Every time I hear a politician talk of "supporting the troops" - which these days seems every other second - it is all I can do to keep my lunch down.

I am convinced that for most it is mere patriotic window dressing trotted out solely to advance a failing partisan ideology or to bring to heel their political opposition.

It is extremely rare that I actually see, read or hear about much troop-supporting going on - well, if you do not count handing them rifles, sending them overseas and keeping the gun oil and bullets coming.

So you can imagine my shock when I ran across Senate Bill 146, introduced this week in the Colorado Senate and passed along for full Senate consideration on a 3-2 vote.

It would create a three-year mental health services pilot program for spouses and dependent children of discharged veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, otherwise known as the Iraq War.

It authorizes the Department of Human Services to spend up to $300,000 of state tobacco settlement money a year to pay mental health centers in the Colorado Springs area that assist families of Iraq War veterans.

The bill arrives at a time when the federal Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to treat a wave of soldiers returning from a war where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs is as debilitating as it is constant, in which it is nearly impossible for soldiers to distinguish enemy fighters from innocent civilians.

In a study of 1,600 soldiers published last year by Stars & Stripes, Army researchers concluded that alcohol abuse among soldiers home for one year from Iraq and Afghanistan rose to 21 percent from 13 percent.

Researchers found that the number of soldiers rotated home who are combating aggression and anger issues rose to 22 percent from 11 percent, while the number of those planning to divorce their spouse rose to 15 percent from 9 percent after time spent in the combat zone.

First-term Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, the bill's sponsor, said he got the idea while campaigning, knocking on countless doors in and around the city, home to Fort Carson.

Soldier after soldier told him of personal and family problems, he said.

"We know the federal government is not addressing this issue, and we also know these men and women are going to be Colorado residents," John Morse said in an interview outside the Senate chamber.

"So we in Colorado have an obligation to make sure the problems they and their families are confronting are not simply ignored, but addressed here, certainly until the day arrives when we have real leadership on this issue in Washington."

The opposition to the bill he called "amazing," given that politicians today are always talking about supporting the troops, at least until the time to actually do so arrives.

"Look, we have a huge obligation to those who bravely serve this country," John Morse said. "And when they come home, they certainly deserve more than just us standing on the street corner waving an American flag."

It seems like such a no-brainer.

Trust me, there is nothing more heartbreaking than sitting in the sands of Kuwait and Baghdad, comforting a soldier who is crying his eyes out, begging to borrow your satellite phone because he just received a Dear John letter from his wife.

Even worse is helping a soldier, home less than a week from his year-long tour in Iraq, carry boxes of his personal belongings from his wife's parents' home, the three of them standing there with their arms crossed, only hours after she tells him she loves him no more.

That, at its most basic, is supporting the troops. The hard part for those soldiers is what comes days and years later.

Yet a 3-to-2 vote? Exactly who were the two dissenters?

It turns out they were state senators David Schultheis and Ron May, both Republicans and both from El Paso County, home to Fort Carson, the Air Force Academy and two Air Force bases.

"It was probably because of the attached fiscal note," Ron May growled in explanation when I stopped him Friday outside the Senate chamber. "It probably will cost too much damn money."

But it calls for only a maximum $300,000, a pittance in the grand scheme. The expense is subject to review each year, it is for the troops and, frankly, for a good cause, I replied.

"There are a lot of good causes," Ron May shot back. "Does that mean we have to pay for them all? They'll probably take (the money) out of highways. How do you get your bread and milk?"

I am momentarily taken aback.

"Down the highway, right?" he replied.

David Schultheis was more gracious, saying he had no qualms with the bill, other than it was "just another unfunded government program."

John Morse, he noted, raising an eyebrow, was not asking it to be paid for out of the General Fund. He knew the General Assembly ultimately would kill the bill if he had, he said.

It is a program that is necessary, it should be funded through gifts, grants and donations from the public, and likely would be if it is a program that truly is needed, he said.

"We don't need another government thing, another statute to get this done," David Schultheis said. "People and corporations will see the benefit and fund it, if it is needed."

Senate Bill 146 likely will come up for a full Senate vote in about two weeks.

I will run the voting numbers here when it does. We will see which politicians then will actually "support the troops."

johnsonw@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2763.

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