Patriot Publishings

While I continue to collect the data and crunch the numbers from the ‘donated’ data I had received, I am awakened to the reality that no one in D.C. actually works for the people. I know this sounds harsh, but the sad reality is in the numbers.

This week has seen dozens of proposed bills into the Congressional Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, many dozens of other bills received many cosponsors, while vital bills slowly die away into the shadows.

Just by tracking the numbers and looking at patterns, it is clear that many of these career politicians are doing the same thing they have been doing their entire career: propose the same bill each congress, but do nothing with that bill (or bills in some cases).

Many veterans are sitting back patiently, waiting for their representatives to actually fight for the bills they propose, but little do they know that those politicians don’t/won’t actually fight for their bills. So far they have gotten away with it because….well…who in their right mind would start to fact-check these politicians and watch their bills?

ME, that’s who.

Let’s look at a couple of politician, shall we? Just to take a gander at their history. I will pick a politician from the GOP and from the Democrats (along with their sourcing):

Maxine Waters (D-CA-43). She entered office in 1991 (102nd) and remains today (118th), which equates to 32.5 years in office as of the end of 2023. Her contributions to the veteran community?

She sponsored 23 veteran-related bills while serving this 32+ years in office. In those 32+ years, how many were voted into law?

None. That’s correct, a whopping ZERO. So what bills did she propose:

For an easy perusing, click here (Representative Maxine Waters) to go straight to her sponsor page and review the numerous bills, many which are repeated each congress and are not advancing into laws.

How does she get re-elected? Let’s look at her cosponsored bills:

Maxine cosponsored 180 veteran-related bills in those 32+ years. Of those 180 bills, 17 were voted into laws. Now, I’m sure she doesn’t admit that she had nothing to do with those bills advancing, but she DOES boast about the amount of bills she ‘fought for’ to be passed into laws. This is how they can boast about their ‘success’ in D.C. Many/most politicians play this game consistently.

Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) entered office in 2015 (114th) and remains today (118th), which equates to 8.5 years in office as of the end of 2023. During that time, Elise has/had proposed/sponsored 13 veteran related bills, of which none have currently advanced into law.

Her bills:
-HR 4944 (118th) Veteran benefits
-HR 4562 (118th) Accrued benefits for veterans
-HR 7050 (117^th) re: veteran benefits
-HR 6322 (117^th) re: safe holidays
-HR 4191 (117^th) re: Gold Star spouses non-monetary benefits
-H Res 161 (117^th) re: Commemorating Desert Storm campaign
-HR 2816 (116^th) re: Vietnam era Hep C testing
-HR 5922 (115^th) re: Vietnam era Hep C testing
-HR 1910 (115^th) re: Military caregivers support
-HR 282 (115^th) re: Military residency choice
-H Con Res 45 (115^th) re: Vietnam veteran support
-HR 3989 (114^th) re: Military caregivers support
-H Con Res 161 (114^th) re: Vietnam veteran support

Only 2 bills actually advanced through one chamber. Stefanik’s record: Elise Stefanik (click the link to go to Congress.gov).

Again, zero have advanced into laws as of the date of this post.

With little effort, tracking your representative is not that hard, however, it does take time.

The sad reality is that most people don’t want to consume their time to find out this information. Many want to live in their fantasy, and avoid knowing the actual truths about their elected officials.

Choice is up to each person.

To all my veteran brethren, Happy Veterans Day.