This is quite a tale.. The veterans lose and the Catholic University wins. What do you all think? http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/01/how-rick-santorum-ripped-off-american-military-veterans How Rick Santorum Ripped Off American Veterans A controversial land deal by the presidential candidate robbed a vets' home of tens of millions of dollars. By Andy Kroll | Wed Jan. 18, 2012 4:00 AM PST Like any good presidential candidate, Rick Santorum heaps praise on America's soldiers and veterans. He's pledged to "make veterans a high priority" if elected president, adding, "This is not a Republican issue, this is not a Democratic issue, it is an American issue." But as a US senator, Santorum engineered a controversial land deal that robbed the military's top veterans' home of tens of millions of dollars and worsened the deteriorating conditions at the facility. The Armed Forces Retirement Home, which is run by the Department of Defense, bills itself as the "premier home for military retirees and veterans." The facility sprawls across 272 acres high on a hill in northern Washington, DC, near the Petworth neighborhood. The nearly 600 veterans who now live there enjoy panoramic views of the citythe Washington monument and US Capitol to the south, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to the east. At its peak, more than 2,000 veterans of World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War lived at the Home. But with the rise of the smaller all-volunteer military, the Home began to run into serious financial problems. It was clear that one of its primary sources of revenuea 50-cent deduction from the paychecks of active-duty servicememberswasn't enough to keep the Home operating fully. In the 1990s, the Home scrambled to find ways to avoid insolvency, trimming its staff by 24 percent and reducing its vet population by 800. Still, the money problems began to show, with its older historic facilities slipping into disrepair and decay. To grapple with its worsening shortfall, officials running the Home eyed a valuable, 49-acre piece of land worth $49 million as a potential financial lifeline. . Under one scenario, by leasing the parcel of land and letting it be developed, the Home could pocket $105 million in income over 35 years for its trust fund, David Lacy, then-chairman of the Home's board of directors, told Congress in 1999. Lacy stressed that the Home wanted to keep the property, and not offload it to a buyer. "Once land is sold," he said, "it is lost forever as an asset." Enter Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). At the behest of the Roman Catholic Church, and unbeknownst to the Home, Santorum slipped an amendment into the 1999 National Defense Authorization Act handcuffing how the home could cash in on those 49 acres. The amendment forced the Home to selland not leasethe land to its next-door neighbor, the Catholic University of America. Ultimately, the Catholic Church bought 46 acres of the tract for $22 million. The Home lost the land for good, and by its own estimates, pocketed $27 million less than the land's value and $83 million less than what it could've made under the lease plan. Santorum's amendment sparked an outcry from veterans' groups and fellow US senators, who barraged his office with complaints. Laurence Branch, then the executive director of the Home's board, says Santorum's amendment was "a travesty" and the Church's lobbying for the land a case of "coveting thy neighborhood's goods." To this day, Branch says he blames Santorum for the Home not receiving more money for the 49-acre parcel of land. "I'm convinced Sen. Santorum is no friend of veterans," Branch says. (A spokesman for Catholic University did not respond to a request for comment.) At the time, Santorum said the amendment was the product of "a consensus agreement" and "was certainly not an attempt to shortchange the veterans." (A spokesman for the Santorum campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Santorum's advocacy for Catholic University isn't at all surprising. A practicing Catholic, Santorum embodies the church's anti-abortion and anti-gay-marriage positions as well as its support for charities and alleviating poverty. While in Congress, he was a fierce advocate for the Catholic Church. A former Santorum aide told New York Times Magazine in 2005 that the senator was "a Catholic missionary who happens to be in the Senate.'' That same year, Time magazine named him one of America's ''25 Most Influential Evangelicals.'' Meanwhile, the $22 million from the land sale hardly stanched the flow of red ink at Armed Forces Retirement Home. Financial records, court documents, and government reports from the 2000s show how the Home cut back on the services it provided veterans as it grappled with funding problems. The slashing of services got so bad that in 2003 veterans living at the Home filed a class-action suit against the Home and its director, Timothy Cox, alleging shoddy health care and less access to that care. As a result of cutbacks and declining quality in care, the suit claimed, the suicide rate at the Home spiked from 59 in 2000 to 131 in 2003. In 2007, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office came to similarly troubling conclusions. The watchdog's head, David Walker, reported that one Home resident had been admitted to the hospital with maggots in a wound. Other vets were admitted with bad pressure sores, suggesting they'd been left unattended for dangerously long stretches of time by the Home's health care employees. In the aftermath of the GAO's investigation, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) demanded an independent investigation into the quality of health care at the Home. Yet today, despite some improvement in the Home's financial health, its campus is pocked with boarded-up, decrepit buildings. All but one of the Home's gatehouses is shuttered, as are some of the Home's more elegant buildings, including the historic Grant building (named after the Civil War general) and the red-brick hospital that now sits empty, bearing a sign warning off trespassers. Some veterans believe the Home's constant financial struggles have led to a slow-motion decline of the Home. As longtime resident and Navy vet Robert Devaney says, "I like to call it demolition by neglect."
