Supporting the Troops?

From the New York Times: Bush's budget proposes to charge some veterans a $250 surcharge for access to government health care. It would more than double the co-pay for drugs.

"The proposals, they said, are in the $2.5 trillion budget that Mr. Bush plans to unveil on Monday. White House officials said the budget advanced his goal of cutting the deficit, which hit a record last year.

'We are being tight,' Vice President Dick Cheney said on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'This is the tightest budget that has been submitted since we got here.'"

So, on the front end, American troops are having to endure longer and more frequent deployments in Iraq. On the back end, they get home and find it more difficult to gain access to quality health care.

The news for our troops just keeps getting better and better, no? How much do you imagine this will do to reverse the decline in new enlistments?

Well, sez the prez, we've got a deficit to shrink. Meanwhile, he insists on making his tax cuts permanent.

The the real kick-in-the-head is the fact that the proposed budget does not include the cost of making the tax cuts permanent. Nor, does it include the increasing cost of waging Bush's war, after serving in which the troops are asked to help shrink Bush's deficit by ponying up more money for basic health care.