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."

[ohioWfan]

FAS has been zotted.

[ohioWfan]

Exactly........and apparently some freepers have picked up on the leftist lead of quoting a small minority and (falsely) representing it as a majority view.

[Poohbah]

FAS has been zotted.

Color me utterly unsurprised.

[ohioWfan]

hehe.....

[justshe]

Exactly........and apparently some freepers have picked up on the leftist lead of quoting a small minority and (falsely) representing it as a majority view.

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That is exactly what is occuring. The small minority is misrepresented as the majority. Piffle!

[jwalsh07]

Dean's arguably more fiscally conservative than Bush is. His budgeting works, and he's pro-gun.

Asinine, he balanced Vermonts budget with federal funds while growing the states budget at rates that would spin your head.

He favors REPEAL of ALL of Bush's tax cuts and universal health care.

He wants to ban gun shows and is a strong supporter of AWB.

Are there any planets distal to Pluto?

[VRWC_minion]

I notice my stepfather, who was a big Bush supporter

Is his name Many by any chance ?

[hchutch]

When it comes to the paleo-cons, I tend to agree. If some of that crowd didn't exist, I think Terry McAuliffe or Hillary would have had to invent them. The neoconservatives (where I tend to find myself quite comfortable) are different, and NOT a threat.

[Jhoffa_]

Kerry has ties to anti-war protests and a publication..

He's toast on this issue.. Just like the rest of the rats.

They shot their credibility long ago and then dug it up and spit on it when democrat house members broadcast from Iraq.

[ohioWfan]

Piffle?? :o)

[BenR2]

"Life is hard. It's even harder if you're stupid."
John Wayne

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true. true.

[BenR2]

I think you're right. What we really need is the political equivalent of 9/11 to motivate conservatives to move from the complaining stage to the action/involvement stage. A call to arms mentality. For sure, the "Crusty One" would do it.

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Good analogy.

[Jhoffa_]

..and he's pro-gun.

So was algor... Remember?

He was pro-life too, if you recall.

[BenR2]

I am one of the military retirees who is getting screwed on the VA disability stuff. I am conservative and have voted republican all my life. If congress does not fix the problem inspite of Bush I not vote for those republican candidates who did not support elimination of the VA TAX. This is a PRIMARY issue among military retirees. It will come back to haunt republicans.

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I think you have a valid complaint. Too bad Karl (Marx) Rove and GWB aren't listening.

[BenR2]

IMHO Bush is on very thin ice. If the demos march out someone with a little character and dazzlement Bush might find himself standing with dad in the un-employment line.

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You may have a point.

[Jhoffa_]

If the demos march out someone with a little character and dazzlement Bush might find himself standing with dad in the un-employment line.

I think that could happen.. quite easily in fact.

But they have to find that someone and find him quick.. and the current crop of goofballs won't take kindly to it either..

There would be allot of ill will towards a newcomer at this point, especially from Lieberman, Dean and Kerry.

[Luis Gonzalez]

I have a question about the "base".

I imagine that the whole of the voters, looked at in accordance to political views, would appear as a pyramid, with the broad base being the more centrist in ideology who consider themselves Republicans, and coming to a point as we reach the self-define "true conservatives" or paleocon political group.

So, if paleocons are the minority of the party, why do they constantly call themselves the "base"?

You can't set a pyramid up on it's pointy end and expect it to balance and stand.

The "base" of the GOP is in the volume of centrist voters, who are in actuality the base of any political party. Political parties constantly play to those closest to the center of ideology, who would easily swing their vote one way or another according to their specific views.

All that voters at the extreme edges of either political party will do, is abandon that party for a third party that reflects their ideology, not vote for the opposition.

When political parties receive messages from factions within their own political sprectrum that point to the possibility of their votes going elsewhere, rather than acquiescing to what amounts to political blackmail ("do what I want you to do, or I will take my vote away") the parties seek to replace them with people closer to the center.

If you have to go fishing, you go where there's a whole lot of fish.

So maybe the "base" are not all that.

[BenR2]

But they have to find that someone and find him quick.. and the current crop of goofballs won't take kindly to it either..

There would be allot of ill will towards a newcomer at this point, especially from Lieberman, Dean and Kerry.

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Your points above are hard to refute. LOL.

[Jhoffa_]

Can you imagine Kerry and Dean greeting this "Mr. X" charachter at the Primary?

LOL! I can hear it now..

Hello Mr. X! It's an honor and a privilidge sir! (cough) ...a**wipe

[hchutch]

You got it. Politicians don't always put up with the threats. Despite what certain "true conservatives" would like to believe, if you kick a guy in the teeth the way they have kicked Bush in the teeth, sometimes, they might go elsewhere for the votes.