Posted on 02/04/2004 9:39:05 AM PST by FreeFireBorderZone
A strong unified group of veterans in every state across this great country are poised and waiting to help put Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), in the White House and their support has proven to be very influential during the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. Sen. Kerry was the first to pledge his support for veterans and their battle to repeal the Disabled Veterans’ Tax and veterans are waiting to show their support for presidential candidate Sen. Kerry in return.
Like all Democrats across the country, choosing a presidential candidate that can defeat President Bush is their primary goal. Gen Wesley Clark has also obtained a large veteran support across the country; however, as the campaign continues, I see that support being transferred to Sen. Kerry. In addition, a significant number of veterans say they have always voted Republican but not this year.
Veterans of every state across the country have been battling for what is theirs during the last three years of the Bush administration, only to meet a solid wall of opposition and broken promises. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, has done everything it can to advance veterans benefits. But being the minority, they have been blocked by the Bush administration. The dominant Republican House, Senate and administration have abandoned middle-class America, and now is the time to do something about it.
Sen. John Kerry, a highly decorated Vietnam hero who volunteered to go to Vietnam, was the first to step up and speak for veterans this summer at the San Antonio VFW convention on Aug. 25. "We also come here to make clear that in this time of war, as at all times, we must do our part to care for those who have borne the burdens of battle. This is about keeping America’s promise. It is about national obligation. And it is about love of country and the help and honor we owe those who defend it," Sen. Kerry said at that time.
"This is morally wrong; it is a betrayal of our Veterans-and it must be reversed. And we can reverse it-if we join together, from this Convention to the White House to the Senate and the House- to insist that those who sacrificed for the nation should not themselves be sacrificed because of misplaced priorities."
Now that election time is here, veterans are determined to elect a president who supports them not with rhetoric only, but also by action. The veteran message to President Bush and the Republicans who co-sponsored H.R. 303, Restoration of Retired Pay, but then failed to follow through by signing Rep. Jim Marshall’s Discharge Petition is Out The Door In 2004. Sen. Kerry has a very similar message: ""We're coming, you're going, and don't let the door hit you on the way out."
What is it that sets Sen. Kerry far above the rest of the candidates? He has promised a New Compact with America's Veterans. According to him, "This nation made a sacred covenant with those it drafted and those who enlisted, but the truth is that every day in America the treatment of too many veterans is breaking that covenant."
For. Sen. Kerry, the fight continues. He promises to deliver the health care and prescription drugs that veterans need. He will grant full concurrent receipt to disabled veterans, unlike the 400,000 vets eliminated by the Bush administration, and fairly compensate soldiers and their families for their valiant service. Sen. Kerry said, "This is about keeping America’s promise. It is about national obligation. And it is about love of country and the help and honor we owe to those who defend it."
Sen. Kerry pledged to be a, "Veteran’s Veteran as President, keeping vital promises to America’s veterans and military families."
According to the Veterans For Kerry Website, the Veteran priorities Sen. Kerry promises to fight for include:
Providing Mandatory Funding of Veterans Health Care
The Bush Administration chronically under-funds VA health care. There are nearly 90,000 veterans waiting for health care appointments. Instead of adding sufficient resources to a system desperately in need of them, President Bush has frozen whole classes out of the VA system. By the Bush Administration’s own estimate, their policies will exclude approximately 500,000 veterans from the VA health care system by 2005. President Bush also proposed increasing fees and co-payments in an effort to shift the burden for care onto the backs of veterans and drive an additional million veterans from the system. John Kerry will end the game of playing politics with funding for veterans health care. He will insist on mandatory funding for veterans health care. In a Kerry Administration, veterans will get the appointments they need with VA doctors and the federal government will invest the resources necessary to make sure that no veteran has an unmet health care need.
Granting Full Concurrent Receipt to Disabled Veterans
Sen. Kerry believes military retirees who have a service-connected disability should receive both military retired pay and disability compensation. Currently, military retirees are required to pay for their own disabilities because every dollar in VA disability compensation they receive is deducted from their military retirement pay. No other category of federal employee is subject to this kind of unfairness and it must stop. Yet the Bush administration has turned its back on veterans. Sen. Kerry believes there are plenty of places to cut back in government – but disabled vets are not one of them. As president, he will guarantee our veterans concurrent receipt.
Making the Veterans Administration Responsive
Under George Bush, 280,000 veterans await their disability rating. In addition, some 108,000 other veterans are waiting to hear back on appeals of rating decisions. John Kerry will streamline the VA so that veterans hear back about their status and receive benefits they are eligible for in a timely manner, supporting legislation, appropriations, and other steps as needed so that such decisions are made promptly and fairly.
