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Sept. 3, 2023 - Stew Peters Show

58:26

Update!!! Major Richard Star Act..I'm Sure You Won't Be Surprised

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	The Major Richard Starr Act has been a piece of legislation that's been sitting on the desk of legislators in both the House and the Senate for quite some time.
	Earlier this week, there was some interesting developments on the Major Richard Starr Act.
	So today we're going to have a conversation about that, dissect a little bit about it, and of course, I'm going to give you my take on it, whether you want to hear it or not.
	So stick with us.
	Don't go away.
	Okay, we start now.
	Hey everybody, welcome here to another installment of the Richard Leonard welcome here to another installment of the Richard Leonard Show.
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	Okay, so as I said in the intro, there have been some pretty interesting, but not surprising, updates on the Major Richard Starr Act.
	And I'm guessing that most of you would not be surprised to hear That it has yet again stalled out.
	No movement.
	And nobody really knows why.
	This bill was presented by Senator John Tester.
	He's a Democrat from Montana and a Republican Congressman Bilrakis.
	I hope I'm pronouncing that correct, sir.
	If you see this ever, sorry if I butchered your name.
	Both of these individuals have presented legislation in their respective houses.
	And once again, it sits.
	Nobody really knows why.
	Some say that it gets no traction because it doesn't affect enough Americans or enough veterans.
	Some say there's not enough money, it's expensive.
	And I think that both of those excuses are bullshit.
	And I really wish that there was a way to get to the bottom of it and at least get some answers as to why something like this would stall out.
	Now, for those of you who are not aware of what the Major Richard Starr Act is, it is legislation that would provide Medically retired service members with less than 20 years of active military service concurrent receipt.
	And what concurrent receipt means is that these individuals can collect their VA disability compensation and their vested retirement benefits from the Department of Defense and respective Branches of service.
	So for people like me, it would be from the U.S. Army or from the Marines or whatever branch you served in.
	And get both of them, right?
	So the way that it works now without the Richard Starr Act passing is that if you are medically retired, you get...
	I mean, you're eligible for your retirement, your pension from whatever branch of service you were in.
	That comes from the Department of Defense.
	But you're also eligible for VA disability compensation for whatever injuries or conditions that caused you to have to take an early retirement.
	Now, if any of these conditions that caused you to have to take an early retirement were due to combat, so IED blasts, gunshot wounds, any kind of injury, I would say that probably IED exposure, gunshot wounds, things like that are probably the most common.
	But there is a super long list of what all these things can be.
	And who makes the decision about what's combat related and what's not?
	Because I'm sure that there's a lot of things that are kind of like on the fence about what is combat.
	Combat related and what isn't.
	I'm not a thousand percent aware of those yes and no, maybe, maybe not type of things.
	But anyway, any condition or any injury that they will say and agree with you is related to combat service, That will give you a portion of your pension from the Department of Defense, along with your VA disability.
	Now, if you are an individual who was medically retired, but your condition or your injury wasn't a result of combat, so let's say You were moving vehicles in a motor pool and some dummy backed up into you with a tank or a truck or something and broke your leg or worse or broke your pelvis
	or something like that.
	And you were unable to perform your duties in whatever job you were in any longer.
	And the Army chose or the Marines or the Air Force or the Navy chose not to retain you for that reason because medically...
	If you were unable to perform any longer, that would disqualify you from getting any of both, if that makes sense.
	So at that point, you are then left to make the decision of which one do you want?
	Do you want your Department of Defense pension or do you want your VA disability?
	And of course, usually people take Whatever one is greater.
	But also keep in mind that VA disability is not taxed.
	Your DOD pension, of course, is taxed.
	Uncle Sam is going to take his portion back.
	And so the Major Richard Starr Act would take out all of that confusion.
	If you are medically retired and you have less than 20 years of service, you get your VA disability and your pension together.
	Still confused?
	Probably, because I am.
	I'm still confused and to be quite honest with you, full clarity, to be completely honest, full transparency, If this thing passed, it would positively affect me as well because I'm a medically retired U.S. Army soldier.
	And so, I fall right into this conundrum, right?
	So, I get my VA disability and I get a portion of my DOD retirement.
	And so, should this thing pass, I will get both.
	But I'm still confused as to how it all works and why now.
	What's clear is, when and if this thing passes, that I'll just get both.
	I'd probably have to pay taxes on it, I'm sure.
	Whatever, no big deal.
	The only thing that's promised to us, right, is death and paying taxes.
