Our view: Enzi's objection disappoints

Anyone stopping at the Green River Post Office Tuesday afternoon would have seen the support our community has for our servicemen. A trailer packed with priority boxes was brought to the post office by members of the VFW, sending them to soldiers stationed overseas.

The fact a community the size of Green River can manage to donate enough care packages to fill a truck trailer is impressive at any stretch of the imagination and speaks to Green River residents’ dedication to those serving in the armed forces.

Unfortunately for Wyoming, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi is making waves for doing the exact opposite. Enzi blocked a bill aimed at extending benefits for about 90,000 Navy veterans who served in ships off the coasts of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Many sailors on those vessels have claimed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical known to have caused severe health problems for veterans, and the bill would have those veterans to claim presumptive exposure. The bill passed the House with a 382-0 vote and was set up for unanimous consent in the Senate, a process that would have expedited its passage, but would be stopped if one senator objected.

Enzi provided that objection, citing cost concerns originally made by Veterans Administration officials. And with that, the nation with the most powerful military in the world, which spends the most of any nation on defense spending, turned its back on a group that answered the call of duty and served their country.

The United States spent $610 billion on defense in 2017 according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. According to budget estimates, the cost of providing this care would amount to more than $1 billion and would be covered through increased fees on VA home loans. Yet, that $1 billion is enough to cause Enzi to halt the bill’s passage.

This act is beyond disappointing. The cost of a war isn’t simply the amount spent to feed and arm soldiers or buy bombs, planes and ships. There are lifelong impacts to the men and women who serve our country. The responsibility to help solders with those impacts should not end.

Our nation owes it to its veterans to care for the lifelong physical and psychological damage war can leave on a person and those impacts should be figured into the cost of war.

Unfortunately, for about 90,000 Navy veterans, Enzi doesn’t seem to share that opinion.

 

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