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The Daily Times editorial praises senators for finally crossing party lines to approve a bill that will grant tax incentives to businesses that will hire veterans.  To recall, Republicans had been blocking President Obama’s American Jobs Act because of politics.  For its part, the IFA has promised to hire 80,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014, US First Lady Michelle Obama announced.  President Obama has been undeterred and continues to look for ways for returning soldiers to find jobs.

Just in time for Veterans Day, some Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill were finally able to agree on legislation that is designed to help put veterans back to work.

Finally, last Thursday, Republicans in the Senate put aside politics and joined Democrats in approving a bill that provides tax incentives to employers who hire veterans.

While unemployment is beginning to incrementally decline, it continues to rise for veterans, many of whom left jobs to serve in two wars launched during the administration of George W. Bush who left the country with a more than $1 trillion dollar deficit. At the same time, Bush and his fellow Republicans instituted tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent of the nation, with little or no job creation in return.

Consequently the U.S. was left in a recession implemented, in part, by some of the same Republicans who, up until last Thursday, obstructed every effort by the Obama administration to remedy it.

Not to be deterred by their obstructionism, Obama has instituted some job-creating measures that didn’t need the approval of Congress. More than 120,000 veterans have been hired by the federal government in keeping with Obama’s directive to hire more. He has challenged private companies to hire or train 100,000 post-9/11 veterans or their spouses by 2013. They’ve already hired 12,000 and have committed to training or hiring 25,000 more in the next two years.

Obama has also launched initiatives to enable trained veterans to be hired in the medical community. He has instituted a Veterans Gold Card they can download that gives them up to six months of personalized job search services. Post 9/11 veterans can now use an online tool called My Next Move for Veterans to match their experiences and skills to civilian careers. They can also take advantage of a Veterans Job Bank where more than 500,000 openings have already been tagged for veterans.

Last week First Lady Michelle Obama announced at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce “Business Steps Up: Hiring Our Heroes” event that the International Franchise Association which represents 1,100 franchises has committed to hiring 80,000 veterans and military spouses by 2014, with 5,000 jobs promised to wounded warriors.

The close to 100 companies and organizations that comprise the Military Spouse Employment Partnership, launched last summer by Second Lady Jill Biden, has committed to employ 20,000 military spouses. Last week in the Rose Garden, Obama noted to representatives of veterans organizations that the job qualifications of recent military veterans and their spouses who are left home to keep families afloat, can’t be overestimated.

“Think about the leadership that they’ve learned, the cutting-edge technologies that they’ve mastered, their ability to adapt to changing and unpredictable circumstances you just can’t get from a classroom.

However, among the legions of unemployed Americans are more than 850,000 veterans. Unemployment among U.S. military veterans is 12 percent as compared to 9 percent for the overall population. More than a million veterans are expected to return to civilian life in the next five years as U.S. military presence is finally ending in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan is de-escalating.

So, it would behoove members of all political parties to support any effort to put veterans back to work. For that matter, they should be doing what is necessary to reduce unemployment for all Americans but, thus far, Republicans have stood in the way for the sake of politics.

It is in keeping with what Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., once proclaimed was the single most important item on his agenda: “…for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Fortunately members of the U.S. Senate finally put that directive aside and approved Obama’s tax credit for companies that hire veterans. Hopefully the U.S. House of Representatives will follow suit and it will be the end of political obstruction at the expense of Americans’ well-being.

Photo by Laura Emily