	So, I'm okay with that.
	But if you're still confused, let me share this with you because I got it up here on my other screen.
	Sorry about that.
	Here.
	This is going to just outline.
	It's like 40 seconds long.
	A little bit how it works is a little bit easier when you can see a visual of how it works along with an explanation.
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	Okay.
	They make it seem really simple.
	So, at the end of the day, service members who were It had either chose to be medically retired, and I shouldn't even say that because nobody really chooses to be medically retired.
	I believe that most people in this situation would love to ride out the rest of their career.
	Me, for example, I was two months shy of my 19th anniversary.
	I would love to just ride out, finish my time, do my full 20 years.
	My goal was to try to do at least 23 years, but my body said otherwise.
	So it was either the decision wasn't do I stay or do I retire?
	The decision was do I Do I get told I'm leaving because I'm unable to perform my duties as an infantry NCO in the United States Army?
	Or do I choose to take this medical retirement, retain some benefits, get some other benefits that will assist me in making life easier for the rest of my days?
	Or do I leave with a folded flag, a good game, and a pat on the bottom as I walk out the door?
	And of course, I chose to take the medical retirement.
	And I will say that the process was quite interesting, although it was tough at first.
	But anyway, I digress.
	That's probably a whole other show, a whole other conversation.
	The truth of the matter is that this situation affects only about 50,000 veterans in our country.
	And so I can understand...
	I can understand the thinking on both sides of the coin.
	There's many people that are against this, right?
	Like, it doesn't affect enough people.
	It doesn't affect enough veterans for us to take it too serious because there's so many other issues that we as a government, as a House of Representatives and a Senate, that we need to be worried about.
	But on the other hand, it's only 50,000 people.
	With the stroke of a pen, we could...
	Positively impact the lives of these veterans.
	Make life a little bit easier for them.
	And then we'll move on to the next thing.
	And I don't buy...
	I don't buy the idea that we don't have the money as a government.
	I mean...
	This thing, the major Richard Starr Act, would cost our government...
	I have notes here.
	The cost of this reform is about $10 billion over a whole decade.
	And it pales in the comparison to our massive military expenditures in various other international areas, right?
	Keep in mind that Congress just approved a $9.5 billion payment to the military retirement system just not long ago in the new NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act.
	So, I believe that the money is there.
	$10 billion over a decade is a lot of money, I agree, but it is a whole lot less money.
	Then we're spending elsewhere.
	Check this out.
	Bear with me for a second.
	I found a little graph, but as I said, I'm not really good at this editing thing, so I couldn't figure out how to get it on the screen for you guys, but I'll describe it to you.
	This is a graph of how much aid the U.S. has sent to the Ukraine alone.
	And keep in mind, it's not up to current day.
	This is from January 24th, 2022 to May 31st of 23.
	We are in August.
	It's late August, early September.
	So this is outdated by months.
	I'm sure that there's a whole lot more money going out the door.
	So, let's not be crying over $10 billion over 10 years.
	Because in the last year, we have spent, as a government, we have sent the Ukraine $76.8 billion.
	And they break it down here by classification, right?
	So, $3.9 billion, 5% of all the money, is for humanitarian aid.
	Emergency food assistance, healthcare, refugee support, and other humanitarian efforts.
	Now, I'll be honest with you.
	3.9, let's just call it $4 billion for humanitarian aid.
	Personally, I don't mind.
	I don't mind giving other countries a little bit of money to help feed some people whose homes were ravaged by some war or something like that, or a natural disaster, whatever.
	Cool, let's feed people, right?
	Everyone deserves to eat, they deserve to drink, and they deserve some shelter.
	And a place to be warm while they sleep.
	I'm alright with that.
	34% of this $76.8 billion, which is $26.4 billion, is financial aid.
	Budgetary aid through the economic support fund, so loans and other financial support.
	So what does that mean exactly?
	I would be interested to know.
	And I'm sure people out there, those of you out there who are a whole lot smarter than me as it relates to financial stuff like this would probably have a better idea.
	But are we loaning them money just for construction projects or whatever?
	To be honest, I don't know if that's If that's really something that we should be doing or that we should be concerned about.
	But here is the whopper, right?
	And here is the kicker.
	This is what really grinds my gears about this whole situation as it relates to the money.
	61% of our $76.8 billion, which equals out to $46.6 billion Is military aid.
	46 billion dollars.
	We've given a country for military aid that we have no business, no business at all, giving money to for that.
	We have no business being involved, in my opinion.