Doesn't surprise me in the least. The only difference between Santorum and the rest of them, is at least we know who owns him. He evidently takes his direction from the pope.
I don't think he wants to win the election.. His opinions on women's health and women's rights have been archaic.....
Meanwhile, the $22 million from the land sale hardly stanched the flow of red ink at Armed Forces Retirement Home. Financial records, court documents, and government reports from the 2000s show how the Home cut back on the services it provided veterans as it grappled with funding problems. The slashing of services got so bad that in 2003 veterans living at the Home filed a class-action suit against the Home and its director, Timothy Cox, alleging shoddy health care and less access to that care. As a result of cutbacks and declining quality in care, the suit claimed, the suicide rate at the Home spiked from 59 in 2000 to 131 in 2003. In 2007, an investigation by the Government Accountability Office came to similarly troubling conclusions. The watchdog's head, David Walker, reported that one Home resident had been admitted to the hospital with maggots in a wound. Other vets were admitted with bad pressure sores, suggesting they'd been left unattended for dangerously long stretches of time by the Home's health care employees. In the aftermath of the GAO's investigation, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) demanded an independent investigation into the quality of health care at the Home.
Instead of a personal attack it is easier to just say.. Santorum was pro choice until he started in politics. FACT Santorum was a big Government spender .. FACT Santorum supported UNIONS .. Fact. Santorum supported a Guy who was a strong anti gun advocate SPECTER FACT. Santorum worked after he lost as.. a CONSULTANT for over $900,000 per year in DC. He was the 3rd most corrupt person in congress and the first 2 went to JAIL. He cheated about his kids home schooling. He lied about his political opponents back then..threw mud like he created it. Santorum drives an Audi while saying BUY AMERICAN..FACT Romney bought more American ! Santorum owns 6 properties..yet claims Romney has 4 or 5 home states.. Santorum claims Romney gets the Mormon votes.. yet he cannot win outside the bible belt himself. Santorum was and is for Mandates..except when he argues everyone else is. FACT. The voting record is clear..Santorum lost for a reason.. If Romney was NOT a Mormon..Santorum wouldn't even be near where he is now..
If you want to run our secular government, your first professional loyalty is to our country. If you can't handle being a secular public leader and a religious private citizen and keep the two distinct and different, you are not qualified. Most United States Presidents have kept some form of faith. None have attempted to govern by it the way Santorum wishes.
Granny says, "It ain't just Rick Santorum... Bernie Sanders on VA Bill: We Should Know Whats In It Before We Vote on It May 23, 2014 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who voted for Obamacare, said Thursday that the Senate should hold a hearing to find out whats in a bill introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that makes it easier to fire those responsible for the mounting backlog at VA medical facilities, before senators vote on it. See also: Senators Block VA Accountability Bill May 22, 2014 - As the Veterans Affairs (VA) fiasco rages on, the House passed a piece of legislation that would make it easier to fire VA employees and make the department more accountable. It was passed with bipartisan support, with the vote being 390 in favor to 33 against.
Santorum is pretty much a disgrace to the Catholic Church but his actions in regard to Veterans are SOP for all conservatives. Big lip service for "our heroes" but meanwhile their hypocrisy in regard to how they actually treat them knows no bounds.
Bernie Sanders has a legitimate point, he doesn't want to see high paid Hospital administrator jobs turn into patronage positions, a place to put your state campaign manager, with a salary and perks, and patronage positions in the VA system.... And don't think it wouldn't turn into that under a GOP administration, we already saw a head of FEMA who's experience was hiring judges for horse shows, and he got fired from that job, if you want "Heckova job Brownies" in charge of VA Hospitals, this is the bill that would do it.....
"I was basically pro-choice all my life, until I ran for Congress" - Rick Santorum Philadelphia Magazine, December 1995, page 150
