Food Baskets

from American Legion District 15 Legionnaire, Veterans Day 2022

by Karen Wood

Legion Riders

Brewbakers

Proudly supports the 14th District American Legion

Gino Valpredo

661.322.0926

725 East 19th Street • Bakersfield, CA 93305

Thank you Veterans!

24 South Cobb Street, Porterville (559) 781-3792 | JRMeatCompany.com

NO MORE FREE-RIDERS (Continued from Page 51)

After decades of naïve neglect on the part of many European members of NATO, the United States accounts for 72% of NATO military spending. At the height of the Cold War, the burden was closer to a 50-50 split. Led by Germany, Europe’s reawakening will help restore some balance and spread out the burdens of transatlantic security.

Of course, the United States also needs to invest more in defense. At first blush, the Pentagon’s $768 billion budget looks like a lot of money. That figure, after all, represents more than the entire GDP of countries such as Belgium, Ireland and Chile. But looks can be deceiving. The fiscal 2022 defense budget represents just 3.2% of U.S. GDP. America’s Cold War average was twice that. In 1968, for example, the United States allocated 9% of GDP to defense. In 1984, the United States allocated 5.9% of GDP to defense.

Given that we are in what Henry Kissinger calls the “foothills of a Cold War,” given what Putin and Xi Jinping are doing, given what they openly plan to do, given the metastasizing security challenges elsewhere in the world, it only makes sense to shift toward Cold War levels of defense spending. Just glance at your news feed:

· Putin is digesting chunks of Ukraine, demanding NATO pull back from Central Europe, rebuilding the Russian Empire piecemeal, hacking and attacking the U.S. power grid, opening military bases in the Arctic Circle, propping up regimes that gas and starve their own people, using chemical weapons to assassinate his enemies, and even threatening preemptive use of nuclear weapons to somehow de-escalate a conflict.

· Xi is engaged in one of history’s largest peacetime military buildups, has constructed and militarized illegal islands in the South China Sea, has absorbed Hong Kong in violation of international treaties, and is tightening his vise around Taiwan.

· Iran continues its drive to build a nuclear bomb, continues to foment revolution in neighboring countries, continues to attack commercial and military vessels in international waters, and continues to directly target Americans.

· The Taliban has retaken Afghanistan – not a comforting thought given what happened the last time the Taliban ruled that forever-broken country. Al-Qaida has a presence in 21 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.

· Add to this list North Korea, with its growing nuclear arsenal, spasms of missile tests and unpredictable leadership; a raging “wildfire of terrorism” across Africa, which is scarred by the re-emergence of ISIS; and Hezbollah’s 130,000 rockets.

The invasion of Ukraine is just an exclamation point to all of this, which explains why key congressional leaders are eyeing a larger defense budget. “It’s going to have to be bigger than we thought,” according to Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine fundamentally altered what our national security posture and what our defense posture needs to be. It made it more complicated and it made it more expensive.”

How much more expensive? A week before Putin launched his war on Ukraine, some policymakers were considering fiscal 2023 defense spending above $800 billion, according to a Reuters report. That figure now seems likely to be the baseline for defense spending, rather than the ceiling.

From Warsaw to Washington, the goal in this alliance-wide rearmament effort is not to start a NATO-Russia war, but quite the opposite: to deter an attack against NATO and prevent what Churchill called “temptations to a trial of strength.”

SENATOR INTRODUCES AMERICAN LEGION-SUPPORTED BILL

TO MODERNIZE VA MEDICAL CENTERS, OTHER INFRASTRUCTURE

BY SARA SAMORA

Senator Jon Tester proposed legislation designed to modernize the Department of Veterans Affairs' medical centers and other infrastructure after he and 11 other senators last month blocked a nearly $2 trillion VA plan to close, consolidate and upgrade agency facilities across the country.

The bill, dubbed the “Build, Utilize, Invest, Learn, and Deliver [or BUILD] for Veterans Act of 2022,” would require the VA to develop plans and workforce hiring strategies to complete new facility projects, examine infrastructure budgeting, and provide Congress with its plans and performance data for enhanced accountability. “When it comes to delivering new hospitals, clinics, cemeteries, benefits offices, and other facilities for veterans and the employees that serve them, we’ve got to set VA up for success,” said Tester, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. “The BUILD for Veterans Act pushes VA to modernize and manage its current and future infrastructure needs through common-sense provisions that will save taxpayer dollars in the process.”

Additionally, the bill would also require the VA to provide plans and performance data to Congress, implement a schedule to eliminate or repurpose unused and vacant buildings and examine infrastructure budgeting strategies. Moreover, it will require the VA to provide yearly budget requirements for 10 years.

In June, Tester and 11 other senators opposed the VA’s Asset and Infrastructure Review, saying the recommendations would not expand or strengthen the agency’s infrastructure and put veterans in rural and urban areas at a disadvantage.

The VA was required to establish the Asset and Infrastructure Review as part of the Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated outside Networks Act of 2018, or MISSION Act. The review was designed to analyze the health care needs of veterans as well as the department’s infrastructure. That same year, Congress approved the creation of an Asset and Infrastructure Review Commission to work on the "modernization or realignment" of VA properties.

Tester’s new bill draws from the infrastructure portion of the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022, or PACT Act, which he and Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the Senate VA Committee, introduced in May.

The PACT Act seeks to provide an easy path to health care and benefits for veterans who served near open-air burn pits, which were used throughout the 1990s and the post-9/11 wars to burn garbage, jet fuel and other materials. The bill would establish 31 new VA health care facilities in 19 states.

Veterans diagnosed with cancer, respiratory issues and lung disease at young ages have blamed exposure to the toxic fumes from these pits, but the VA contended for years that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support their claims.

The bill also would improve the VA’s workforce and claims processing to speed up efforts to meet the needs of veterans. Additionally, the bill would expand health care eligibility to post-9/11 combat veterans and add 23 conditions related to burn pits and other toxic exposures to the VA’s list of service presumptions. It will also expand the list of presumptions related to Agent Orange exposure to include Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa and Johnston Atoll, strengthen federal research on toxic exposure, and improve the VA’s resources and training.

The PACT Act could reach a vote in the Senate this week.

Various veteran service organizations announced their support for the BUILD for Veterans Act, including Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Paralyzed Veterans of America.

“Ensuring VA has state-of-the-art facilities to support the medical and mental health care needs of veterans is a top priority of the American Legion,” said Paul Dillard, national commander of The American Legion, in a prepared statement about the BUILD Act. “Investing in and revitalizing the aging VA infrastructure is vital to the overall success of the VA health care system. We must ensure that VA is properly resourced and structured to manage the infrastructure of the largest integrated health care network in the nation.”