	This whole conflict is between The Ukraine and Russia.
	Why does it involve us?
	I don't know that I agree that it does.
	So here's how they break down the whole military portion.
	$18.3 billion in security assistance, training, equipment, weapons, logistics support, and other assistance provided through the Ukraine Social Assistance Initiative.
	What is that?
	What does all that mean?
	I'm sure it's somewhere.
	You're going to have to do some digging maybe.
	$23.5 billion in weapons and equipment from the Defense Department stocks provided through presidential drawdowns.
	Didn't the last part, security assistance, include weapons?
	So we got weapons twice.
	Another $4.7 billion in grants and loans for weapons and equipment.
	Where are all of our weapons?
	Do our soldiers have adequate weaponry?
	I don't know, it's been a few years since I've been in a weapons room, in a supply room with a weapons vault.
	And I'll tell you what, the last few I was in were very well stocked, but they were stocked with weapons from the mid-80s, early 90s.
	Still work, of course.
	Every single subject under military aid includes weapons.
	Why the hell are we giving Ukraine all this money to buy weapons?
	On top of it, folks, we're giving them weapons.
	So, if that confused you, let me say it again.
	We are giving the Ukraine billions of dollars To buy weapons.
	But we are also giving them billions of dollars worth of weapons.
	And rockets, artillery shells, mortars, bullets of course.
	All kinds of shit.
	But here, back to the subject, the topic of the day, we can't get any movement on an initiative that would make the life of 50,000 men and women that stood guard, that stood watch for this country for $10 billion over a decade.
	But we're throwing money, throwing it at places like the Ukraine for this type of shit.
	And so my question would be to people like John Tester and Gus Bilrakis, who are the authors of this bill, and keep in mind, folks, that in the House, Of representatives.
	There's 326 people signed on to this.
	326 co-sponsors.
	And in the Senate, 70.
	It has pretty dang good support.
	But yet no movement.
	I find it very interesting.
	Also keep in mind...
	Senator John Tester is a Democrat...
	Not that it matters to me when it comes to issues for military and veterans.
	Barakas, Congressman Barakas is a Republican.
	So we got folks on both sides of the aisle presenting legislation with some pretty darn good support from both sides of the aisle in both bodies of our government.
	But yet, no movement.
	I wonder why that is.
	And the really interesting part is that nobody has an explanation as to why there's no movement.
	But we hear all the time and we listen all the time to these people in the media and on our TVs and on our computers and on our cellular telephonic devices that veterans are super important.
	Well, if that's the case, then why can we get no movement on this stuff?
	If that's the case, why are veterans homeless?
	Why are they jobless?
	Why are they poor?
	Why are they sick?
	Now, I say all that, but keep in mind, folks, I also understand that they have to be willing to participate too.
	These veterans that we speak of also have to be willing to participate in their own success.
	They have to be willing to do the work to obtain the come up.
	And some of them are not.
	Some of them are cool with where they're at.
	And if that's the case, alright.
	But I'm quite certain that there is a vast amount of this 50,000 individuals that could use whatever their offset amount would be for something good.
	And the example that we saw on the video was $879, I think, a month that that fictional veteran was losing out on based on the example.
	Well, for some people, that's, you know, three-fourths of their rent.
	For some people, that's a car note and groceries.
	That could be daycare.
	I mean...
	I know that things are super expensive now.
	But for folks who are low income, $879 is a lot of money.
	And I think that when you've lived in that situation for a little while, you learn how to stretch out your money.
	And make it work for you so that you can survive and keep pushing.
	And so something like this, in my opinion, is paramount.
	It's extremely important for these individuals to get what they got coming to them.
	And I guess what really drives me crazy about it the most Is that the powers that be, that maybe, and like I said, there's no explanation as to why there's no movement on this thing.
	But if there's people opposing this and stopping it and stalling it out for any reason, intentional reason, I'd be willing to bet that, number one, They've never served.
	Number two, they most likely have never had to worry about $879 making or breaking whether or not they're going to have a roof over their head next month.
	Or worry about whether or not their kids are going to have a place to be that's safe while they're at work or something like that.
	I'm telling you guys, there is a lot of veterans out there.
	Not just the 50,000 individuals that this situation affects, but there's a lot of veterans out there that are struggling.
	And something like this, for at least these folks, could be a real morale boost.
	And if it's not going to pass, Okay, like there's nothing that we can do about it except be loud about it and ask about it and talk about it and demand that somebody does something about it.
