Posted on 07/28/2003 7:32:04 AM PDT by 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."
We report, you decide!
So who does he owe now?
Hahaaa.
BUSHBOT!
Do the math, it's not as much as you think, but anytime the government is involved, the figures will be screwy.
Either way, just in general, putting aside disabled vets, etc., I've been hearing for years about how the government has been screwing over vets and retirees from friends who retired before I did. I haven't had too much of a chance to experience it yet, I went straight into the civilian job market, but ask me in fifteen years about the government and how it treats vets/retirees, and I'll probably have a strong opinion for you ;-)
Signed up 3-02-01.
Who are you?
Who did you vote for in 2000?
I voted for Bush, no reason for you to be embarassed on who you voted for President in 2000.
Oh that's right you won't answer the question. You got some malcontentism(per the Carville memo) to spread.
Do you work as a team in idiocy, and are you next to get the ZOT?
You're motives are kinda transparent, too, fella.......
You trying to tell me we have a strong national security plan in place now? Go tell that to the folks along the Mexico border who are getting taken over by illegals every day. Are they a threat? My vote says they are.
I was one of the base. "They" pushed Bush on us.
I didn't like him when he was my Governor.
I did not vote for him.
Okay it seems that you are up to reply #113.
Who exactly did your vote for in 2000?
I voted for Bush.
Your turn to show some honesty and not Clinton like procrastination, fraudulence, and pseudo coyness to find the "perfect answer", IMO.
I have a notion that carenot is looking through the platforms of the "perfect protest right wing" candidates, Browne and Buchanan, before he/she makes it's "decision" on who he/she voted for in 2000.
JMO, carenot was a Gorebot and is now worshipping at the footsteps of Terry MaCauliffe at the present moment.
He's also a bit confused.........which supports the gorebot theory......
(Are they roughly the same as 'bolderdash?')
(Another member of the 'team?')
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