9/11 veterans.”
Toomey, a retiring Pennsylvania Republican, has led the GOP’s opposition to the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022, claiming the bill contains “a budgetary gimmick” that would spark a “huge explosion in unrelated spending,” and that the spending would be mandatory instead of discretionary. The bill’s backers have rejected Toomey’s attack, calling it a manufactured excuse to justify tanking the measure.
Toomey is attempting to force the inclusion of an amendment that the Department of Veterans Affairs warns would force the federal government to “ration care for veterans.”
Liberal comedian Jon Stewart, a vocal advocate for the legislation, said at a press conference on Capitol Hill last week that Republicans “support the war machine,” not U.S. troops or veterans.
“They haven’t met a war they won’t sign up for,” said Stewart, “and they haven’t met a veteran they won’t screw over.”
The Senate passed the Honoring Our PACT Act easily in June. 14 Republicans — including Toomey — voting no, but administrative tweaks to the legislation made another vote necessary. Numerous Republicans have changed their positions on the bill since then, leading Democrats to accuse them in retaliation for renewed efforts to pass a party line reconciliation bill.
“Republicans are mad that Democrats are on the verge of passing climate change legislation and have decided to take out their anger on vulnerable veterans,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) argued in a floor speechLast week. “News emerged that there is an agreement that makes it likely that a climate change bill is going to proceed on the Senate floor, and magically 30 votes flip.”
The veterans’ healthcare legislation would, of course, do nothing for Iraqis, Afghans, and others exposed to toxic chemicals due to the United States’ violent invasions and occupations of their home countries.
As These TimesSarah Lazare, journalist noted in March, when President Joe Biden used his State of the Union address to pledge assistance to veterans suffering from chemical exposure, “the Iraqi and Afghan people who live near these burn pits — who raise children, go to work, and give birth within breathing distance of their air pollution — were nowhere to be seen.”
“The president did not mention Iraqi and Afghan people, whose exposure is far more prolonged, and whose resultant widespread health problems, including increased rates of birth defects, are well-documented (at least in Iraq),” wrote Lazare. “The omission reflects the chauvinism of U.S. discourse about the wars, in which the lives of those who suffer U.S. occupation and environmental poisoning simply do not register.”
