Iraq war veteran Rep. Tammy Duckworth

“These same veterans that they’re pretending to help today at the WWII memorial, you know, they’re going to have access to their disability pensions is going to be limited after Oct. 15. There’s going to be cuts in prosthetic research for veterans. The National Cemetery Administration is not going to be able to lay our heroes to rest at the same rate that they were,” Duckworth said. “And Michele Bachmann who was there today at the World War II Memorial actually said, ‘The shutdown is exactly what we wanted. We got what we wanted.’ A good day for the tea party is when government is having a bad day.” The veteran also dismissed piecemeal legislation passed by the House that would temporarily fund specific parts of government, including the Veterans Administration. “One of the things that I want to make sure people understand is that the veterans bill last night, you know, was a nonstarter. We don’t pass a budget piecemeal. We don’t ask a veteran, ‘Do you want us to pay for you but not allow your grandbaby to go to Head Start?’” Duckworth said. “We owe our veterans a heck of a lot more than showmanship. We need to make sure that we do fund the VA, we do need to make sure that our veterans that are in that backlog waiting for their benefits to be processed get processed.” [Source: Politico | Tal Kopan | 3 Oct 2013 ++]

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The Iwo Jima Memorial, also called the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, in the Washington area is closed and barricaded off. The open-air memorial is located just across the bridge from D.C. in Rosslyn, Virginia. It is a routine stop for Honor Flight visitors.