Happy Veteran's Day

25% of all homeless people are veterans, according to a new study, and many of them are younger veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The extent to which the government discards our fighting men and women after they serve their narrow political interests is disgraceful. One of the great untold stories of this Democratic Congress (of which I am critical) is that they put together the largest expansion of veteran's services in history this year. The blog of the AFL-CIO has more on what has be done, the obstacles put up in front of veterans, this stain on the Republic.

The homelessness crisis among veterans is fueled by the lack of family-supporting jobs and affordable housing. The alliance estimates that nearly half a million (467,877) veterans are paying more than 50 percent of their income for rent. More than half (55 percent) of veterans with severe housing costs fall below the poverty level, and 43 percent are receiving foods stamps.

Now, it also seems the same Bush administration has abandoned veterans when they come home looking for a job. Last week, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions heard that the agencies responsible for protecting veterans from job discrimination are not doing the their job.

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), committee chairman, said veterans who seek help "face a Walter Reed-like nightmare of having to negotiate a maze of bureaucracy."

He says those who seek help must wait for months, even years, just to get a simple answer about whether the government will take their case to court.

A new Defense Department report shows significant numbers of veterans have difficulty finding a job after they return home, even though the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) requires employers to reinstate returning veterans and give them full benefits.

A Pentagon survey of military reserve members showed that 44 percent were dissatisfied in 2006 with the Labor Department’s handling of their employment-discrimination complaints, a huge increase from the 26 percent in 2004.

The Democrats have done much to highlight this inequity, but we all have a stake in making sure that those who fight are treated with adequate respect upon returning home.