DV Journal

Since I was elected, I have authored, sponsored, and passed legislation focused on improving the lives of veterans. In that work, I have seen firsthand the importance of veteran organizations to our communities. They are not just places where folks can have a beer and get a bite to eat. Our VFW and American Legion posts provide essential services, programs, and support to our veterans.

Our men and women who have served in the military, especially those deployed in combat situations, often face significant challenges returning to civilian life. Having a place where they can gather with peers and benefit from a sense of community is vital. Protecting these spaces is the least we can do in return for their sacrifices.

That is why I encourage my colleagues in Harrisburg to vote no on Senate Bill 756 and any other legislation that includes the language from this dangerous bill.

Senate Bill 756 will impose the largest tax increase on small businesses and fraternal clubs in our state’s history, and it would also implement impossible regulatory red tape, jeopardizing the very existence of important veteran organizations.

Pennsylvania’s VFWs and American Legions, as well as other fraternal organizations across the Commonwealth, have relied on income from games of skill for about a decade. The benefits are real — revenue from these games has enabled organizations to update aging buildings, renovate meeting spaces, install new kitchen equipment, maintain staff, increase hours of operation, and donate to important charitable causes.

However, the unprecedented tax rate and unfeasible overregulation in Senate Bill 756 would make it impossible for our veteran organizations to continue benefiting from skill games. The bill would impose a crushing 35 percent additional tax on the games, with an effective rate of over 40 percent when including fees and other costs. The bill would also impose unreasonable limits on terminals, which would result in veteran organizations across the state losing their ability to offer the games and, consequently, earning critical, supplemental revenue.

Senate Bill 756 is the very definition of big government, oppressive taxation, and overregulation.

Veteran organizations have said that if this devastating bill passes, they will have to lay off employees, reduce hours of operation, or stop important programming and services. Many have stated in no uncertain terms that it could mean the closing of their posts for good.

Forcing the closure of our VFWs, American Legions, and other fraternal clubs would hurt not only our veterans but the entire community. Many of these clubs’ primary mission is to raise funds for charitable endeavors, including sponsoring local Little League teams, providing backpacks and school supplies to children in need, organizing toy drives for the holidays, and numerous other community-driven initiatives.

Veteran groups use the revenue they generate to support their veteran community. It is not debatable that the suicide rate amongst veterans is alarmingly high, and services to provide counseling are costly and too few. These clubs provide support to our veterans, and these posts serve as a beacon where current and former military can feel safe and welcome to open up with others who have similar experiences.

The bottom line is that we must do better for our veterans.

It seems that the majority of legislators agree that some form of regulation is necessary for skill games. A framework is needed to help ensure that only legal games of skill are available in establishments, and we need to focus on reducing the number of illegal machines operating across the state. But this must be done the right way.

We need a solution that does not tax and regulate skill games out of existence. They have served as a lifeline for our small businesses, volunteer fire companies, fraternal clubs, and veterans.

As budget negotiations continue, lawmakers cannot make a rash decision on skill games. Especially if it means jeopardizing important community support for our veterans.

Some legislators would rather tax Pennsylvanians to the hilt than implement necessary spending cuts to balance the budget. They would rather overregulate an industry and pick winners and losers than trust the free market and consumers to make voluntary decisions. While Democratic politicians routinely propose bigger government, sometimes my Republican colleagues do, too, and I call them out on it.

I was elected on a commitment to fight for government transparency, against wasteful spending and taxation, and for fair policies that serve the interests of our citizens and taxpayers.

Protecting our Pennsylvania veterans from the overreach of government, as currently proposed in Senate Bill 756, is, without a doubt, what is right.

Most Americans want to help veterans and their families who fall on hard economic times. Republicans say a bill that just passed the House does it the right way, cleaning up a mess left by the Biden administration.

“The Biden administration was dead wrong to risk the future of VA’s Home Loan program by creating the VASP program, and the Trump administration was right to put an end to it,” said Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-Ill.).

Bost was referring to the recently passed VA Home Loan Program Reform Act. It addresses problems created by the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program.

