Bush, Republicans losing support of retired veterans

Knight Ridder ^ | 07-28-03

[Brian S]

Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush and his Republican Party are facing a political backlash from an unlikely group - retired veterans.

Normally Republican, many retired veterans are mad that Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress are blocking remedies to two problems with health and pension benefits. They say they feel particularly betrayed by Bush, who appealed to them in his 2000 campaign, and who vowed on the eve of his inauguration that "promises made to our veterans will be promises kept."

"He pats us on the back with his speeches and stabs us in the back with his actions," said Charles A. Carter of Shawnee, Okla., a retired Navy senior chief petty officer. "I will vote non-Republican in a heart beat if it continues as is."

"I feel betrayed," said Raymond C. Oden Jr., a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant now living in Abilene, Texas.

Many veterans say they will not vote for Bush or any Republican in 2004 and are considering voting for a Democrat for the first time. Others say they will sit out the election, angry with Bush and Republicans but unwilling to support Democrats, whom they say are no better at keeping promises to veterans. Some say they will still support Bush and his party despite their ire.

While there are no recent polls to measure veterans' political leanings, any significant erosion of support for Bush and Republicans could hurt in a close election. It could be particularly troublesome in states such as Florida that are politically divided and crowded with military retirees.

Registered Republican James Cook, who retired to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after 24 years in the Air Force, said he is abandoning a party that he said abandoned him. "Bush is a liar," he said. "The Republicans in Congress, with very few exceptions, are gutless party lapdogs who listen to what puts money in their own pockets or what will get them re-elected."

Veterans have two gripes.

One is a longstanding complaint that some disabled vets, in effect, have to pay their own disability benefits out of their retirement pay through a law they call the Disabled Veterans Tax.

Since 1891, anyone retiring after a full military career has had their retirement pay reduced dollar for dollar for any Veterans Administration checks they get for a permanent service-related disability. However, a veteran who served a two-or-four-year tour does not have a similar reduction in Social Security or private pension.

A majority of members of Congress, from both parties, wants to change the law. A House proposal by Rep. Jim Marshall, D-Ga., has 345 co-sponsors.

But it would cost as much as $5 billion a year to expand payments to 670,000 disabled veterans, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this month told lawmakers that the president would veto any bill including the change.

The proposal is stuck in committee. A recent effort to bring it to the full House of Representatives failed, in part because only one Republican signed the petition.

"The cost is exorbitant. And we are dealing with a limited budget," said Harald Stavenas, a spokesman for the House Armed Services Committee.

The second complaint is over medical care. After decades of promising free medical care for life to anyone who served for 20 years, the government in the 1990s abandoned the promise in favor of a new system called Tricare. The Tricare system provides medical care, but requires veterans to pay a deductible and does not cover dental, hearing or vision care.

A group of military retirees challenged the government in a class-action lawsuit, won a first round, then were seriously disappointed when Bush allowed the government to appeal. Government won the next legal round.

"I voted for the president because of the promises," said Floyd Sears, a retired Air Force master sergeant in Biloxi, Miss. "But as far as I can tell, he has done nothing. In fact, his actions have been detrimental to the veterans and retired veterans. I'm very disappointed about the broken promise on medical care."

Stavenas said House and Senate negotiators were working this week on proposals to address the veterans' two specific complaints. He added that Congress has increased spending for veterans' benefits, including a 5 percent increase next year for the Veterans Health Administration.

Christine Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said: "The Bush administration and the Republican Congress have taken and will continue to take steps to enhance benefits for our veterans."

Not all military retirees will vote against Republicans, of course. Some, like retired Air Force Lt. Col. Gene DiBartolo of Tampa, will vote for Bush again gladly.

Though he believes his fellow veterans have a just complaint, he said the government simply cannot "do everything."

As for Bush, he said, "he has restored honor and dignity to this nation ...

"It would take a lot more than this issue to dissuade me from my support of this man."

[Sir Gawain]

Signed up July 11, 2003. Who are you really??

Is he not an FR approved retread or something? lol

[Squantos]

First off I do not like polidiots of any flavor. They were formed from elitism and wealth and until we have common men and women back in office we suffer a slow demise of the republic for which they claim to stand IMHO.

