Republicans to troops: Fuck off and drop dead.

First, there was (courtesy of John at AmericaBlog) a WaPo piece describing how:

Hundreds and perhaps thousands of injured Army National Guard and Reserve soldiers -- including many severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have either lost or risked losing medical care and thousands of dollars in pay for months because a "convoluted" personnel system dropped them from active-duty status, according to a Government Accountability Office report released yesterday.

The report found that over a two-month period early last year, almost 34 percent of the 867 soldiers whose records it examined were removed from active duty while their requests for medical extensions were snarled in bureaucracy, leading many soldiers and their families to lose pay and benefits...

While coping with his injuries, [Sgt. 1st Class John] Allen was dropped repeatedly from active duty, losing a total of three months of benefits and $11,924 in pay. "I was essentially forced to 'go off orders' every three months," said the former police officer from Blairstown, N.J. "[I had] no pay, no access to base, no medical coverage for my family," and his medical appointments with military doctors were repeatedly canceled.

In July 2003, Allen said he had to borrow $10,000 from his brother to pay bills. The following month, his wife went into labor prematurely but was refused treatment at the hospital in Fort Bragg, N.C., until a senior Army commander intervened.

The "broken, dysfunctional system," Allen said, "placed my family under intense and indescribable stress. In short, this by far caused the most burden on my family, my financial situation and my life in general." Allen, who wears an eye patch and walks with a cane, plans to retire this month from his reserve unit, Bravo Company of the 20th Special Forces Group.

Is that hilarious or what? But wait. As hard to believe as it might be, it actually gets better:

The Senate rejected Tuesday an effort backed by Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., to exempt service members from some of the tighter bankruptcy restrictions Congress is considering.

Instead, the Senate approved a Republican-backed amendment that Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said is not good enough.

"Is it too much to ask to give them a break if the bottom falls out while they're serving America?" Durbin said.

Yeah. First, you send them off with inadequate protection to get horrifically maimed and wounded. Then, when they get back, you lose them from the medical system. And if they're still toughing it out and managing to survive, you screw them over with new, draconian bankruptcy laws. Memo to American military: You voted for these assholes. Now live with them.

And, no, you can't get your cheap drugs from up here anymore. Fuck off.