	But at the end of the day, we can't force anybody to do anything about it.
	But it would be a huge morale boost for these folks.
	Anyway, folks, we got to take a break.
	We'll be right back.
	Don't go away.
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	Hey guys, welcome back here.
	I think what we should do is briefly talk about percentages, right?
	And we've done that before.
	We've talked about Percentages of the population that serve or have served.
	But I think in the context of this topic, this subject, it's kind of important to reiterate.
	Less than 0.5% of our population currently serve, not served, but currently serve in the armed forces.
	And it's probably a lower number, right?
	Because we have an amazingly ridiculous amount of undocumented, illegal people flooding into this country day after day.
	We all know that.
	But of American citizens, less than half a percent of them choose to put on a uniform And serve this country to try and preserve our democracy, our freedom, and provide us that proverbial blanket of freedom that we sleep under every night.
	In the totality of our country, everybody in it, our citizens, of course, about 7%.
	Of our nation's population has served.
	So well under 10% of America's citizens have ever served.
	So 7% are veterans, about.
	And that's just of reported or documented veterans.
	There's many veterans out there, albeit usually they're, you know, Vietnam-era veterans, you know, late 60s to early 80s, some of those folks when it wasn't fashionable and it wasn't cool to serve in the military and then be proud of it.
	Those guys got chastised for being proud of their service for a long, long time.
	That's an absolute tragedy in our country.
	One of the many.
	And so I think that when we put that into perspective, it seems like such small potatoes, right?
	This whole idea of the Richard Starr Act and providing these Providing these men and women who didn't, in many cases, by choice, end their careers to go on and do something else.
	And in many cases, not abruptly, but also not very well planned out.
	Because once the decision is made by your command staff or your chain of command and the soldier, It's not like you have a whole lot of time to plan what your next steps are.
	If you're lucky and you were a little bit more strategic about the path in which you picked while you were serving, sometimes it's a kind of a seamless transition, right?
	And you will transition out of the military and you will find yourself in a job market that is looking for you.
	You will leave the military with a skill set that is desirable on the civilian side and that transition may not be all that rough.
	But for many It seems in my experience in talking with people and the time in which I spent working in the veteran service community, you know,
	with veterans who were experiencing homelessness and veterans who were looking for work and things like that, it's not an easy thing to try and plan out The rest of your life when the occupation that you chose being a soldier or a sailor or a marine was cut short and
	you were asked to leave or you were told to leave when you weren't ready.
	Your body might say that you're ready But sometimes your mind doesn't tell you that you're ready.
	And I think that can be pretty tough for people.
	And when we think about these super low percentages, I think that this conversation that's had about the debt that's owed, right?
	Like it says here, The reality is that we owe an immeasurable debt to a few for the freedom of many.
	It continues on to say these figures become even more important when considering that 50,000 or so individuals who, due to combat injuries, because the Richard Starr Act is benefits for combat injured soldiers, Took an early retirement.
	And so I guess I can kind of get along with that.
	I can kind of jive with that.
	They had to take an early retirement because of injuries incurred fighting an enemy.
	Injuries incurred while actively engaged in combat, defending something.
	And at the risk of sounding like I passionately support this initiative because it would affect me and put more benefits in my pile, which really isn't the case You know, I mean, of course it's nice, right?
	And I wouldn't turn it down.
	But...
	The reality is that the difference that I'm losing out on is not even what was showed to us in the video.
	For me, I would like for this to pass and for my situation just to say that we got a win, right?
	But for so many, I think that it's more of a win for The veteran community.
	It's so that we can say.
	Hey.
	Our government really does.
	Maybe they really do care.
	And they did something to take care of us.
	It was slow going.
	Didn't feel like it was going to happen.
	But they did.
	And I think that.
	I think a lot of people would agree and can get on board with that sentiment.
	But then there's also the other issue of this idea that veterans are just looking for another handout.
	What else do you guys want?
	What else is it that you need?
	You know, you're given Home loan benefits.
	You're given education benefits.
	The VA gives you tax-free money for your disability ratings.
	I mean, there's a lot of talk out there about how veterans are even leeching off the government, leeching off the system.
	And I'm sure that you can probably guess what my response to that would be.
	But I would agree with this statement in the notes that I have here.
	Our armed forces put everything on the line to protect our freedom and way of life.
	Yet upon our return, the very system that should be safeguarding their futures is in fact letting them down.
	And so I think what they're getting at here and the way that I take it is that when you join the military and you have these conversations with recruiter, if you're doing right by yourself or if you're younger and you go in there with your parents, if you and your parents are doing right by you, you have these conversations, right?
