John Yarmuth will try to steal headlines in light of the funding approved yesterday by the Senate for the new VA Hospital in Louisville. Yarmuth got all excited about the $45 million he got in the House budget. However, the VA hospital is not his doing.

Anne Northup announced that the VA hospital was on a fast track in August 2006. That’s two years of time that John Yarmuth wasted on getting our veterans proper healthcare. Don’t believe me? You say these projects take time and this is just the schedule? In that August 2006 announcement, Anne stated that the project will be complete in about 5 years, or 2011. Yesterday, it was announced that the facility would not be opened until 2013. So, Yarmuth is either incompetent and wasted momentum, incompetent in getting things done, or knew this would be good PR and purposely put it off for his gain.

You decide.

The underlying story is that the Senate, thanks to Mitch McConnell, actually secured $75 million for the facility. Even Yarmuth thanked Mitch. What’s the big deal you ask? It underscores how Yarmuth consistently brings back about half as much to the district on the same projects as Anne was able to do. At the end of 2007, he made claim to $55 million in funds from Washington, of course $44 million of that was for the McAlpine Locks and Dams, a project started when Northup was in office.

Look for posts in the coming weeks that detail the efforts of Northup and Yarmuth in getting projects in this town. For now, just revel in the fact that Louisville area veterans finally got something more than a post office named for them from Rep. Yarmuth, and that they’re important enough to McConnell for him to clean up Yarmuth’s mess and get them real funding.

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