Properly Compensate Soldiers and Their Families for Their Service
John Kerry believes that we need to treat our troops and their families with respect, dignity, and fairness in what they are paid, where they live, and where their children go to school. We need to make sure our troops are paid enough so that we address problems of retention and enlistment – and we should improve active duty housing for soldiers and their families. And as someone who has helped lead the fight on Gulf War Illness, John Kerry knows we have to be much more aggressive on health screenings for troops. They are required by law and they need to be given. John Kerry will also bolster the Family Assistance Centers and Programs on every military base so that they can provide information and services to families of deployed, wounded, and killed servicemembers.
Full Accounting for Missing POW/MIAs
John Kerry and Senator John McCain chaired the country's most thorough investigation into the fate of POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia. Kerry has personally pressed Vietnamese officials to cooperate in ongoing efforts to get answers for families. And he also sponsored POW/MIA Recognition Day. Kerry's Senate committee pressed for unparalleled declassification of documents, increased excavation work in Vietnam, and gathering of testimony from 144 witnesses. According to the Boston Globe, "the effort produced real answers for the some 120 families who had lived for decades without knowing whether a loved one was still alive in Southeast Asia."
Combating Homelessness
Studies have estimated that as more than 30 percent of homeless men in America are veterans. Sen. Kerry believes that a commitment to our veterans means guaranteeing dignity and fairness for them. In 2001 Kerry worked to help pass the Heather French Henry Homeless Veterans Assistance Act, an ambitious effort aimed at completely ending homelessness among veterans. Kerry will work to make sure that veterans have the support they need to find housing, jobs and social support they deserve.
Supporting Members of the National Guard and Reservists
Sen. Kerry plans to provide mortgage insurance to members of the National Guard and reserve called to active duty so that if servicemembers have to take a cut in pay they don’t have to worry about losing their homes while in service to the nation.
More than one-third of military reservists and National Guard members suffer a pay cut when they’re called to defend our nation. Many of these reservists are professionals with families who depend upon that paycheck. Unlike many big businesses that can afford to provide supplemental income, most small businesses cannot afford to provide this benefit. John Kerry will provide help to small businesses through a tax credit to make difference in salary for a reservist called up to active duty.
Ensuring Military Reservists Have Health Care
Sen. Kerry supports legislation to provide access to TRICARE for military reservists. This will improve the readiness of reservists called to active duty and provide for the care of their loved ones without the current disruptions that often occur when a reservist is called to active duty. For families that do not live near a TRICARE provider, have children or special medical needs, it may be impractical to use TRICARE provider. In these cases, Kerry supports allowing reservist families to keep their civilian insurance through paid for COBRA payments.
Protecting Family Members Who Lose a Loved One
Last summer, the Bush administration opposed increasing the death gratuity paid to the families of those who die in battle from $6,000 to $12,000. John Kerry supports Increasing the death benefit and making the payment tax-free. He supports restructuring the compensation provided to surviving families by mandating $250,000 non-taxable life insurance plans for all servicemembers and eliminating obligation to pay individual premiums for all soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines serving in harms’ way. He will fight to provide surviving spouses of servicemembers killed-in-action with one year of military pay equal to what would have been earned and permitting surviving spouses and children of servicemembers killed-in-action to remain in military housing for one year after the death of their spouse.
Don't Overstretch the Military
The Bush administration has overstretched the U.S. military, and has compensated by using the National Guard and Reserve, with more than 154,000 are on active duty. Reservists are overburdened and many may leave the military in large numbers because they can no longer make military service compatible with their lives.
Sen. Kerry plans to reduce this strain by calling for a temporary increase of about 40,000 active-duty Army troops. This increase would be temporary, but likely last the remainder of the decade. About 20,000 of the troops would be in such specialties as military police and civil affairs which are currently predominantly found in the reserves. The other 20,000 would be combat troops. Kerry’s proposal will be budget neutral because he will streamline some large weapons programs, putting more emphasis on electronics and advanced sensors and munitions and by reducing the total amount of money spent on missile defense.
The Veterans Brigade is storming Arizona, Missouri, New Mexico and South Carolina to mobilize veterans and non-vets to vote for Kerry in next Tuesday's primaries. Max Cleland, Fritz Hollings, Jim Rassman and crew are bringing Kerry's promise to Veterans across the country.
Most Vets that I know have no love for John Kerry and his pal Hanoi Jane.
And in fairness, although Bush signed it, he did fight it every step of the way, including a threat of a veto the previous year, which killed it for another year.
I don't understand how Bush can promote the military but neglect the veterans.
Somebody prove me wrong........please!
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