Our gutless congresswoman falls down for the troops: Ridgefield Barbie refuses to sign discharge petition to put military, retiree, and disability 1st

Of course, I would have been stunned had the cardboard cut-out of a congresswoman had the guts to actually do this, but hope springs eternal:

Congress Fails To Put Military Pay First, Effectively Joining Obama’s Threats To Our Heroes

Posted by Michael Angley Jul 28th 2011 at 10:19 am in Congress, Economy, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics, Soldiers, veterans | Comments (9)

Our Congress continues to disappoint. Texas GOP Representative Louie Gohmert began a petition drive to introduce a “Pay Troops First” bill to guarantee funding for military pay, veterans benefits, and military retiree income. He began the effort because of President Obama’s threats to not pay these patriots in the event of a government shutdown due to the debt ceiling crisis. Although Gohmert expected to easily obtain the 218 signatures necessary to bring the bill to the House floor, in two weeks time he had received only 9 signatures.
That’s sad and shameful.

Concurrently, Texas GOP Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced similar legislation in the Upper House, but the Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid, refused to allow the proposal to leave committee.
Both Gohmert’s and Hutchison’s proposals seemed like no-brainer, sail-to-victory pieces of legislation, but they failed to muster any movement.

What’s going on?

Apparently both Reid and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH), wanted to keep the troop pay issue alive as they wrangle over competing proposals for addressing the debt crisis:

Leaders on both sides do not want to remove military pay from the debate because they believe that having it at risk will make it easier for lawmakers to go along with a deal for which they otherwise would not vote.

More:

And no, I don't get a dime in disability.

Cross posted at Clark County Politics.