Twenty-two veterans a day take their own lives.

One hundred fifty suicides a week.

Six hundred a month.

Eight thousand a year.

Those are stats from the office of U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, citing federal Veterans Affairs statistics, provided in a recent attempt of an increasingly admirable and courageous thing — trying to get Congress to approve a sensible bill that saves money and, much more importantly, saves lives.

Too bad, then, that Walz’s bipartisan Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans bill was denied single-handedly by Sen. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, who refused to let the bill make it to the Senate floor. It’s worth noting that the decision came after Walz’s bill passed the House. Passed the House? Isn’t that something of a teachable oxymoron these days?

Let us tell you a bit about Clay Hunt.

Hunt was a Marine shot in the hand by a sniper while deployed in Iraq in 2007. He chose to become a sniper himself and deployed to Afghanistan in 2008. When he returned home he fought two new battles — one with post-traumatic stress disorder, the other with the Department of Veterans Affairs, over his disability rating. He killed himself in Houston, Texas, in 2011.

He was far from alone; after all, while members of Congress might lie, statistics sure don’t.

And men like Hunt live a lot closer to home. Without getting into details, out of respect for the men, we’ve seen plenty of cases in recent years we know are directly related to PTSD end up in county criminal courts and be reduced to line items in court bulletins.

So Walz, a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard and the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress, authored a bill to spend a paltry $22 million to fund an important step toward rebuilding the strength of the nation’s VA hospitals. The act, according to The Washington Post, would create independent evaluations of mental health care and suicide-prevention programs, and court young psychiatrists to lend their talents by offering student loan repayments to those who work for the VA. It also would establish a plan to reclaim prescription medication from VA patients.

Walz himself knew the bill was just one small step toward a brighter future for veterans. In a statement released Monday night, he said:

“While not a cure-all, this bipartisan bill is designed to help the VA provide better mental health care services and is overwhelmingly supported by Republicans and Democrats, servicemembers and civilians.

He added:

“I’m greatly disappointed that even this, the most bipartisan of measures, fell victim to politicking.”

Two points there.

One: The bill had broad bipartisan support, yet somehow still fell victim to that politicking.

Two: When ideology wins, everyone loses.

Coburn has something of a reputation for voting down or blocking anything that expands the spending of the federal government, regardless of the cause. Even in this case, after an appeal from Hunt’s parents — self-described as conservative Texans who aren’t big fans of big government either — Coburn stuck by his ideology, and in so doing, failed both veterans and Congress.

Shameful.

“This is why people hate Washington,” said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in a statement.

Well said.

We’ve all heard the phrase in our workplaces, right? The rules are the rules.

The only problem with that? There are no such rules. Not in business, not in Congress, not in life.

Abiding by the rules is ideology. Taking the world as it comes, on a case-by-case basis while framed by the world’s rules, well, that’s humanity. Sometimes $22 million is just $22 million. But other times, it represents real lives.

So, thank you, Tim Walz, for fighting for veterans when it seems like so few others in power are.

We hope this isn’t the end of the bill, or others like it, but knowing how Walz presents himself to the world, we’re pretty faithful that will be the case. Walz had this to say in a statement released Monday night:

“While today we may have lost the battle, be certain that we will win the war.”

We are proud to be represented by a Congressman who understands that when the war abroad ends, there is sadly one more war at home to be fought—one that needs to end.

— Winona Daily News, Dec. 17