Green fails to support troops By Curt Andersen News-Chronicle The U.S. military is billing soldiers for the meals provided while hospitalized for wounds received in battle. The military says this is because those soldiers are being paid to get their meals off base, what we used to call Commuted Rations or CommRats. This is a slap in the face to wounded soldiers, sailors and airmen. Then, just when I thought U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, couldn't get any worse, he topped his own record for gall. Green, a nonveteran, voted to deny health care benefits to troops serving in Gulf War II with the National Guard and the Reserves. How about another slap upside the head, Mark? Green claims to be a "fiscal conservative," so perhaps this was a budget concern. That might be true when it comes to taking care of our troops, but Green certainly wasn't very fiscally conservative when he accepted (though he voted against) the automatic September raise for House members. House members' pay has gone from $136,000 in 1999, to $154,000 this year. Amazing cheek, especially when 9 million people are unemployed, including 700,000 more than last year at this time. Even more amazing cheek when you consider that Green's raises in the last four years are higher than many hard-working people bring home in a year. To be fair, Green voted for a 4.1 percent pay raise for members of the military. His own automatic pay raise was a measly 2.2 percent. Green's 2.2 percent raise is about $4,700. The military got an average raise of about $1,230. Wasn't Green the one who claimed a year ago that we needed to stop wild federal spending? He not only supported the expensive war in Iraq (where he would not have to fight) but called those of us who were concerned about getting that Iraqi tar baby stuck to us "traitors." Now that we are hemorrhaging funding for the Tar Baby From Hell, Green accepted the pay raise. Green, 33, got his start as a lawyer. Working long and hard on a law degree denied Green his chance to serve his country for crappy pay, in lousy conditions, with occasional shortages of food, water, medicine and supplies, using substandard equipment, while risking his life. Thanks to President George H. W. Bush and the girst Gulf War, he still had an opening to show his stuff. He missed it. Green recently voted to eliminate overtime pay for what the Labor Department says are about 644,000 white-collar workers. Another slap upside the head. Maybe now the white-collar guys will finally wake up about Green. You may remember that Green "served" as a Wisconsin assemblyman from 1992-1998, working arm-in-arm with former governor Spendin' Tommy Thompson, to bring the state to its economic knees. Green's voting record shows that he supported President Clinton's programs 22 percent of the time, while supporting President Bush's programs by 94 percent. No wonder the economy is a shambles. Green keeps voting against good economic ideas, and for questionable economic ideas. When will Green get around to helping regular Americans, instead of the special interests that feather his well-feathered nest? Doctors take the Hippocratic oath, the main focus of which is to "do no harm." Green apparently took the Hypocritic oath: "Pretend to give a rat's rear about regular citizens."