The Biden administration launched VASP in May 2024 as a “last-resort” tool within the VA’s suite of home retention options. Under VASP, the VA purchased defaulted VA-guaranteed loans from mortgage servicers, modified the loan terms (often to a fixed 2.5 percent interest rate), and held the loans in its own portfolio as direct loans.

It’s that last detail — making the taxpayer-funded VA a mortgage holder — that created the problem, critics say.

The VA ended VASP on May 1, 2025, arguing the agency is not structured to serve as a mortgage loan restructuring service and lacked congressional authority, as it was created under the Biden administration. The program’s scale, with over 17,000 loans purchased, far exceeded its original intent for fewer than 100 cases.

The Biden administration projected VASP would save $1.5 billion in federal spending from 2024 to 2033. Instead, the department spent $5.5 billion helping just over 17,000 veterans.

Economists say the Biden-era program had all the wrong incentives.

“Veterans with 6 percent or 7 percent mortgages have a strong incentive to stop paying, just to qualify for a government refinance at 2.5 percent,” Tobias Peter, co-director of the Housing Center at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote in The Hill.

The new Home Loan Program Reform Act provides help for veterans who truly need it, while protecting the interests of taxpayers, supporters say.

“The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act is not just a fix, it’s a necessary court correction,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) “This program has worked in the past, keeps vets and their families in their homes, and does so at a fraction of the cost of the horrific VASP program.

Veterans like retired U.S. Army Major General James “Spider” Marks acknowledged the VASP program had flaws, but they opposed suggestions the VA should abandon mortgage support entirely. Doing so “places the risk exclusively in the hands of the veteran, not the department responsible for identifying and mitigating risk,” Marks wrote in the Military Times.

When Republicans began targeting VASP, proponents urged that a partial claim program be reinstated.

“Congress quickly enacting a partial claim program would benefit veteran homeowners and the VA as well, since avoidable foreclosures on federally-backed loans result in unnecessary government losses,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending.

The new  VA Home Loan Program Reform Act does just that. The challenge now is to get this reform bill through the U.S. Senate.

That bill is likely to receive Democratic support. U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) introduced a similar proposal in April.

The House-passed bill also received support from mortgage groups, who called it necessary.

“Those who have served our country deserve access to the same protections available to other homeowners, and the passage of the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act of 2025 out of the House is a critical step toward that goal,” Rocket Mortgage said in a statement. “This legislation will enable the VA to develop a strong, sustainable solution that provides mortgage servicers with the tools they need to support Veterans in today’s higher-rate environment.”

According to Veterans Affairs’ 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report, nearly 20 veterans die by suicide daily, but more than 300 will attempt.

A staggering Brown University study revealed that 30,177 post-9/11 active-duty personnel and veterans have died by suicide, more than four times the number of U.S. service members killed in combat during that period (7,057). It’s a heartbreaking and unacceptable reality.

Our warfighters should not face greater risk at home than they did on the battlefield. Yet, too often, that is the case. The typical American doesn’t realize the depth of pain our veterans carry. The months spent in a state of hyper-vigilance, the life and death decisions that must be made in a matter of moments, or the moral injuries sustained from following orders, even when those orders don’t align with actions one might take in a civilian setting. These things add up and are a heavy weight to carry home.

These unseen war wounds can make life after service like an even tougher battle. The enemy is invisible, there aren’t enough resources for support, and it is often fought alone and in silence.

The mental health stigma plays an enormous role in this tragic loss of life and is unfortunately amplified by many of the noble values we admire in our service members. As they became soldiers, Marines, airmen, sailors and guardians, they are shaped by a culture that prizes toughness, resilience and self-reliance. While these values serve them well in combat, they can prevent many from reaching out and speaking up when times get tough.

We must reach out to them, and those at the highest levels of leadership should lead by example to create lasting change.

We need elected officials to come together, across party lines, to prioritize veteran mental health, pass legislation that strengthens healthcare access, and build proactive support systems for our heroes and their families. This is not a red issue or a blue issue. It is a red, white and blue issue, and it should be a priority of anyone who has taken the solemn oath of office.

