Friday, August 29, 2003
John Kerry's Plan to Fight for America's Economic Future
John Kerry's Plan to Fight for America's Economic Future
August 28, 2003
George W. Bush's policies are destroying America's economic security. Our nation has gone from financial stability to record deficits; from creating 23 million new jobs to losing over 3 million jobs. Corporate scandals - some led by Bush's closest corporate cronies –have wiped out personal savings and shaken investor confidence. And American families are finding they must work harder and harder just to keep up.
George W. Bush has supported tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations with the false promise that some of that money might one day trickle down to middle class families and bolster our economy – but the Bush policies are a proven failure. John Kerry’s priority will be middle class families working hard to cover the mortgage, pay the high cost of health care, child care and tuition, or just trying to get ahead. It’s time that the nation’s economic policy put the American worker and American entrepreneur first.
John Kerry's has a plan to secure America’s economic future and ensure that workers can achieve the American dream in our changing economy. His vision is to put Americans back to work; make America’s economy the most competitive in the world; and to restore America’s values of equity and fairness to our tax code by helping America’s middle class families and small entrepreneurs succeed.
JOHN KERRY’S PLAN WILL:
(1) Jumpstart Jobs with a new “State Tax Relief and Education Fund” and a New Manufacturing Tax Credit.
(2) Using American Ingenuity to Invest in the Industries of the Future.
(3) A New College Opportunity Tax Cut to Assure Americans Can Afford Four Years of College.
(4) Provide Tax Relief for Middle Class Families Trying to Make Ends Meet and End Unfair Relief for Corporate America.
(5) Bring Financial Discipline to Washington.
*********
(1) STEPS TO JUMPSTART JOB GROWTH TODAY
John Kerry would use the money from the first year of repealing Bush’s tax cuts for the top one percent of Americans on a short-term plan to jumpstart job creation with:
A New ‘State Tax Relief and Education Fund’. The Bush economic approach has left states with nearly $90 billion in budget deficits, forcing lay offs, education cuts, and tax increases. This fund will help states struggling to bridge deficits resulting from Bush’s economic policies with an additional $25 billion a year for two years to stop the education cuts, tuition increases and tax and fee raising that are inhibiting our economic growth and causing layoffs. This fund includes Kerry’s proposed $5 billion to stop state cuts in health care that hurt workers and patients, $5 billion for homeland security to stem layoffs of police officers and fire fighters, and his commitment to fully fund the No Child Left Behind education law.
Tax Breaks to Expand Manufacturing Jobs in the U.S. Over 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since President Bush took office. John Kerry will save jobs by ending the unpatriotic practice of U.S. corporations moving offshore simply to avoid paying their fair share of our nation’s tax burden. To create new manufacturing jobs Kerry will:
Get the Crane-Rangel-Hollings legislation enacted, which provides a corporate rate reduction to manufacturers who produce goods in the United States;
Propose a new jobs tax credit to encourage manufacturing companies to stay and expand in America. When a manufacturing company creates jobs above their 12 month average, the payroll taxes of the new employees will be refunded for two years.
Immediately restore and double funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership that President Bush slashed by 80%.
Job Creation Summits. Ours is a large and complex economy and John Kerry believes that we must understand the challenges to economic prosperity in each sector. He will hold economic policy summits once a week for the first six months of his Presidency to develop targeted strategies to create jobs in key regions and key industries.
(2) USING AMERICAN INGENUITY TO CREATE A STRONG ECONOMIC FUTURE. We must fight for our economic security not only by stimulating job growth today but also by ensuring that our research, our technology investment, and our spirit for innovation are paving the way for high wage jobs in new industries.
Make Trade Work for America. The Bush Administration has neglected to enforce trade laws or respond to the unfair practices of some of our nation's largest trading partners. As President, John Kerry will: order an immediate 120 day top to bottom review of all trade agreements to ensure that foreign nations fully comply with trade agreements they sign with our country; vigorously enforce our trade laws to ensure our workers are not victims of unfair trading practices; insist future trade agreements incorporate within them core labor standards and environmental protections; demand that other countries, such as China, do not manipulate their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages; and help any workers displaced by trade develop new skills and find new jobs.
