John Gard's death tax

This week we were forced to witness the Republicans in Wisconsin abandon Wisconsin's Guard and Reserve members with a truly stunning display of political games.

Senator Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) had finally been granted a hearing on his bill to have the state provide the best body armor available to any Guard or Reserve member that is going to be shipped to Iraq of Afghanistan. The bill was to be taken up by Senator Ron Brown's Senate Veterans, Homeland Security and Military Affairs Committee. It was pulled from the schedule last weekend without an explanation.

Then this week Rep. Tom Nelson (D-Kaukauna) tried to add the bill by amendment to a veterans bill moving on the Assembly floor. The Assembly leadership yanked the whole bill rather than face the vote on the floor. Again, no explanation.

Until you think about who is coming to town this weekend to raise money for one of the Republican leaders from the Assembly.

Vice President Dick Cheney is coming to raise buckets of cash for Rep. John Gard and his bid for Congress. So what was Gard to do? Allow a vote that would embarrass Cheney and the rest of the Bush team by showing that they are not providing for our soldiers or get rid of the bill so Cheney will still come to town and raise him money? I mean really, we can't possibly expect Cheney to come to town while the papers are covered with stories about Wisconsin stepping in to take care of our soldiers if the Bush team won't do it, can we?

So Gard is asking people for $2500 a person to hear him say he will go to Congress to fight for the same things he fights for here, like getting rid of the Estate Tax. That's a tax the Republicans like to call the Death Tax. Gard wants to fight to get rid of a 'Death Tax' for multi-multi-millionnaires and billionnaires, but wants to impose and actual death tax on our soldiers by sending them off to combat zones without the best body armor we could provide.

Saying the lack of up-to-date body armor will cause deaths is no exaggeration. A recent Pentagon report found that 80% of all Marine casualties could have been prevented had they been outfitted with high-quality, up-to-date body armor.

Why is it even an option to send our soldiers in to combat zones without this armor? To be sure the Defense Department at the federal level should pay for this and every politician that hasn't fought for this at the federal level should be ashamed of themselves.

But every Republican politician in the Wisconsin State Assembly and State Senate should be just as ashamed of playing along with the Republican leadership's games in both houses this week. They had the power to stand up to their own leadership and demand action and they chose not to do that.

The Republicans will say Hansen and Nelson were playing partisan games by trying to force a vote on the issue. I think both Hansen and Nelson are really trying to do the right thing for our soldiers. They have waited patiently for their bills to be taken up and have gathered a bipartisan list of cosponsors. With time running out on the session, they were forced into this move by the Republican leadership. They are not playing partisan games.

And really, even if they were, does it matter as long as we get the soldiers the body armor they need?