The annual budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has more than doubled since 2003 to a requested $132 billion for fiscal 2012. That amount is expected to rise sharply over the next four decades as lingering health problems for veterans become more serious as they grow older. Costs for Vietnam veterans did not peak until 30 or 40 years after the end of the war, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “We will have a vast overhang in domestic costs for caring for the wounded and covering retirement expenditure of the war fighters,” said Loren Thompson, a policy expert with the Lexington Institute. “The U.S. will continue to incur major costs for decades to come.”

The annual budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has more than doubled since 2003 to a requested $132 billion for fiscal 2012. That amount is expected to rise sharply over the next four decades as lingering health problems for veterans become more serious as they grow older. Costs for Vietnam veterans did not peak until 30 or 40 years after the end of the war, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “We will have a vast overhang in domestic costs for caring for the wounded and covering retirement expenditure of the war fighters,” said Loren Thompson, a policy expert with the Lexington Institute. “The U.S. will continue to incur major costs for decades to come.”

Caring for veterans, more than 2 million of them, could alone reach $1 trillion, according to Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in Congressional testimony in July. More than 32,000 soldiers were wounded in Iraq, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. Altogether, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost the U.S. between $4 trillion and $6 trillion. The U.S. has already spent $2 trillion on the wars after including debt interest and the higher cost of veterans’ disabilities.

It is easy for Romney to say the number of things he will do on "Day One," without knowing what it's like to actually BE in the hot seat and deal with the House and Senate as Obama has done. His jobs bill was blocked, we lost our A+ Credit Rating and now we are politicizing the deaths of 4 people by Republicans who all claim to be "Christians," yet they lie, contort and jump to conclusions that simply are not fair. 4 more years is the greatest hope for the poor,the old, the black,the brown,the women the gays and the rest of the Americans, including a sensitivity to foreign policy that is neither hot-headed nor ill-informed!

Let's face it, Condi KNOWS what it's like to be in the hot seat as far as what an administration knew or didn't know about a terrorist attack.

It is easy for Romney to say the number of things he will do on "Day One," without knowing what it's like to actually BE in the hot seat and deal with the House and Senate as Obama has done. His jobs bill was blocked, we lost our A+ Credit Rating and now we are politicizing the deaths of 4 people by Republicans who all claim to be "Christians," yet they lie, contort and jump to conclusions that simply are not fair. 4 more years is the greatest hope for the poor,the old, the black,the brown,the women the gays and the rest of the Americans, including a sensitivity to foreign policy that is neither hot-headed nor ill-informed!

Let's face it, Condi KNOWS what it's like to be in the hot seat as far as what an administration knew or didn't know about a terrorist attack.

Even Condi Rice who endorses Romney is tired of the boorish behavior of the Republican party politicizing the death of four brave Americans in Benghazi. http://thinkprogress.org/security/2012/10/25/1089691/condi-rice-pours-cold-water-libya/ RICE: "When things are unfolding very quickly, it’s not easy to know what is really going on on the ground. And to my mind, the really important questions here are about how information was collected. Did the various agencies really coordinate and share intelligence in the way that we had hoped, with the reforms that were made after 9/11? It’s easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here. It’s better to let the relevant bodies do their work."

It is easy for Romney to say the number of things he will do on "Day One," without knowing what it's like to actually BE in the hot seat and deal with the House and Senate as Obama has done. His jobs bill was blocked, we lost our A+ Credit Rating and now we are politicizing the deaths of 4 people by Republicans who all claim to be "Christians," yet they lie, contort and jump to conclusions that simply are not fair. 4 more years is the greatest hope for the poor,the old, the black,the brown,the women the gays and the rest of the Americans, including a sensitivity to foreign policy that is neither hot-headed nor ill-informed!

It is easy for Romney to say the number of things he will do on "Day One," without knowing what it's like to actually BE in the hot seat and deal with the House and Senate as Obama has done. His jobs bill was blocked, we lost our A+ Credit Rating and now we are politicizing the deaths of 4 people by Republicans who all claim to be "Christians," yet they lie, contort and jump to conclusions that simply are not fair. 4 more years is the greatest hope for the poor,the old, the black,the brown,the women the gays and the rest of the Americans, including a sensitivity to foreign policy that is neither hot-headed nor ill-informed!