Control Rising Health Care Costs so Our Industries Can Compete. Businesses cannot compete if they are weighed down by health care costs, especially since the health care costs of our industrial competitors are often subsidized by government. It costs U.S. automakers $1,000 per car just to cover health care costs for employees. John Kerry’s plan controls rising health care costs by helping pay for catastrophic care cases.
Revitalize the High Technology Sector to Pave the Way for Industries of the Future. Kerry will fight to connect every American family to the Internet, encourage a renewed educational focus on science and math, bring the best practices of operational efficiency from the private sector to the public sector, and restore the government's commitment to scientific achievement through increases in research funding for the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. Kerry will also strongly support programs targeted at the next generation of innovation, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology research.
New Manufacturing Jobs by Investing in America's Energy Independence. The recent massive blackout leaves no question that our foreign oil dependence and obsolete electricity system undermine our economy. Kerry will create hundreds of thousands of good jobs, many of them in manufacturing, by investing in the new energy opportunities of the future such as: producing 20 percent of all our electricity from renewable sources by 2020; giving tax credits to manufacturers to develop the next generation of automobiles; new energy efficient appliances for homes and businesses; and investing in projects like building the Alaska National Pipeline.
(3) MAKING FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE AFFORDABLE. To be successful in the 21st Century economy, America’s workforce must be more innovative and productive than our competitors. That means better science and math in our schools and job training opportunities. But it also means giving every American the opportunity of four years of college.
Create a New “College Opportunity Tax Credit”. Kerry’s “College Opportunity Tax Credit” will make four years of college affordable for all Americans. He will provide a credit for each and every year of college on the first $4,000 paid in tuition – the typical tuition and fees for public college tuition. The credit will provide 100% of the first $1000 and 50% on the rest. It will also make this credit refundable for those who receive other credits.
Pay College Tuition for Students That Give Two Years of Service to America. Kerry’s ‘Service for College’ plan will provide the cost of four years at a public college to young people in exchange for serving their communities and country in national service.
(4) PROVIDE TAX RELIEF TO MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES RATHER AND CRACK DOWN ON UNFAIR RELIEF FOR CORPORATE AMERICA. President Bush has turned a blind eye to struggling American families, despite the fact that today’s two-earner families are earning 75 percent more than their single earner family counterparts a generation ago, but they have less money to spend due to soaring housing costs, day care, college tuition, and health care. John Kerry would:
Keep the Middle Class Tax Cuts to Help Families Make Ends Meet. John Kerry believes that we should keep the middle class tax cuts that Democrats fought for in 2001 and 2003, which increased the child tax credit, reduced the marriage penalty and lowered tax rates. He strongly disagrees with Democrats who want to repeal these tax cuts, which would cost a typical middle-class family with two children an additional $2000.
Help Americans Get Ahead.
College Tax Cut: John Kerry will help Americans get ahead with his new “College Opportunity Tax Credit” by ensuring college is available for four years for every American.
Helping Create Wealth in the Stock Market: John Kerry opposes the dividend tax cuts in the 2003 tax bill that result in receptionists paying higher tax rates than CEOs. However, he does believe that middle class Americans should get more from their investments and will lower capital gains and dividend taxes for the middle class.
Making Corporate America Live By America’s Values. Our economy does well when our workers are doing well. Today, Americans who are working hard and playing by the rules are faced with higher health care costs, higher state taxes, higher college tuition and limited job opportunities. At the same time, many corporations are bending the rules and shirking their fair share of the burden - and the Bush Administration is rewarding those who break the rules with lucrative government contracts. Kerry will fight for a government that rewards those who work hard and play by the rules and challenges those who don’t.
Restore Investor Confidence With Strong Enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission: John Kerry will fund strong budgets and assure strong enforcement by the SEC.
