The vote broke down to 63/34 and was 4 votes shy of the margin of votes they needed to over-ride a veto from Pres. Bush. And that's the bad news. Read the rest here.
And this is bad news for the disabled. From USA Today:
And some more bad news for our troops. Sec. Gates and General PaceLife in Medicare's waiting period
Group fights 2-year delay for
disabled
By Julie ApplebyUSA TODAY
The rare muscle disorder that twisted her spine and compressed her lungs, making it hard to breathe, finally forced Roxianna McCutchan to quit her job as a clerk and dispatcher at the Rockport Police Department in Rockport, Texas, in July 2002.
"I was so independent and had an attitude that, 'I'm going to work, I am going to be a success, and no one is going to stop me,' " says McCutchan in an e-mail because she has now nearly lost her voice. "And then my body says, 'I can't keep up. You have to stop.' "
Each year, tens of thousands of Americans like McCutchan find themselves disabled and unable to work. After going through the process to get Social Security disability income, most are shocked to discover that they have to wait two more years to be eligible for Medicare, the federal health program for elderly and disabled people.
"I would still be there working and loving my job if I could," says McCutchan, 36, who now lives in Victoria, Texas. "I lost all that and had no clue that Medicare wouldn't be there to help me."McCutchan and 20 others tell their stories about life in the two-year waiting period today in a report released by New York-based advocacy group the Medicare Rights Center, which is lobbying to end the waiting period.
"There's no more desperate group of uninsured Americans than people who are severely disabled, suddenly unemployed and without any access to health coverage," says Robert Hayes, the center's president.
The report, funded by the center and the Commonwealth Fund, comes amid renewed interest among lawmakers in Congress and the states to reduce the umber
of uninsured. Among the nation's 45 million residents without health coverage, the center's report says, an estimated 400,000 are disabled people in the waiting period.
held a news conference today to tell us that they were extending the tours of
duty in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months.
From the AP:
Gates announces longer tours in Iraq
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press
Writer1 hour, 20 minutes ago
Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours — three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.
It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.
"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates told a Pentagon news
conference, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He said the new policy does not affect the other main components of the U.S. ground force in Iraq: the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, or the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month tours.
Gates acknowledged that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making life difficult for many in the military.
"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.
He said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year, although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.
Soldiers will get an extra $1,000 a month for the three extra months they serve, he said.
**They get an extra $1,000 a month. And if they die during those three months?
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