Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

A West Wing Holiday Story and a Modern Day Travesty

In Excelsis Deo (West Wing, NBC – 1999)

… a haunted Toby (Richard Schiff) learns more about a forgotten Korean War hero who died alone on the district’s cold streets wearing a coat that Toby once donated to charity.

President Bartlett: “Toby, if we start pulling strings like this, you don’t think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?”

Toby Ziegler: “We can only hope, sir”.

On any given night in 2013, 57,849 veterans were homeless.

The Coming Food Stamp Cut Will Hit 900,000 Veterans

The unemployment rate for recent veterans remains incredibly high – around 10 percent

The Republican “leadership” in the House of Representatives left town last week after declining to extend unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans.


8 comments

  1. HappyinVT

    this year.  I know it is a minor thing but it is highly symbolic.  Wreaths are purchased from donated funds so it seems that well has run dry.

  2. Phoenix Becomes First City To End Chronic Homelessness Among Veterans

    Phoenix announced last week that it has eradicated chronic veteran homelessness – making it the first city in the country to do so – after it housed an additional 56 veterans on Wednesday.

    In 2009, President Obama and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced an initiative to combat veteran homelessness with the goal of housing every veteran in the country by 2015. The most recent nationwide homeless count found 57,849 homeless veterans in the United States, fully 12 percent of the total adult homeless population. Though that number is still unbearably high, it represents a 24 percent decline over the past four years.

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