Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Warnstadt, Kerry explain veteran agenda
August 27, 2003
Sioux City Journal
By Bret Hayworth
Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry has created an Iowa Veterans for Kerry Leadership Team and Steve Warnstadt of Sioux City will serve as chairman for the group.
Warnstadt formerly served in the Iowa House and now is in his first year in the Iowa Senate District 1 position. Warnstadt, a Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield veteran, is a major serving in the Army Iowa National Guard state headquarters.
Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and decorated Vietnam War veteran, met with his veterans leadership team Tuesday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Des Moines, discussing his proposals to support America's service personnel. Warnstadt thinks it will be a fruitful organization, with a great diversity of service branches, age and areas of the state represented in the three dozen me Said Warnstadt, "As a veteran, the first thing I look for in a presidential candidate is their ability to be commander in chief. Sen. Kerry has approached national security and veterans issues very thoughtfully and always has had the concerns of service members and veterans as a high priority."
For Warnstadt, his support for Kerry, is not merely because he is a combat veteran. He noted that there are some who have served in the military, "but when the time comes, don't stand up for veterans." Warnstadt said Kerry "has not forgotten from where he has come from." In his first 2003 campaign visit to Sioux City, Kerry visited a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and Warnstadt heard he was well received there.
Warnstadt said one of the key issues for veterans is proper funding for the Veterans Administration's Hospitals network. He said many candidates will speak to veterans programs funding, but "I see that commitment to fully implementing all the things he is talking about."
Warnstadt said a big concern for veterans is the long waiting list to get into a VA hospital or to get a prescription filled. He said Kerry would push to having the VA honor medical drugs prescribed by non-VA physicians, which would reduce the time to get needed care. "Americans want to do right by veterans and I think right now a lot of people see, with those types of waiting lists, that veterans are not being adequately treated," Warnstadt said.
"The line is that there isn't enough money," Warnstadt said, but he noted vets see the recent tax cuts and realize "it is a matter of being a priority."
Said Kerry, "I believe our veterans have fought enough and they shouldn't have to fight, year after year, for the benefits they have already earned."
Warnstadt figured military and defense matters could play highly in the 2004 election as "a threshold issue for the electorate at large." He said "9-11 raised the importance of national security issues," and the expectation is that deployments of troops overseas will continue through the presidential election, "not just because of Iraq, but because of the whole global war on terrorism."
Of the nine Democratic Party presidential hopefuls, polls show Kerry is among the leaders. Besides Warnstadt, Kerry also has another state legislator among his supporters, Rep. Roger Wendt of Sioux City, who represents House District 2.
Sioux City Journal
By Bret Hayworth
Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry has created an Iowa Veterans for Kerry Leadership Team and Steve Warnstadt of Sioux City will serve as chairman for the group.
Warnstadt formerly served in the Iowa House and now is in his first year in the Iowa Senate District 1 position. Warnstadt, a Operation Desert Storm/Desert Shield veteran, is a major serving in the Army Iowa National Guard state headquarters.
Kerry, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts and decorated Vietnam War veteran, met with his veterans leadership team Tuesday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Des Moines, discussing his proposals to support America's service personnel. Warnstadt thinks it will be a fruitful organization, with a great diversity of service branches, age and areas of the state represented in the three dozen me Said Warnstadt, "As a veteran, the first thing I look for in a presidential candidate is their ability to be commander in chief. Sen. Kerry has approached national security and veterans issues very thoughtfully and always has had the concerns of service members and veterans as a high priority."
For Warnstadt, his support for Kerry, is not merely because he is a combat veteran. He noted that there are some who have served in the military, "but when the time comes, don't stand up for veterans." Warnstadt said Kerry "has not forgotten from where he has come from." In his first 2003 campaign visit to Sioux City, Kerry visited a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and Warnstadt heard he was well received there.
Warnstadt said one of the key issues for veterans is proper funding for the Veterans Administration's Hospitals network. He said many candidates will speak to veterans programs funding, but "I see that commitment to fully implementing all the things he is talking about."
Warnstadt said a big concern for veterans is the long waiting list to get into a VA hospital or to get a prescription filled. He said Kerry would push to having the VA honor medical drugs prescribed by non-VA physicians, which would reduce the time to get needed care. "Americans want to do right by veterans and I think right now a lot of people see, with those types of waiting lists, that veterans are not being adequately treated," Warnstadt said.
"The line is that there isn't enough money," Warnstadt said, but he noted vets see the recent tax cuts and realize "it is a matter of being a priority."
Said Kerry, "I believe our veterans have fought enough and they shouldn't have to fight, year after year, for the benefits they have already earned."
Warnstadt figured military and defense matters could play highly in the 2004 election as "a threshold issue for the electorate at large." He said "9-11 raised the importance of national security issues," and the expectation is that deployments of troops overseas will continue through the presidential election, "not just because of Iraq, but because of the whole global war on terrorism."
Of the nine Democratic Party presidential hopefuls, polls show Kerry is among the leaders. Besides Warnstadt, Kerry also has another state legislator among his supporters, Rep. Roger Wendt of Sioux City, who represents House District 2.
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