Everyone should get involved. Call your representatives, and ask them where they stand on veteran suicide prevention. Demand action. Veterans answered the call to serve; now, it’s our turn to serve them.

Even if you cannot change the policy, you can still make a difference. Volunteer with local veterans’ organizations. Donate to causes that provide housing, healthcare and mental health services. Above all, listen, because being heard can be the first step toward healing.

Acknowledging the need for support and reaching out takes immense strength. It’s not a sign of failure; it’s a courageous act of self-preservation and hope. As a society, we must do more to make it easier for everyone to take that step, especially our service members and veterans. We must start by meeting them halfway.

The scale of loss is overwhelming, but there is hope. Nationwide, individuals and organizations work tirelessly to support veterans through mental health programs, compassionate outreach, and advocacy. Sometimes, the smallest act — a kind word, a check-in, a shared meal — can make the most significant difference. These gestures can be the difference between life and death.

Organizations like Fisher House Foundation are committed to standing with veterans and their families. It is a mission requiring the support of everyone who can lend a hand.

Finally, if you or someone you know is struggling, veteran or civilian, please seek help. Reach out. Make the call. Check in. Sometimes, the simplest gesture can save a life.

Ask Alex Hansen from the Rocky Mountain Veterans Advocacy Project the best way to connect with a veteran in need, and she talks about food.

“People relax when you give them a cup of coffee and one of the potato donuts that they have down the street,” she said.

At a Washington conference on pro bono legal support for veterans  (“Serving Those Who Serve”), Hansen talked about the network of clinics nationwide helping train a generation of lawyers to care for America’s warfighters.

There are 15.8 million military veterans in the United States, representing 6.1 percent of the civilian population age 18 and over. Like every other group of Americans, some veterans struggle with homelessness, poverty, health issues and other needs. Because veterans fall under laws and federal programs unique to them, many lawyers don’t have the training to serve them effectively.

J.B. Simko, Kristine Huskey, Brad Cummings and Judy Clausen participate in the “Serving Those Who Serve” conference in Washington, DC

Among these, Hansen said, is an 82-year-old Navajo Nation member who spent a year in Vietnam during the war. Despite more than 10 claims for post-traumatic stress disorder over  40 years, a frustrated Hansen said the vet was consistently denied benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We have seen a very upsetting trend in that regard,” she said.

Another challenge: Rural veterans comprise 25 percent of the veteran population, and 39 percent of tribal veterans live in rural areas. Most of those live in states like Alaska, Arizona and Colorado, which provide veterans with smaller populations and tighter-knit communities.

This is where clinics like the Rocky Mountain Veterans Advocacy Project and other legal aid groups come in.

From family law to criminal defense to veterans court appeals to discharge petitions, the nonprofits represent Native American and rural veterans for free. Even if it means traveling hours to remote areas to reach them.

According to Kristine Huskey, those smaller communities may not have the legal options that veterans need. She is the director of the Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Arizona.

Huskey said some Arizona veterans have to travel more than 200 miles to meet with legal counsel. It can be even farther for Native American veterans living on reservations.

Despite technological advances, internet access isn’t always an option because reservations do not have reliable connections. Huskey has met people who never filed a claim with the VA because they didn’t know much about it.

“It hits you in the face how scarce resources can be,” she said.

Some challenges come from the community itself. The Navajo Nation has rules for lawyers; there are sometimes language barriers and a cultural distrust of outsiders.

Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic has held legal clinics or community events on reservations and in rural counties. It created county-specific legal referral guides. It is working with the American Legion to get guides placed in public libraries.

The Rocky Mountain Veterans Advocacy Project teamed up with the Native American Law Students Association to provide a better understanding of Navajo cultural traditions and connect with veterans.

This attention to detail helped spread the word about the project’s work. Hansen said they helped nine people during their first trip to the reservation. Now, they are representing more than 60 Navajo veterans.