Stop Corporations From Keeping Bank Accounts in Countries like Bermuda to Avoid Paying Taxes. John Kerry believes that American companies should not be allowed to set up virtual headquarters in foreign countries that are hardly more than mailboxes just to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Assure Corporations Account for Disparities on the Books. A recent Joint Committee on Taxation report found that Enron claimed a $2.3 billion in profit between 1996 and 1999 in reports to its investors, while reporting a $3 billion tax loss to the IRS. John Kerry believes corporations should have to account these kinds of disparities.
Stop Giving Government Contracts to Corporations Breaking the Rules. The Federal government should not give lucrative contracts to companies that have a record of accounting fraud – like WorldCom – or are moving offshore.
End Unfair Protections for CEOs. Executives should not be walking away with millions of dollars in salaries and benefits while their workers are laid off their companies are defaulting on loans. Kerry would tighten the laws that allow corporations to take advantage of tax deductions for performance based executive pay – even when executives do nothing to improve productivity.
Protect Worker Rights. Kerry believes that ensuring there is a fair playing field for workers is important to a strong economy. He supports increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation; improving workplace health and safety; assuring fair overtime rules; and worker’s right to join a union.
(5) RESTORE FISCAL DISCIPLINE: By borrowing from future generations to give tax relief to those who need help the least, George W. Bush’s economic policies have, for the first time in history, forced the federal government to spend $1 billion more EACH DAY than it takes in. President Bush’s exploding deficits are destroying the solvency of Social Security and Medicare and he has placed the enormous burden of saving these programs on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. John Kerry believes that we need a smaller and smarter government that wastes less money. John Kerry’s plan will:
Balance the Budget
Cut the Deficit in Half: John Kerry is committed to balancing the budget. He has put forward a sensible plan that will at least cut the deficit in half in his first term, while investing in economic growth and investing in workers.
A Balanced Budget Summit: The best way to get to a balanced budget is not in partisan bickering, but in bipartisan cooperation. As President, John Kerry will call a Balanced Budget Summit that will require all sides to work together to make at least temporary sacrifices -- even in their top priorities -- as part of a concerted effort to restore fiscal discipline and fight for our future.
End Special Tax Breaks: To restore fiscal discipline and strengthen our economy, Kerry will repeal Bush’s special tax breaks for Americans who make more than $200,000.
Cut Excesses in Government: One of the Bush Administrations well-kept secrets is that under his watch the size of government has actually gotten bigger – not smaller. John Kerry will reduce the size of the Federal government by: bringing spending down to the level of GDP it was under Clinton, requiring federal agencies to submit annual plans to reduce energy costs by 20 percent by 2020; cut the Federal government’s administrative costs by five percent; cut the number of political appointees and ban providing bonuses for political appointees; cut fraud and abuse in government programs – fraud and abuse is estimated to cost $12 billion in Medicare alone and end rules that prevent the Federal government from having the same purchasing authority as the private sector.
Reign in Out of Control Spending
Restore Budget Rules to Stop Runaway Spending. John Kerry believes we need to reverse the new budget rules Republicans in Congress have established that make it easier to spend into deficits with fewer votes. He will also review and reassess all discretionary spending programs to determine their effectiveness and whether they should continue to be funded.
Implement the McCain-Kerry Commission on Corporate Welfare. Powerful special interest groups make it hard to cut special tax loopholes and pork barrel spending projects. John Kerry supports a Commission that would recommend cuts and require Congress to vote on all recommendations, so no single special interest could fight for pet projects.
Pass a Constitutional Line-Item Veto to Reduce Corporate Welfare and Excessive Spending. Under Kerry’s plan, the President would identify wasteful spending items in the budget and submit the list to Congress to vote on in an up-or-down fashion – saving billions of dollars.
August 28, 2003
George W. Bush's policies are destroying America's economic security. Our nation has gone from financial stability to record deficits; from creating 23 million new jobs to losing over 3 million jobs. Corporate scandals - some led by Bush's closest corporate cronies –have wiped out personal savings and shaken investor confidence. And American families are finding they must work harder and harder just to keep up.
