Well since the trend on this thread is to post selected bits of the article, I'll join the fray.
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Quote:
When Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, and his wife, Beverly, heard about the problem, they personally paid Murwin's tab. Then the congressman introduced a bill to change the rules.
Rep. Young said Wednesday that the soldiers "were sent to war by their country. Many of them will be handicapped for the rest of their lives - and we're asking them to pay $8.10 a day for their food! There's something really wrong with that."
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Good! A fight is afoot to change the rules, and for the partisan crowd, spearheaded by a Republican no less.
I could careless if the soldiers get a food allowance, giving them a hefty bill shortly after leaving the hospital just feels wrong.
Quote:
The rule was established because most military personnel receive $8.10 a day as a "basic allowance for subsistence" for food. But when they are hospitalized, the government tries to recoup the money on the theory that they are eating hospital food and therefore are double-dipping.
Military officials have long disliked the rule but felt they had to enforce it because of the 1981 law.
"If I could be king for a day, I'd stop it in a minute," said Maj. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who commands the Army hospitals in the eastern United States.
The government already bends the rules for soldiers in combat. They are allowed keep the $8.10 even though they are also getting free food, according to Young's office.
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Seeing as how the rules are bent already, logic and compassion serve that the rules should be bent for our state-side wounded as well.