My wife has a close friend who served some time in the military after graduating from high school, prior to going to college. Her time entitled her to veteran's medical benefits, which have come in handy for her on more than one occasion. She is fortunate to live in a community where the V.A. has a clinic and which is about 65 miles from the closest V.A. hospital. I wouldn't trade the private insurance, paid for mostly by my employers, that I've used most of my life, which gives me a measure of freedom she does not have, but she earned those benefits, for the time that she served, and is entitled to them.

And yes, I mean entitled. I have been listening to Republicans lie about Democrats, using the plight of veterans in this country as an issue, claiming that Democrats want to flood Ukraine with money and resources but don't want to take care of our own poor veterans. And yet, the record shows that every benefit that has either been added to, or expanded, to veteran's services, especially in mental health and in healthcare services, is the result of an initiative of a Democratic political administration during a Democratic controlled Congress.

Nothing prior to now has compared with the shutdown that has happened over the past couple of months. And this is just the beginning. They don't know yet what else may become a thing of the past due to the government saving money becoming a higher priority than providing benefits to those who served our country.

I saw the shocked and surprised look come over my wife's face earlier this past week when, after talking to her friend on the phone, she disclosed that her friend had said to her, "I sure regret voting for Trump," and "you were right."

That was an admission nine years in the making.