George W. Bush has supported tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations with the false promise that some of that money might one day trickle down to middle class families and bolster our economy – but the Bush policies are a proven failure. John Kerry’s priority will be middle class families working hard to cover the mortgage, pay the high cost of health care, child care and tuition, or just trying to get ahead. It’s time that the nation’s economic policy put the American worker and American entrepreneur first.
John Kerry's has a plan to secure America’s economic future and ensure that workers can achieve the American dream in our changing economy. His vision is to put Americans back to work; make America’s economy the most competitive in the world; and to restore America’s values of equity and fairness to our tax code by helping America’s middle class families and small entrepreneurs succeed.
JOHN KERRY’S PLAN WILL:
(1) Jumpstart Jobs with a new “State Tax Relief and Education Fund” and a New Manufacturing Tax Credit.
(2) Using American Ingenuity to Invest in the Industries of the Future.
(3) A New College Opportunity Tax Cut to Assure Americans Can Afford Four Years of College.
(4) Provide Tax Relief for Middle Class Families Trying to Make Ends Meet and End Unfair Relief for Corporate America.
(5) Bring Financial Discipline to Washington.
*********
(1) STEPS TO JUMPSTART JOB GROWTH TODAY
John Kerry would use the money from the first year of repealing Bush’s tax cuts for the top one percent of Americans on a short-term plan to jumpstart job creation with:
A New ‘State Tax Relief and Education Fund’. The Bush economic approach has left states with nearly $90 billion in budget deficits, forcing lay offs, education cuts, and tax increases. This fund will help states struggling to bridge deficits resulting from Bush’s economic policies with an additional $25 billion a year for two years to stop the education cuts, tuition increases and tax and fee raising that are inhibiting our economic growth and causing layoffs. This fund includes Kerry’s proposed $5 billion to stop state cuts in health care that hurt workers and patients, $5 billion for homeland security to stem layoffs of police officers and fire fighters, and his commitment to fully fund the No Child Left Behind education law.
Tax Breaks to Expand Manufacturing Jobs in the U.S. Over 2.7 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since President Bush took office. John Kerry will save jobs by ending the unpatriotic practice of U.S. corporations moving offshore simply to avoid paying their fair share of our nation’s tax burden. To create new manufacturing jobs Kerry will:
Get the Crane-Rangel-Hollings legislation enacted, which provides a corporate rate reduction to manufacturers who produce goods in the United States;
Propose a new jobs tax credit to encourage manufacturing companies to stay and expand in America. When a manufacturing company creates jobs above their 12 month average, the payroll taxes of the new employees will be refunded for two years.
Immediately restore and double funding for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership that President Bush slashed by 80%.
Job Creation Summits. Ours is a large and complex economy and John Kerry believes that we must understand the challenges to economic prosperity in each sector. He will hold economic policy summits once a week for the first six months of his Presidency to develop targeted strategies to create jobs in key regions and key industries.
(2) USING AMERICAN INGENUITY TO CREATE A STRONG ECONOMIC FUTURE. We must fight for our economic security not only by stimulating job growth today but also by ensuring that our research, our technology investment, and our spirit for innovation are paving the way for high wage jobs in new industries.
Make Trade Work for America. The Bush Administration has neglected to enforce trade laws or respond to the unfair practices of some of our nation's largest trading partners. As President, John Kerry will: order an immediate 120 day top to bottom review of all trade agreements to ensure that foreign nations fully comply with trade agreements they sign with our country; vigorously enforce our trade laws to ensure our workers are not victims of unfair trading practices; insist future trade agreements incorporate within them core labor standards and environmental protections; demand that other countries, such as China, do not manipulate their currencies to gain unfair trade advantages; and help any workers displaced by trade develop new skills and find new jobs.