It’s not just the reservation or the community center where the law clinics do the work. They’ll also provide legal representation if a veteran runs afoul of the law, particularly if it’s related to an untreated mental health issue.

“We see them recover, and we stay with them, sometimes with repeated remands,” said University of Florida professor Judy Clausen, the supervising attorney at the Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic.

J.B. Simko with PMI talks about free legal services for veterans at the “Serving Those Who Serve” conference in Washington, DC.

More important, they give veterans access to medical experts. Clausen said those experts write court statements explaining a veteran’s mental health challenges and how they are related to the alleged criminal behavior.

It’s important work that requires legal expertise and funding. J.B. Simko with Philip Morris International says his company is proud to help.

After a series of listening sessions with PMI employees about public service causes important to them, Simko said the company decided to become a veterans’ services advocate.

“We learned that these law clinics are providing exactly the type of service we could support. They need help … and so we thought we would give it a shot,” Simko said. “As you can see, it’s really having an amazing impact.”

The funding helped underwrite clinic operations and hire additional lawyers and staff. More important, it offers veterans with mental illness a lifeline — a chance to access treatment and rebuild their lives.

“It’s about helping somebody who needs your help, establishing trust and meeting them where they are,” Huskey said.

When I was in high school, I accompanied my dad on a business trip and we visited the newly constructed Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. Adjacent to the National Mall, the minimalist design consists of two walls, engraved with the names of those classified as dead, missing, or still a prisoner of war.

I did not come from a military family and had no personal connection to our armed forces.  However, seeing the loved ones of the Vietnam veterans at the site, leaving mementos, and tracing the names onto pieces of paper, personalized the grief and loss experienced by our veterans and their families. That visual made it real: Our liberty came at a human cost.

We all face risks every day. Those in our armed forces accept heightened risks as a way of life, knowing they put their lives on the line defending our country.  Our armed forces throughout history have secured our freedom – and many of those brave men and women never came home – or returned with physical and emotional wounds that changed them, and their families,  forever.

In America, our way of life affords us the luxury of not constantly having to think about the sacrifices that secure our freedom. Indeed, those of us in southeastern Pennsylvania pass by our many memorials repeatedly, probably not even thinking about our country’s hard-fought path to democracy.

We need to do better.

Travis Manion, a Doylestown native, was a United States Marine who made the ultimate sacrifice in the Iraq War when he was mortally wounded while aiding his fellow Marines. His entire patrol survived. His legacy lives on through the Travis Manion Foundation, established in his honor to “empower veterans and families of fallen heroes to develop character in future generations.”

We benefit every day from the sacrifices of our veterans and the Travis Manion Foundation allows us to give back. This Friday, March 21, Philadelphia radio station 1210 WPHT is partnering with the Travis Manion Foundation for an all-day radiothon to raise money to benefit the cause. Tune in to hear from all of the WPHT hosts, as well as many special guests – including me, who will be honoring the memory of Travis Manion and all of our brave veterans.

Reflecting on the sacrifices that secure our freedom should be a part of our everyday lives. Living in America should never be taken for granted.  Surveys indicate 54.9 percent of the world’s population live under authoritarian, or partially authoritarian, regimes. We owe a debt to each and every veteran, living or dead, along with their families. But for them, we would not be free.

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Many veterans have a heart for service that lasts long after they leave the military.

Locally, several candidates who ran for office or for reelection are veterans.

Congresswoman Chrissy Houlahan (D-Chester) served in the Air Force and the Air Force Reserves and attended Stanford, earning an engineering degree with an ROTC scholarship.  Houlahan was just reelected to her third term.

Voters reelected state Rep. Craig Williams (R-Chester/Delaware). Williams served three decades in the U.S. Marine Corps and flew 56 combat missions during the Gulf War. He was decorated for valor and retired as a colonel.

Republican Alfeia Goodwin ran for Congress in Delaware County. For the last 23 years, Goodwin has served in the Army Reserves and saw service overseas in Iraq. She decided to enlist on Sept. 11, 2001, the day the U.S. was attacked by terrorists who flew planes into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon, killing some 3,000 people.

