Do Republican Support Veterans?

If they do they sure have a strange way of demonstrating it -- based on information provided from the below article I have written (e-mail, letter, fax) my Senators and the GOP explaining my irritation... Well I get the good ole canned response. Probably, which will irritate me even further? Were 'Thad' and team on the fringe or is this just a political shell game?

Was this a ploy to make the vote close, to give some resemblance of veteran support, well never attending on pass it? Really, Republicans have fallen well short of what I define as 'support of Veterans' since the elections season -- besides having an influence on recruitment it will surely influence my lifelong support for the GOP... Simply put integrity is important and if you are going to say something you better dang will do and on this issue, there is 'zero wiggle room', as far as I am concerned.

By two 54-46 votes, the Senate blocked efforts Tuesday to add money for veterans’ health care to the 2005 supplemental appropriations bill.
Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, both members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sought to add $1.9 billion to the $80.6 billion wartime emergency supplemental appropriations bill to cover costs of treating returning combat veterans for war-related injuries and to cover shortfalls in funding for VA programs.
[...]
The amendment was blocked by a parliamentary motion from Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., Senate Appropriations Committee chairman, who said the funding is not really an emergency need. The Senate voted in support of Cochran’s position, and then voted again when Murray tried to get the amendment approved even if the funding was not characterized as an emergency. The outcome was the same, with 54 senators voting to block funding and 46 voting to provide it.

“The administration has not asked for these funds,” Cochran said in explaining the rejection of the amendment. [read entire article here]

Well Mr. Cochran; I asked, as did my father, uncle, and cousins -- all veterans, do we count?