John McCain showed us yet again this week that he's happy for his legacy to be the angry old man that goes down shaking his fist at the clouds when it comes down to looking out for our soldiers suffering from PTSD -- or any other measure that the Democrats would like to get passed that might make President Obama look good. MSNBC's The Last Word's Lawrence O'Donnell talked to Rep. Rush Holt about this exchange he had with Sen. John McCain over getting his legislation named after the late soldier Coleman S. Bean, meant to provide more resources for suicide prevention to Reserve members passed.
Rep. Holt: Sen. McCain Objected To My Military Suicide Prevention Bill:
In 2008, a young sergeant named Coleman S. Bean took his life. After completing his first tour of duty in Iraq, he had come home and been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nevertheless, he was deployed to Iraq a second time. Bean had sought treatment for PTSD but as a member of the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR), he found fewer resources available to him than to veterans and active-duty members.
In April, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) introduced legislation named after the late soldier meant to provide more resources for suicide prevention to Reserve members. The House in May incorporated it into the National Defense Authorization Act for 2011, but it was stripped from the final version, and Holt is pointing the finger at the lead Republican negotiator on the Senate legislation, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
"Twice now, the Senate has stripped this legislation from our defense bill," Holt told The Huffington Post Tuesday. "It's hard to understand why. I know for a fact, because he told me, that Sen. McCain doesn't support it. Whether he's the only one, I don't know. But there was no effort to try to improve the language or negotiate changes; it was just rejected, and I think that is not only bad policy, but it's cruel. It's cruel to the families that are struggling with catastrophic mental health problems."
"He [McCain] said having these counselors check in with the Reservists every few months this way overreaching," continued Holt, relaying a phone conversation he had had with the senator. "I asked him in what sense it was overreaching. Surely he didn't think there wasn't a problem, did he? I must say I don't understand it."
The major piece of Holt's amendment would require the Defense Department to ensure that every member of the Reserves who completes at least one tour of duty in either Iraq or Afghanistan receives "a counseling call from properly trained personnel not less than once every 90 days so long as the servicemember remains a member of the IRR." If they were determined to be at risk, they would receive counseling or mental health treatment.
Go read the rest, but the good news is that Holt plans to continue to resubmit the legislation as a stand-alone measure. The bad news is that McCain, who looks like he's gone off the rails with his anger, might continue to oppose it.