David Winkler, also a Republican, for Congress in Montgomery County this year. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving the Marines, he joined the Army.

Democrat Ashley Ehasz made her second run for Congress in Bucks County in 2024. Ehasz graduated from West Point, completed flight school, and was an Apache helicopter pilot.  She deployed to Kuwait and Iraq, and later to South Korea.

Veteran statewide candidates include Dave McCormick, a Republican who was just declared the winner of the U.S. Senate race. McCormick also attended West Point. He served in the 82nd Air Borne during the first Gulf War and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Stacy Garrity was just reelected to her second term as state treasurer. Garrity, a Republican, is a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel. She served in Iraq and while there, was called “Angel of the Desert” for her service at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. She kept the camp secure, American troops safe, and no Iraqis complained of abuse.

Garrity was deployed three times to Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 and Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008. She was awarded the Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit.

“Serving in the U.S. Army Reserve was and is the honor of my lifetime,” Garrity told DVJournal. “The discipline I learned in the military is something that I still use every day, and it has served me well as state treasurer. As Military Police, my job was to assist, protect and defend our great nation. Now as Pennsylvania’s treasurer, I’m here to a assist my fellow Pennsylvanians, to protect their hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and to defend our constitution.”

Navy veteran Dave Sunday was just elected state attorney general. Sunday, a Republican and the York County District Attorney, worked his way through college and law school at UPS. He ran on a platform that combined law and order but also compassion for those struggling with substance abuse.

A new report revealing more than $84 million in underpayments to qualified veterans is a sign the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to improve its training for employees. That’s the conclusion of a congressional committee looking into the massive error.

And, veterans’ advocates say, the error is also a reminder of the importance of nonprofit legal clinics specializing in the needs of veterans. Those cases can be complicated due to government regulations and legal technicalities.

The report, issued last month, found that “claims processors did not consistently follow policies and procedures when processing these claims, resulting in at least $100 million in improper payments (underpayments and overpayments) to veterans from May 1, 2022, to April 30, 2023.”

Of that $100 million, about $85 million should have been paid to veterans rated as 100 percent disabled.

During a recent hearing before the House Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) attributed part of the problem to the “success of the PACT Act,” a new federal law that expands VA health care and benefits for veterans who were exposed to toxic substances during their military service.

As a result, Pappas said, there has been a surge in claims to the Veterans Benefits Administration.

“And to respond to that demand, they’ve hired and onboarded thousands of claims processors seemingly overnight. Even the most robust operation would be strained, but all systems must be continuously reevaluated. VBA employees face tremendous challenges in processing complex disability claims. These challenges are only exacerbated by changing policies and processes that are disconnected from the workforce.”

Any American who has had an issue with the Social Security Administration or even their local DMV knows it’s not uncommon to get tripped up by bureaucracy. But for veterans, particularly disabled veterans, the consequences can be serious.

That’s one reason veterans advocates have opened free legal clinics for veterans, like the ones wrongfully denied these claims, to help them appeal these decisions and get the benefits they need. And while Pappas may be right that the PACT Act has exacerbated the problem, it’s not a new one says Judy Clausen, supervising attorney for the nonprofit Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic at the University of Florida.

“We’ve had clients who have gotten decisions from the VA that made no sense at all,” Clausen told InsideSources. “But if [the veteran] doesn’t have representation, they won’t know they’ve been given a ridiculous response to their claim.”

Clausen is quick to point out the VA works hard to serve veterans, but given there are 16 million veterans in the U.S. — more than 5 million with service-connected disabilities — there are always going to be issues. (Pennsylvania is home to about 800,000 veterans, the fourth-largest population in the country.)

“And veteran’s benefits is a very technical area of the law. It’s often compared to tax law. It’s a niche area, and it often interweaves complex medical issues,” Clausen said. “I know attorneys who deal with Social Security benefits who won’t take it on without additional training.”

University of Florida law students get that training at the Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic, where they learn how to represent veterans in appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for veterans claims and discharge upgrades. And because they receive funding from sponsors like Phillip Morris International, their services come at no cost to the veterans.