	You have conversations about What does my time in the military look like?
	What happens if A happens?
	What happens if B happens?
	What happens if C? I mean, and ask these questions and have an idea of how this system is supposed to take care of you and ensure that you're not going to be left hung out to dry should something happen to you.
	But also with the understanding that there's a lot of talk about how things are supposed to go down and how you're supposed to be taken care of.
	It doesn't mean that it always comes true.
	There's a lot of rules and regulations and pieces of paperwork that need to be filled out and kept and filed and all kinds of stuff.
	So there's always going to be something working against you.
	In fact, one of the most important pieces of advice that I ever got from a pretty wise older fella that I served with early on in my career He told me,
	as you grow up in the Army, as you put time in and you grow in this organization, you're going to want to do things.
	You're going to want to be promoted.
	There's going to be schools that you want to go to.
	There's going to be different training events that you're going to want to go to.
	There's going to be opportunities to do a lot of different things.
	You know, like in the Army, for example, they have specialty identifiers, right?
	Like, for example, at one point, I went to a squad designated marksman course.
	So, every soldier in the United States Army is trained to shoot a rifle from 0 to 300 meters.
	That's basic rifle marksmanship, BRM. In infantry units and specialty units, we have snipers.
	And they train to shoot from a thousand meters to whatever the hell they can hit Beyond that.
	I'm sure that there's a defined end distance.
	But if those guys could hit something 10 miles away, they'll shoot at it.
	And rightfully so.
	And I'll tell you what, there are some dudes out there that I seen and met that can put that tiny little bullet on a target about the size of my phone From quite a long ways away.
	It's pretty impressive.
	And I'm sure that there's some ladies out there that can do it too.
	I trained marksmanship for a little while.
	But very basic stuff, right?
	Like the cooks and the maintenance people and stuff like that.
	Nothing like these guys are doing.
	But I'll tell you what.
	When giving instruction to people who aren't familiar with marksmanship techniques and practices, I will tell you that the females were the most receptive.
	And usually, out of first-time shooters, the ladies were better.
	They were better shots.
	You know, they take direction.
	They try the things that you recommend.
	And when they see success, they remember it.
	They do it.
	They get up on the range and they're hitting everything.
	Anyway, so the squad designated marksman course trains you to shoot from 300 meters to 1,000 meters.
	And usually in an infantry unit, there's a few of them.
	There's one per squad or one per platoon or two per platoon, however they set it up for their M-TOW, however many they're slotted.
	But I got the opportunity to go to this course And it was amazing.
	It was super cool.
	We got to learn how to do a lot of things as it pertains to shooting.
	Not just shooting, but things like reading the wind and watching the leaves and the grass and figuring out how...
	How fast the wind was moving left to right and if there's no grass or trees like when you're in the desert that those the oasis waves that the heat waves you see come off the ground well those are affected by wind so you can you can watch those and see and make a guesstimation of wind speed for that because when you're shooting out to about a thousand meters wind becomes a factor If it's strong enough.
	So that was a specialty identifier that I got to put on my military resume.
	And so this guy was telling me that there's going to be a lot of things that you want to do.
	And if you don't take control of your own career, as much as they'll let you, and maybe even a little bit more, Without being told, you're going to have just the washed out version of a military career.
	Because the fact of the matter is, guys, that nobody's going to come to you and go, hey, specialist so-and-so, are you interested in going to this course?
	Do you want to be a sniper?
	Do you want to go to jump school?
	Do you want to go to air salt school?
	Do you want to learn how to do combat scuba diving and weave baskets underwater?
	I mean, nobody's going to come to you and ask you to do those things.
	And so if you don't take your career in your own hands, you're never going to experience that stuff.
	In fact, the things that they come to you to ask you to go to are probably the schools and the training events and the activities that nobody really wants to do.
	Those are the ones that they're going to come and go, hey, by the way, we got openings for this.
	And when enough people say, no, I'm not interested.
	I don't want to go.
	Then, usually, the next day or two in formation, they're going to read off a list of names and just tell you, hey, these are the folks that are going to blah blah blah course.
	You leave on Monday.
	And that's that.
	You can't say no.
	You can't agree.
	You just have to do what you're told.
	But the cool stuff, the stuff that you're going to want to do Other people are doing what it takes to get in there and nobody's going to come to you and ask you to do it.
	And so it's kind of a lot similar to this whole thing, right?