That being said........GW is doing a better job than.

The PC cosmetic like revenue based unconstitutional laws being piled upon the sholders of the men and women that get up every day, go to work, earn a wage, pay their taxes, teach their children responsibility and respect for Mom , Apple Pie and the American Way . They are kicked in the teeth by those they vote for.

Those that know they are less of a pain in the ass than the socialist running against them........Our aledged best is still not strong enough I fear to wade thru the quagmire of crap imposed on us in the last 100 years.

""Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken....There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with." -- Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Ch. III, "White Blackmail"

Stay Safe !

[Poohbah]

I'm not talking about what you think is right. I'm talking about the people who think the base isn't upset with Bush.

By and large, they are--but not sufficiently upset that they'll cheerfully hand the country over to the Dems.

The ones that are that upset are, by and large, the people who didn't bother voting for him in 2000. And they're PO'd because, while they get an occasional goodie, he doesn't OWE them a damn thing.

It clearly is. Rush is the voice of the base.

Actually, he's the voice of Rush, and nobody else.

"Rush can gripe all he wants. He did the same thing with Bush's father and pumped up Buchanan. Holding his feet to the fire, you know, and all of that."

And look what happened to Bush's father. The conservatives walked out on him. Just like what's going to happen to W unless he stops stabbing his base in the back.

If Rush is willing to do that again after what eight years of the Clintons did to America, then he is not actually engaged in supporting conservatism. He would merely be engaged in building the Limbaugh Personality Cult at the expense of actual progress on conservative issues.

[hchutch]

Hey, I've had my beefs with the administration - not on any of the hot topics here, but there are a couple of minor issues I've had beefs with the Administration on.

Those are being handled through appropriate channels. Are you really that eager for President Dean or President Rodham Clinton?

[VRWC_minion]

The reporter asked our group for some input

200 people responding to an e-mail request is not the basis for making any reasonable conclusions about a group as a whole.

Just curious, what group ? What ax did they have to grind ?

[Poohbah]

Are you really that eager for President Dean or President Rodham Clinton?

Considering how new he is...I would say that the odds of that are better than you think.

[ohioWfan]

He's a retread, alright, and he's carrying what, in modern psychobabble is called, "baggage."

Somebody obviously hurt his feelings when he was here before.......

[ohioWfan]

He simply says what we're all thinking.

I don't know about you, FAS, but I think for myself. (Sometimes Rush says what I'm thinking, and sometimes he doesn't).

You should try it yourself, instead of being a part of any group that apparently all thinks the same......

[Poohbah]

Uh, like I said, he is the voice of the base.

No, he's the voice of Rush Limbaugh.

He simply says what we're all thinking.

What, you're all members of the frickin' Borg Collective?

Sorry, Alice Krige was better-looking.

And if Bush Jr. continues to sell out his base, his base will see no reason to go to the polls.

Like I said, that portion of "the base" never went to the polls for Bush in the first place.

[ohioWfan]

I read very well, thank you, but 'he says what we're all thinking' implies that we all think the same thing......and some of us don't.

btw, who are you really?

[ohioWfan]

Kerry threw away his medals in a ceremony on a bridge, only they weren't HIS medals, they were someone elses.....

And this some how endears him with the vets, and in your view 'gives him credibility??'

Pretty ironic, IMO.

[Poohbah]

Rush may or may not have voted for Bush.

But he's now aiming his rhetoric at that segment of "the base" that didn't.

It makes for better radio (and, hence, better ratings).

Someone intelligent enough to post on FR should be able to recognize this.

Rush has said this numerous times: he's an entertainer. Just because you find it more emotionally staisfying to let Rush do your thinking for you does not mean that he actually represents the GOP base.

[joybelle]

As an elderly citizen trying to live on just over $500. a month, some of my generation make me ill. My father, living on social security, gave back food stamps saying he couldn't use all of them. What ever happened to pride in this country. BTW, I don't get any government help beside my S.S. and don't want it. I also have no medical perscription insurnace other than the little AARP gives me, which is about 10+%.