“We use grants to hire doctors, for example, to get the details veterans need for complex medical claims, so it’s free.”

In Pappas’ home state, a group called 603 Legal Aid has started the “Hope for Heroes” initiative and is currently training its staff to be able to provide services to veterans.

“Navigating the complexities of the VA’s rules and regulations can be overwhelming, especially for those who have served our country and now find themselves facing legal challenges like eviction, foreclosure, or a wrongful denial of benefits,” said 603 Legal Aid Executive Director Ariel Clemmer.

Meanwhile, the $100 million problem remains.

Ronald Burke Jr., the deputy undersecretary for policy and oversight at VBA, told the subcommittee his agency has “taken corrective action on 95 percent of the cases identified in that report,” and promised to address the remainder.

Another issue, according to subcommittee chair Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Texas), is forcing veterans to take unnecessary disability compensation exams. “A March 2023 report found 44 percent of disability compensation exams were unnecessary,” he told Burke. “What’s the VA doing to reduce these for veterans?”

Burke again said the VBA was aware of the problem and was already implementing solutions, but he couldn’t guarantee it would be solved entirely.

Examples like that, Clausen argues, is the reason clinics like hers are necessary. When there’s a conflict between the bureaucratic demands and the realities facing disabled veterans, it can often take an attorney to resolve them.

“We have a client right now who is dying of Parkinson’s Disease as a result of his exposure to Agent Orange. He missed the presumptive period by just four months. In other words, if his service had begun just four months earlier, he would have been automatically included [in the benefits coverage].

“It’s been so infuriating. Our doctor says he got it from the soil. Their doctor says he got it from the soil. But a VA official raised questions, and now we’re being forced to fight for survivor benefits for his family.”

And, she added, it’s unlikely a for-profit law firm would take the case.

“Without the patience and persistence, this wouldn’t get resolved. At clinics like ours, we don’t have a for-profit model Our students are enthusiastic and motivated. Private lawyers are fine. They do good work. But we can stay in as long as it takes to get these veterans what they deserve,” Clausen said.

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Senate candidate Dave McCormick called for a ban on access to social media for kids under 16.

“A study from the Centers for Disease Control last year found that 20 percent, one-fifth of 12 17-year-old kids have at least one major depressive episode,” McCormick said.  “Researchers such as Jonathan Haidt have documented how addictive using social media is. It’s a major driver of mental health crises.”

McCormick spoke at an America’s Future Tour event in Springfield hosted by Delaware County GOP Chair Frank Agovino. Fox News journalist Mary Katharine Ham, interviewed McCormick.

McCormick supports a federal school choice bill, the Educational Choice for Children Act. This would create a federal tax credit for businesses and citizens that provide money for scholarships for children in failing schools to move to better schools.

“Sen. Casey won’t support this legislation. He’s against giving kids in failing schools the ability to move to the school of their choice. And that’s because Sen. Casey is beholden to the same teachers’ unions that kept our kids out of the classroom for years during COVID,” said McCormick.

Dave McCormick

“Here’s what really made me angry. Sen. Casey went to parochial school. Yet he opposes giving his constituents in failing public schools the same opportunity. Pennsylvania deserves a senator who supports school choice because choosing where your child goes to school should not be a privilege that’s only reserved for the wealthy and well-connected parents.”

“We need to shake things up in a big way,” he said.  The tax money should go with the child. “The beauty of that is it will increase competition…It’s going to be disruptive as hell, and it needs to be.”

In a wide-ranging policy talk, McCormick spoke about helping families at all stages of people’s lives, from subsidies for faith-based childcare, better access to healthcare for mothers and senior citizens, and more mental health care for veterans.

“Only 33 percent of Black children and 55 percent of Hispanic children grow up in two-parent families,” he said. “Kids in a single-parent home are five times more likely to live in poverty, more likely to have behavior issues, more likely to drop out of school.”