	So we are in a position now with the Richard Starr Act where we as...
	Disabled veterans who have combat injuries who were put into the medical retirement basket could be eligible for a pretty cool benefit.
	But we're relying on the Congress and the Senate to think that it's important enough.
	I mean, after all, What did we say?
	I got it here.
	326 co-sponsors in Congress and 70 co-sponsors in the Senate.
	There's some pretty damn good support for this whole initiative.
	But why is it not going anywhere?
	Nobody knows.
	So I think something that we should probably think about doing is...
	Becoming the squeaky wheel.
	If we think that this is something important for the veterans in this country who remember still had a desire to serve but because of their actions while actively engaged in combat put them into The early medical retirement bucket.
	They had to go.
	And when something's not in the plan, but you have to do it anyway, things become a little bit tougher, in my opinion.
	Full transparency, guys, for me it was tough.
	It was tough for me, and I'll tell you what, my medical retirement process took almost three and a half years.
	Well, we lost this piece of paperwork, or hey, while we were waiting for this paperwork, this packet of paperwork expired.
	They'll only keep a piece of paper for six months.
	So if January 1st, Is the date on whatever form you give them, six months later to the day, it's no good.
	So while you're waiting for records from the VA or you're waiting for records from You're a civilian doctor or from some medical facility on some base somewhere where you got care.
	Or you're trying to dig up the records from when you were treated in theater for your injuries.
	And you got to try to get all these things together within a six month period.
	It becomes a bear.
	And because my career was 98%, 99% National Guard, I was using the VA for care while I was still serving.
	And I'll tell you what, I should have every year gotten all my records and just kept them.
	It would have made things a whole lot easier.
	That's neither here nor there because it's over now.
	But also, I think that this could be, if we got loud about it, if we were voiceless about it, if we contacted the people that can speak out about it, this could also be something, even though it's small and minute to many, it could be a small glimmer of hope.
	With all the political division that's going on in our country today, this could be something that can show people that we can still work across the aisle with each other.
	We don't have to dwell on red and blue, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative.
	Who's crazy?
	Who's not?
	Who's a piece of shit?
	Who's not?
	Who's a criminal?
	Who's not?
	Who's doing coke in the White House?
	Who's not?
	None of that stuff.
	We can work together and do something good for 50,000 Americans.
	Because at the end of the day, if the Major Richard Starr Act passes, you
	In my opinion, we're not just honoring a commitment we've made to service members to ensure that they're taken care of and that they don't necessarily have to be worried all the time about some things.
	But we're also talking about our nation's integrity.
	And fairness and security.
	Security of the men and women that sit a post.
	That sit a post for you and me.
	And providing them the ability to just breathe a sigh of relief.
	I don't think it's about money because we're wasting money, as we saw.
	76 billion dollars in just over a year to a war that we have no business being involved in.
	God knows how much money is being spent on foreign aid other places.
	50,000.
	50,000 Americans.
	is such a minute percentage of our population that taking care of them, I think, might be something that we can do and that we can afford.
	I think that we should be talking about this.
	Election season is coming, folks.
	People are going to be calling you and asking you, can I count on your vote?
	They're going to come knocking on your doors.
	If you support veterans, which I'm sure you do, most of you, or you wouldn't be watching this show.
	There's some that watch this show that don't support it and just like to trash talk or do whatever they do, but whatever.
	Thanks for the watch.
	Thanks for watching.
	Thanks for the view.
	I think that this is something that should be part of your list that you talk to a candidate about.
	When they ask you what's important to you, not just the Major Richard Starr Act, but veterans issues.
	But you can certainly mention the Major Richard Starr Act.
	Chances are, chances are that your member that contacts you may just be on board with this because keep in mind there's 326 of them in Congress and 70 of them in the Senate that are supporting this thing.
	The question will be, The question will be, after the upcoming election, which, in my opinion, will most likely shake up the whole world and country, after that, will all these people still support it?
	Will it even be presented again?
	Who knows?
	But anyway guys, that's all the time that we have for today.
	Time just flies by.
	Again, I want to thank you for joining us.
	I really appreciate you being here.
	Again, please leave your comments below.
	We really enjoy reading them and interacting.
	Also, if there's other issues that you think are important that we should be talking about that nobody else is talking about, please put them down there if they pertain to military or veterans issues.
	I would love to talk about things that you want to hear.
	So, let us know.
	Thanks for joining us.
	You guys have a great weekend.
	Take care of yourselves and we'll see you next week.

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