Control Rising Health Care Costs so Our Industries Can Compete. Businesses cannot compete if they are weighed down by health care costs, especially since the health care costs of our industrial competitors are often subsidized by government. It costs U.S. automakers $1,000 per car just to cover health care costs for employees. John Kerry’s plan controls rising health care costs by helping pay for catastrophic care cases.
Revitalize the High Technology Sector to Pave the Way for Industries of the Future. Kerry will fight to connect every American family to the Internet, encourage a renewed educational focus on science and math, bring the best practices of operational efficiency from the private sector to the public sector, and restore the government's commitment to scientific achievement through increases in research funding for the Department of Energy, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. Kerry will also strongly support programs targeted at the next generation of innovation, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology research.
New Manufacturing Jobs by Investing in America's Energy Independence. The recent massive blackout leaves no question that our foreign oil dependence and obsolete electricity system undermine our economy. Kerry will create hundreds of thousands of good jobs, many of them in manufacturing, by investing in the new energy opportunities of the future such as: producing 20 percent of all our electricity from renewable sources by 2020; giving tax credits to manufacturers to develop the next generation of automobiles; new energy efficient appliances for homes and businesses; and investing in projects like building the Alaska National Pipeline.
(3) MAKING FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE AFFORDABLE. To be successful in the 21st Century economy, America’s workforce must be more innovative and productive than our competitors. That means better science and math in our schools and job training opportunities. But it also means giving every American the opportunity of four years of college.
Create a New “College Opportunity Tax Credit”. Kerry’s “College Opportunity Tax Credit” will make four years of college affordable for all Americans. He will provide a credit for each and every year of college on the first $4,000 paid in tuition – the typical tuition and fees for public college tuition. The credit will provide 100% of the first $1000 and 50% on the rest. It will also make this credit refundable for those who receive other credits.
Pay College Tuition for Students That Give Two Years of Service to America. Kerry’s ‘Service for College’ plan will provide the cost of four years at a public college to young people in exchange for serving their communities and country in national service.
(4) PROVIDE TAX RELIEF TO MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES RATHER AND CRACK DOWN ON UNFAIR RELIEF FOR CORPORATE AMERICA. President Bush has turned a blind eye to struggling American families, despite the fact that today’s two-earner families are earning 75 percent more than their single earner family counterparts a generation ago, but they have less money to spend due to soaring housing costs, day care, college tuition, and health care. John Kerry would:
Keep the Middle Class Tax Cuts to Help Families Make Ends Meet. John Kerry believes that we should keep the middle class tax cuts that Democrats fought for in 2001 and 2003, which increased the child tax credit, reduced the marriage penalty and lowered tax rates. He strongly disagrees with Democrats who want to repeal these tax cuts, which would cost a typical middle-class family with two children an additional $2000.
Help Americans Get Ahead.
College Tax Cut: John Kerry will help Americans get ahead with his new “College Opportunity Tax Credit” by ensuring college is available for four years for every American.
Helping Create Wealth in the Stock Market: John Kerry opposes the dividend tax cuts in the 2003 tax bill that result in receptionists paying higher tax rates than CEOs. However, he does believe that middle class Americans should get more from their investments and will lower capital gains and dividend taxes for the middle class.
Making Corporate America Live By America’s Values. Our economy does well when our workers are doing well. Today, Americans who are working hard and playing by the rules are faced with higher health care costs, higher state taxes, higher college tuition and limited job opportunities. At the same time, many corporations are bending the rules and shirking their fair share of the burden - and the Bush Administration is rewarding those who break the rules with lucrative government contracts. Kerry will fight for a government that rewards those who work hard and play by the rules and challenges those who don’t.
Restore Investor Confidence With Strong Enforcement by the Securities and Exchange Commission: John Kerry will fund strong budgets and assure strong enforcement by the SEC.
Stop Corporations From Keeping Bank Accounts in Countries like Bermuda to Avoid Paying Taxes. John Kerry believes that American companies should not be allowed to set up virtual headquarters in foreign countries that are hardly more than mailboxes just to avoid paying U.S. taxes.
