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September 29, 2015 10:17 AM UTC

Funding for Aurora VA Hospital Teeters; Coffman Sits on His Hands

  • 11 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Still from Rep. Mike Coffman's 2014 ad using Planned Parenthood's logo.
Still from Rep. Mike Coffman’s 2014 ad using Planned Parenthood’s logo.

UPDATE: It certainly appears as though Rep. Mike Coffman was taken outside to the ol’ wood shed for a nice talk. Mark Matthews updates his story for the Denver Post:

Coffman, who sits on the House veterans committee, said Miller decided to introduce the bill in spite of his reservations.

“He went forward certainly without me,” Coffman said in an interview Monday morning.

Later in the day, however, his office asked to clarify his statement and make note that Coffman supported Miller. [Pols emphasis] 

“No doubt, I strongly believe that the House approach is right, but my guess is that there will be a compromise that lands somewhere between the House and Senate versions,” Coffman said in a statement.

Way to stick to your guns, Rep. Coffman. You’re quite the leader.

—–

Mark Matthews of the Denver Post has the latest on how the federal budget battle may impact funding for the Aurora VA Hospital Project. Congressman Jeff Miller (R-FL),the Chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, is adamant that any new funding authorized by Congress for the VA Hospital must also slash $200 million set aside for bonuses for VA employees — a proposal that was not included by the Senate last week:

On Friday, the Senate  agreed unanimously to the new $1.675 billion price tag, but without Miller’s stipulation that part of the funding come from VA employee bonuses.

It’s that provision that had Colorado lawmakers wringing their hands to start the week. This is the third time this year that a funding fight for the Aurora hospital has come down to the 11th hour in Congress.

“I’m concerned,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Aurora. “I understand what the chairman wants to do. I think he’s right from a policy standpoint. But my position is that we can’t have a shutdown.” [Pols emphasis]

Should Miller’s pass the House, there is little desire in the Senate to include his stipulation about VA bonuses; in part because VA officials have said the pot of money targeted by Miller goes to VA employees such as doctors who work long hours. Given the impasse — and the short deadline — Miller’s move adds a new wrinkle of drama to a project that  already has seen plenty of it.

First off, it is completely and utterly absurd for Congressman Mike Coffman to say that his position “is that we can’t have a shutdown.” Earlier this month, Coffman joined the rest of Colorado’s Republican delegation in voting to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood — a partisan political move that is the single biggest hurdle to avoiding a shutdown. Coffman can’t say that “we can’t have a shutdown” when he has already cast votes that everybody knew would only increase the odds of the second federal government shutdown in three years; this is kind of like talking about being a vegetarian over cocktails and then ordering the porterhouse steak for dinner.

Even more damaging for Coffman, however, is his continual inability to do anything that might ensure that the Aurora VA Hospital is finally completed. Again, from the Post:

Coffman, who sits on the House veterans committee, said Miller decided to introduce the bill in spite of his objections.

“He went forward certainly without me,” Coffman said.

Coffman is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, and the Aurora VA Hospital project is the single biggest issue in his own Congressional district. It would seem that just about everybody is “moving forward” without Coffman.

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11 thoughts on “Funding for Aurora VA Hospital Teeters; Coffman Sits on His Hands”

  1. And who exactly is going to hold the VA accountable? Morgan Carroll? HAHAHA. Carroll is a creature of statism. She will do whatever the administration, Republican or Democrat, tell her to do.

    You don't care about the vets either, Pols. This is only about attacking a good man and a veteran himself.

    1. Mike Coffman is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Veterans' Affairs Committee…and what exactly has he done with this title?

      1. You're right in that we don't know how exactly Morgan Carroll would deal with this issue if elected to Congress. But we DO know what Mike Coffman does, and it ain't much. It's not like Carroll could possibly do any less than Coffman has done.

        1. The thing about Morgan though is that we can just ask her. Call her on the phone if you'd like or ask her on FB! She listens and responds, Mike scurries away to wherever it is he goes when constituents are interested in interacting with him.

    2. Democrats' votes in congress going back decades prove that they care a lot more about vets than Republicans in congress do. Same goes for first responders and the heroes of 9/11. Photo ops and bumper stickers don't mean a thing. Real money, real funding does. Dems vote for funding for vets. Rs generally vote no, saying we can't afford it while standing strong for every unpaid for cut, subsidy and break for the rich.

      Republicans see vets as among those who are supposed to make do with trickle down, not that anything ever does. As usual, modster, you don't know WTF you're talking about and have no facts on your side. Just baseless insults.

      BTW why would you use "statist"  as an insult to describe somebody you say does not want to fund the needs of vets?  Unless you think private charities ought to be doing it, that's the kind of thing that only a strong state can do. You have no idea how to even come up with insults that make sense, much less policy positions.

  2. Remember the Bonus Marchers – when we rely on private charities to take care of veterans, instead of having robust well-funded institutions in place for their care, this is what happens. Or, they just end up suffering and killing themselves in record numbers, or being homeless and mentally ill on the streets. Wait, that's already happening.

    My father, as a young teen in Washington DC, saw the Bonus Marcher vets and their families get  teargassed and kicked out of their shantytown encampment on the banks of the Potomac. Sanctioned by President Herbert Hoover, and supervised by General MacArthur, this brutal suppression made my father determined to fight against injustice. He never forgot it, and it was part of why he became a journalist – apparently, the press coverage of the Bonus protest was heavy on the "Anarchists and Commies got their just desserts – thank you, President Hoover!"

    Below,Bonus encampment. Circa 1932, in the depths of the Depression, WWI vets needed their promised “bonus” early.

     

    Below, Bonus Shantytown in flames. Many of the vets and families camped on the Potomac because they were homeless.

     

     

    1. Thank you, Mama! So I'm not the only who thought of the Bonus Expeditionary Force in relation to the broken promises of the last administration. (yeah, I know, Moddy will try to 'blame Obama", but we know better.) If this situation doesn't improve soon, like getting the hospital finished, we may see another such March on Washington. Vets are a very big group of the most dangerous kind of people: People with nothing to lose.

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