Operation Cutback, D.C., Veterans Retirement Home (WP)

[diamond14]

Operation Cutback
Battling Bankruptcy in D.C., Veterans Retirement Home Is Cutting Costs and Care

By Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 25, 2004; Page C01


The Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, facing the threat of bankruptcy for years, is reducing the size of its operation and its expenses -- hoping to cut costs by as much as 30 percent by next year.

The institution is selling surplus land and leasing some of its 50 buildings to charter schools and federal agencies. It has closed its 24-hour medical treatment center and shuttered its funeral home. Even its former name -- the Soldiers' and Airmen's Home -- has been ditched as archaic.

Last week, a new management team eliminated 65 staff positions -- more than 10 percent of the home's workers -- and replaced many long-term employees with outside contractors. And there are now three doctors on staff instead of nine.

Some residents and employees, while conceding that cuts are necessary, worry that the quality of care for the 1,000 veterans who live there may suffer, or that the home could lose its special character that has made it a sanctuary for veterans of U.S. combat, from the U.S.-Mexican War through Iraq.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45142-2004Jan24.html?nav=hptoc_m

[diamond14]

1. bush* torments OUR Veterans so much...imposing this suffering

on 1000 Veterans who honorably served OUR Country....the horror of bush* actions are incomprehensible...

seems that bush* wants to add even MORE Veterans to the homeless population of DC....over 60% of the homeless in DC are VETERANS...and right NOW, these homeless Veterans, who once served OUR Country are laying all over DC, close to the White House, wrapped in old dirty blankets and plastic bags, huddled on steam vents to keep from freezing to death tonight....

welcome Iraq Veterans...under bush*, this is YOUR fate...



vote for Kerry...he'll make certain that OUR Veterans are properly cared for....
http://www.JohnKerry.com

[SheilaT]

2. I suppose that's the place I knew of

as the Old Soldiers Home. When I worked at National Airport I used to get passengers who were from there. Thirty years ago they'd have been veterans of the Spanish American War and WWI. Most of them were men who had no family to care for them and they had no place else to go.

The current government, the men who run it are evil, evil, evil.

[jamesinca]

3. As Rumsfeld stated in an interview almost a year ago

Veterans are a waste of money. They obviously believe this. What good is somebody that you can't shoot.

[saigon68]

4. Get OUT and go back to those cardboard boxes on the streets

Compassionate Conservatism at its Best.

Rumbdum is one evil human being

[hadrons]

5. most of these vets will still vote for Bush

:eyes:

[diamond14]

6. these people can be converted....they need help to connect the

bush* regime to the suffering they are under-going....


I find that many people will complain about issue affecting their lives (schools, medical care, environmental pollution, their child has asthma, they are unable to find care for their dying mother, their kids can't find jobs)....but somehow, they are NOT connecting this to bush*, who is ultimately responsible for his policies...policies creating suffering all over America....


whenever I converse with people, I try to connect their complaints to BUSH*....it can be something as simple as just using bush*'s name when talking about their child's school work....like, "I'm horrified that bush* has failed to fund those school programs, which would help YOUR child excel"...most people don't add "bush*" to their remarks...so, nobody is connecting this whole mess to bush*....

one of my friends has a son, who was laid off from an airlines....she connected that to 911 (which happened MORE that two years ago)....so, I connected that to the constant ORANGE terror alerts that bush* screams out, most recently over the x-mas season...people are not wanting to fly as much, due to anti-aircraft guns pointed right at their plane when they fly out of DC airports...during ORANGE alerts, surface-to-air missles (8 at a time) are driven around DC mounted on humvees, and of course, the Pentagon has them on their roof as you fly right over it, might shoot down YOUR plane....nobody is interested in international travel, since bush* has created terrorism all over the world, and Americans are the target...THAT failed homeland security effort, from bush*, is what is what is KILLING the airlines industry.....now my friend is wanting to BOOT BUSH out of OUR White House...send him home to the pig farm....

[Mari333]

7. My son had his pay cut in half when he was in the Guard

and he has just recieved a bill from the Army that says he owes them money for equipment he never had.
The * admin is screwing the military big time. This kind of treatment should be getting more press, but it isnt.