This is “leaving the American Dream out of reach for more and more families,” he said.  “Children who are born to parents in the bottom fifth of family incomes have a 46 percent chance of remaining in the bottom fifth their whole lives and only a 3 percent chance of getting to the top fifth.”

“And Americans are even having fewer babies despite surveys showing that women wish they could have more. America cannot be strong if our families are weak.  And if our families are in decline, America will decline.  And we can’t let that happen.”

“For far too long, career politicians in Washington have made it harder, not easier, for working families in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Inflation is driving up grocery bills, the cost of housing, and other essentials. Childcare. It’s gotten so expensive it’s out of reach for many families.”

Mary Katharine Ham

“Under the watch of President Biden and Pennsylvania’s liberal Sen. Bob Casey, these problems are getting worse, not better. After 18 years in Washinton, Sen. Casey has not been a proactive leader. He’s been a rubber stamp liberal who votes with President Biden 98 percent of the time.”

McCormick wants to make it easier for couples to start families.

He said the average cost of having a child is $19,000, including $3,000 out of pocket.  The average middle-class family spends $13,000 in a child’s first year.

“We need to make contraceptives more accessible and affordable for women so they can have children when they’re ready,” said McCormick. “I’ll always support access to in vitro fertilization to enable parents across our country to welcome children.”

When he was the CEO of Bridgewater, the company helped pay for fertility services for employees.  “As your senator, I will oppose any effort to restrict IVF. Period,” said McCormick.

“Every family should get a $15,000 tax credit for fertility expenses, like IVF,” McCormick said.  He would also promote adoption services, making the adoption tax credit created by the Trump tax plan fully refundable.

“It’s unacceptable that the United States has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world among wealthy nations,” he said. “The U.S. birth rate is also at a historic low. 1.6 children per woman. Far below the 2.1 average needed to keep our population in the U.S. from declining.”

“In Pennsylvania, at least five counties have no hospitals,” said McCormick, so women there lack easy access to maternity care.

Far too many Americans with severe mental health crises are not able to get the care they need,” he said. “Fourteen million Americans, approximately, have serious mental illnesses. More than half of them have their needs unmet, veterans in particular, something near and dear to my heart, as a veteran,” said McCormick. Some “22 vets a day take their own lives…Half of the veterans who commit suicide had no mental health treatment. We must expand mental health care for those with serious mental illness by getting rid of Medicaid rules that constrain access to psychiatric (help).”

“We need to support our seniors in retirement,” he said. “Let me be perfectly clear: our government needs to keep its promises to protect Social Security and Medicare.”

“I’ll always put problem-solving over ideology,” he said.

Asked about the additional doctors needed to expand healthcare, McCormick told DVJournal that more doctors and nurses are necessary.

“The nurse shortage, in particular, is really problematic,” he said. “So, it’s part of a skilled worker program to allow people to access healthcare education and encourage them to do it.

“And it’s unbelievable when you look at how long it takes to become a doctor and how hard it is to make ends meet. And they have hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans. So, we’re going to have to support people if they want to become medical professionals and support their education,” said McCormick.

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This is a horror story.

It is a story of unmitigated suffering and death from despair. It is the story of our veterans, who are 57 percent more likely to take their own lives than those who haven’t served their country.

Every day in the United States, an average of 17 veterans commit suicide. Those who have served in special combat force units, like Navy SEALS, are a little more likely to die this way than regular forces.

These veterans are suffering and dying in plain sight. Veterans, whether they have seen action or not, are ending lives by their own hands — hands that willingly took up arms to serve.

There is a clear and present crisis in the deaths of those who have borne the battle, heard their country’s call, and who die, often alone in despair.

Around Veterans Day, we remember them, but what do we know of them?

More veterans have taken their own lives in the last 10 years than died in the Vietnam War. Frank Larkin, chairman of Warrior Call, an organization that asks anyone who knows a veteran to call them from time to time and ask, “How are you doing? What do you need? Can I get help for you?” But primarily to convey the comfort of knowing “you are not alone.”

However, the problems are beyond loneliness and the well-known precursors to suicide: drug abuse, alcoholism, joblessness and broken relationships.