Assure Corporations Account for Disparities on the Books. A recent Joint Committee on Taxation report found that Enron claimed a $2.3 billion in profit between 1996 and 1999 in reports to its investors, while reporting a $3 billion tax loss to the IRS. John Kerry believes corporations should have to account these kinds of disparities.
Stop Giving Government Contracts to Corporations Breaking the Rules. The Federal government should not give lucrative contracts to companies that have a record of accounting fraud – like WorldCom – or are moving offshore.
End Unfair Protections for CEOs. Executives should not be walking away with millions of dollars in salaries and benefits while their workers are laid off their companies are defaulting on loans. Kerry would tighten the laws that allow corporations to take advantage of tax deductions for performance based executive pay – even when executives do nothing to improve productivity.
Protect Worker Rights. Kerry believes that ensuring there is a fair playing field for workers is important to a strong economy. He supports increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation; improving workplace health and safety; assuring fair overtime rules; and worker’s right to join a union.
(5) RESTORE FISCAL DISCIPLINE: By borrowing from future generations to give tax relief to those who need help the least, George W. Bush’s economic policies have, for the first time in history, forced the federal government to spend $1 billion more EACH DAY than it takes in. President Bush’s exploding deficits are destroying the solvency of Social Security and Medicare and he has placed the enormous burden of saving these programs on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren. John Kerry believes that we need a smaller and smarter government that wastes less money. John Kerry’s plan will:
Balance the Budget
Cut the Deficit in Half: John Kerry is committed to balancing the budget. He has put forward a sensible plan that will at least cut the deficit in half in his first term, while investing in economic growth and investing in workers.
A Balanced Budget Summit: The best way to get to a balanced budget is not in partisan bickering, but in bipartisan cooperation. As President, John Kerry will call a Balanced Budget Summit that will require all sides to work together to make at least temporary sacrifices -- even in their top priorities -- as part of a concerted effort to restore fiscal discipline and fight for our future.
End Special Tax Breaks: To restore fiscal discipline and strengthen our economy, Kerry will repeal Bush’s special tax breaks for Americans who make more than $200,000.
Cut Excesses in Government: One of the Bush Administrations well-kept secrets is that under his watch the size of government has actually gotten bigger – not smaller. John Kerry will reduce the size of the Federal government by: bringing spending down to the level of GDP it was under Clinton, requiring federal agencies to submit annual plans to reduce energy costs by 20 percent by 2020; cut the Federal government’s administrative costs by five percent; cut the number of political appointees and ban providing bonuses for political appointees; cut fraud and abuse in government programs – fraud and abuse is estimated to cost $12 billion in Medicare alone and end rules that prevent the Federal government from having the same purchasing authority as the private sector.
Reign in Out of Control Spending
Restore Budget Rules to Stop Runaway Spending. John Kerry believes we need to reverse the new budget rules Republicans in Congress have established that make it easier to spend into deficits with fewer votes. He will also review and reassess all discretionary spending programs to determine their effectiveness and whether they should continue to be funded.
Implement the McCain-Kerry Commission on Corporate Welfare. Powerful special interest groups make it hard to cut special tax loopholes and pork barrel spending projects. John Kerry supports a Commission that would recommend cuts and require Congress to vote on all recommendations, so no single special interest could fight for pet projects.
Pass a Constitutional Line-Item Veto to Reduce Corporate Welfare and Excessive Spending. Under Kerry’s plan, the President would identify wasteful spending items in the budget and submit the list to Congress to vote on in an up-or-down fashion – saving billions of dollars.
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
A New Compact With America's Veterans
August 25, 2003
VFW Convention, San Antonio, TX
Let me thank Ray Sisk and Betty Morris for their leadership and Bob Wallace with whom I have worked closely over the years. And as a life member of the VFW, let me thank my own state commander, John Martin of Massachusetts, along with Mary Ann Whalen.
