Russell Fry was one of the 217 Republican House members who voted to pass the “Limit, Save, Grow” Act Wednesday as part of the Republican answer to raising the U. S. debt limit ceiling. In doing so, Fry and the other 216 Republicans voting to pass the bill also voted to cut benefits for veterans by 22% over the next 10 years.
If the bill becomes law in the current version, spending on veterans benefits will be capped at the FY 2022 limit and an immediate $2 billion reduction will occur on current fiscal year spending for veterans benefits.
This was entirely predictable for anyone who followed the Fry campaign for Congress last year. Not quite 10 months ago, GSD ran a story about how local disabled veterans who Fry had recruited as a coalition to help with his campaign dumped Fry and gave their allegiance to Ken Richardson. The major reason voiced by these veterans was that Fry wasn’t interested in hearing about their concerns and problems in trying to navigate the bureaucracy of the veterans Administration.
One of the disabled veterans, Keith Brooks, said in that article, “The veterans coalition was a way for Fry to get veterans together to give him talking points. Russell never gave us more than a minute or two to hear our story. You can’t tell Russell anything.”
Brooks added, “Russell is trying to be just another career politician. The last thing we need is another self-absorbed ladder climber.”
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