McCain's disability income

Thanks to John Aravosis at Americablog for the following.

John McCain receives $58,000 tax-free dollars each and every year from the U.S. Government for a "disability" related to his military service.

The McCain campaign explains that McBush receives that money because he was "technically disabled." Mark Salter, a McCain campaign poohbah said "Tortured for his country -- that is how he acquired his disability."

Aravosis writes, "Technically? What does that mean? Usually, it means that under the strict reading of the law, you're covered, but in fact it's kind of a nudge-nudge-wink-wink situation - that's what 'technically' means. It's called parsing, which is something you do to 'technically' claim something is true, when on its face it really isn't. So is McCain 'technically' disabled, and taking $58,000 a year tax free from the government, or is he actually disabled? ... And if he is actually disabled, just how disabled is he?"

Aravosis continues to say that our troops deserve the very best but it seems that our government doesn't always care about that, and actually makes it more difficult for injured troops to get quality medical care ("the military is actually refusing to diagnose PTSD in order to save money on benefits").

Furthermore, says Aarvosis, "I'm not sure that the McCains, who own 'eight or nine houses,' should be getting $58k a year tax-free from the government for a 'technical' disability when others who don't have families worth a gazillion dollars could use that support a lot more. The median household income in the US in 2006 was $48,201. ...

"I mean, the man built his own lake to go fishing at one of his 8 or 9 houses. Yes, he served his country. But something is wrong when we're paying millionaires $58,000 a year, especially when those same millionaires complain that we were being 'overly-generous' to our troops currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the very least, it's terribly hypocritical."

And finally, this: "Let's not forget that the Republicans decided that the last election should be about whether a Vietnam war hero, who was awarded the Purple Heart, really was injured enough to get those medals. Imagine what the Republicans would have done had the Democratic candidate been profiting to the tune of $58,000 a year from the feds for a "disability" that didn't stop him from staying in the military another eight years, where he took over the command of a training squadron, and which didn't stop him from later getting elected to the Us Congress for 26 years. ..."


Assuming this is all true, the big problem for me is again McCain's hypocrisy. He's against lobbyists but surrounds himself with them. He has flip-flopped on almost every issue on which he's taken a stand in the past ten years.

The worst of it is that he plays the "war hero" card constantly, as if that gives him insight and knowledge unfamiliar to us mere mortals. At the same time, in spite of the Iraqi mess, he promises to continue the neocon plan for regime change in the Middle East while denying our soldiers--the ones who are required to put their lives on the line--the benefits of a G.I. bill, benefits which provided many of us a new lease on life following our military service.

There's something wrong with a man like that!