Montana Governor to committee: Help us out

Today at a Joint Economic Committee hearing on the future of the war in Iraq costs House and Senate Democrat’s reiterated their continuing criticism of the Bush Administrations economic handling of the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the testimony even began members of the joint committee were in disagreement over whether or not the hearing should even be taking place. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) voiced his frustration with the Democrat controlled committee when he stated “I question whether it is important to hold this hearing at all.”

Brady was the lone Republican at the hearing which featured testimony from Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer (D-Mon.) who was on hand to focus attention on the states continuing struggle to manage a dwindling National Guard due to the Iraqi War. With a state of just 950,000 people and a geography of 559 miles east to west and one in six adults being veterans, the state is plagued with issues involving everything from veterans healthcare to dealing with finding veterans jobs after leaving the armed services. Scheitzer believes that as a result of the strain the Iraq War has placed on its national guard that it could take as much as $28 million to fix it.

Adding to the testimony was Tom Tarantino who himself was a veteran from the war in Iraq who stated that for veterans finding jobs is not as easy as it sounds. “I found that there was fear attached to hiring a former combat soldier with the stigma of stress making employers view me as a potential liability to their company.” According to Tarantino approximately 18 percent of all recent Iraqi War veterans find themselves unemployed and that most employers just don’t want to take the risk in hiring a combat veteran.