Okay, speaking personally as to the “bridge out of poverty”:

For the first time in almost four years (two-and-a-half underemployed, a six-month temporary job, and the past year going to school for medical transcription), it looks like I finally have a JOB.

Yep. I’ve been hired by a Veterans Administration medical center out of state as an “Office Automation Assistant,” which, from everything I’ve been able to figure out, is “transcriptionist” with a little of this (timekeeping) and a little of that (purchasing) thrown in.

I qualified a while back for a program called VRAP, which sends veterans back to a trade school for up to a year as long as the course of study is for a “high demand occupation.” As I can type around 80 words per minute, I thought medical transcription was an apt fit. It doesn’t pay a lot, but I don’t really need a lot. And to be honest, there are a *lot* worse things I could do with the rest of my life than contribute in some small way at a veterans hospital.

VRAP is the kind of program that defines “good government.” It has sent some 74,000 veterans back to school for retraining, and while I can’t offer any hard data as to its success ratio, both me and one of my closest friends (he as a truck driver!) were able to secure employment after completing our respective courses. The only qualifications needed for the program were that at the time of application you had to be unemployed, and between the ages of 35 and 60.

The larger bill under which VRAP was authorized, the “Vow to Hire Heroes Act of 2011,” had amazing bipartisan support, passing the House 422-0 and 95-0 in the Senate. The bill was signed into law by President Obama on November 21, 2011.

Unfortunately, the program expires on March 31 of this year. A three-month extension of the program is being considered. It should be noted that the extension was drafted by Rep. Jeff Miller, a Republican from Florida. The extension’s 14 co-sponsors are all Democrats.