New research shows that what ails these sad heroes isn’t just psychological and moral despair but physical brain damage — minute tears in the brain that CT scans don’t pick up.

A leading researcher into brain injury and concussion, Dr. Brian Edlow, professor at Harvard and associate director of the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery at Massachusetts General Hospital, said these tears are only discovered in postmortems when the brain tissue is put under a powerful microscope.

The cause of these tears, Edlow told guest host Adam Clayton Powell III in a special Veterans Day episode of the television program “White House Chronicle,” are blasts that troops experience on the battlefield and in training — massive concussive blasts, over and over again. Those concerned emphasize that the victim doesn’t have to see combat to suffer damage, it happens in training as well.

Sometimes the tears are a result of a physical head injury like a soldier’s head hitting the inside a tank or a blast throwing a soldier against a wall. Still, mostly it is the shockwave, according to Edlow.

“Just to appreciate the scope of this problem, if you look at the post-9/11 generation, those who answered the call to serve after September 11, 2001, over 30,000 active-duty and veteran military personnel have died by suicide during that time period, which is four times more than the number of active-duty personnel who died in combat,” he said, adding that the “extent of the suicide problem is humbling.”

Larkin said that two-thirds of those who commit suicide have never been to a VA hospital or sought institutional help.

For Larkin, the story is personal. His son Ryan, a decorated Navy SEAL who served for 10 years with four active-duty deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, was a suicide.

Ryan returned from active duty a changed young man, 29 years old. He was moody, didn’t smile and showed classic signs of depression. His family couldn’t get him out of it, and his brain scans were negative. After a year, he took his own life.

Earlier, Ryan had asked that his body be used for medical research. Postmortem diagnosis at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center revealed substantial brain damage that wasn’t detectable during the year before his death, his father said.

“The system didn’t know what to do and it defaulted toward psychiatric diagnosis,” Larkin said.

Referring to scans and other techniques now in use to examine the brain, Edlow said, “We simply are not accurate enough to detect these sub-concussive blast-related injuries.”

Ryan’s tragedy is repeated 17 times a day — and that figure doesn’t account for those who die in deliberate accidents and are otherwise not reported as suicide, Larkin said.

While medical science and the military catch up, all we can do, as Larkin said, is to check on a veteran, any veteran. You could save a life, bring a man or woman back from the precipice.

(From a  press release)

State Sen. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Berks/Montgomery) recently hosted her first Veterans Appreciation Breakfast on Saturday, November 4 at Upper Perkiomen High School, as a way to say “thank you” to all our local heroes.

Several hundred were in attendance, which included veterans, veterans’ guests, exhibitors, and guest speakers. Veterans from every American conflict, from the Korean War to Operation Inherent Resolve, were in attendance. Dr. Jim Arcieri of Community Bible Fellowship Church, recited the blessing and benediction and the keynote speaker was state Rep. Timothy J. O’Neal (R-Washington Co.).

“We can never truly thank our veterans enough for their service to our country and community,” said Senator Pennycuick. “This event is a small token of gratitude that carries a big message: we wouldn’t be the nation we are without our veterans. I am pleased so many of our veterans were able to participate and be recognized for their heroic acts.”

Sen. Tracy Pennycuik talks with a veteran.

Veterans also enjoyed patriotic songs performed by the Upper Perkiomen High School Women’s Choir and the National Anthem performed by Upper Perkiomen High School student, Autumn Alderfer. Attendees were also able to obtain veteran identification cards from the Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds.

Various organizations were available to provide veterans with various information and services including: Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds, Montgomery County Veterans Affairs, Norristown Vet Center, PA Department of Military and Veteran Affairs, Tails of Valor, Paws of Honor Program, Inc., The Korean War Memorial America-Korea Alliance Peace Park, Valley Forge Military Academy & College, Veterans Brotherhood, Vets For Vets Healthcare, state Rep. Milou Mackenzie (R-Bethlehem), state Rep. David Maloney (R-Berks), and state Rep. Donna Scheuren (R-Gilbertsville).

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