There could be no more fitting place to hold a VFW National Convention than in San Antonio. It was here – at the Menger Hotel’s bar – only a short walk from where we are now, that Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders. Some say that if you look carefully, you can still see TR’s ghost roaming the hotel’s halls – but that’s probably only true if you’ve spent a couple of hours sitting at the bar.
Either way, the spirit of his fellow soldiers lives on. Because when the troops came back from the Spanish-American conflict, they formed the clubs and associations that eventually merged to create the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
For more than a century the VFW has fought for those who have served and carried on that service to the homefront. From the GI Bill to the national cemetery system, from creating the VA to elevating it to the Cabinet the VFW has made us a better America. And whether it is mentoring young people, volunteering in hospitals, tutoring in schools, or teaching children about patriotism, VFW members represent our highest values of citizenship and service.
Yet I am also conscious that I come here today at a time of transformation for our community of veterans. The Greatest Generation – our model and example – is passing their mantle to us – the Vietnam generation. Those who survived the beaches of Normandy, the sands of Iwo Jima, and the Inchon landing are now passing on. We are losing a thousand of them a day, thirty thousand a month. Their service and sacrifice will live as long as freedom does. Today, we stop again to thank them for their service. Year after year, we also welcome to our ranks new generations of veterans from the Gulf Wars, the Balkans, and the War on Terrorism. And we also say thank you to them for service, their sacrifice, and their clear sense of duty.
In the last thirty years, those of us who were in Vietnam have grown older and hopefully wiser, but we have not forgotten the bonds forged in combat. We came back from the war to a country where so many never thanked us. We banded together to press for government recognition of some of our urgent concerns like the effects of Agent Orange. And what we have learned all points to one central truth that came to us first in the heat and the jungle halfway around the world: We are all responsible for each other.
Another lesson we learned in Vietnam is that sometimes politics gets in the way of decisions that are best for the troops. We must never let that happen again. We know that sometimes abstract ideology doesn’t take account of the life of a grunt, the peril of a sailor in a patrol boat or an airman in the belly of a plane, all trying to do right for their country and survive.
We have every reason to be proud of our military today. They are the finest fighting force in the world. We are grateful for the professionalism, courage, and commitment with which they won decisive victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But winning military victories is only half the struggle. The mission will not be over until we win the peace – and until the last man and the last woman come home. That is now very much at stake. Let me put it plainly: In Iraq even more than Afghanistan, our post-war planning has failed to do the job and in the process we’ve over-extended our troops and our reserves. Today a soldier in Iraq fears getting shot while getting a drink of water. A squad at a checkpoint has to worry whether the old station wagon driving toward them is a mobile bomb.
There are many lessons from the Vietnam War. One of the most important lessons as a result of Vietnam is that when you decide to go to war, the only exit strategy is called victory –mission accomplished. We must succeed ultimately in our goals in Iraq – because to not succeed would have extraordinary negative consequences for the war on terror. So with characteristic American determination and grit we will see this through and we will make America and the world safer and more secure as a result.
But another important lesson of Vietnam is the obligation veterans feel to tell the truth when it matters most – when the life and safety of troops depend on it. Above all, we learned that the interests of the grunts on the ground come before all politics – and all ideology. And what we urgently need now to protect our young men and women in uniform – and America’s role in the world – are decisions based on professional military judgments and strategic vision, not politics and pride. There are too many names on the Vietnam Wall because of the rationalizations and willfulness of armchair strategists.
So let me say unequivocally, I believe a lack of planning and a lack of candor with the American people have placed our men and women in uniform in increased harm’s way. I believe it is wrong for our troops to be turned from warriors into police officers without the training, support, and numbers they need. And it is equally wrong for the administration to have stubbornly refused the offer of other nations to share the risks and authority in Iraq. One thing I know that unites all of us here today is our obligation to make the troops as safe and comfortable as possible – and that means having enough troops on the ground with enough training and ability to disarm those who stand in the way of completing our mission.
It is imperative to get the United Nations to help not because of any politics but because it just makes plain, old American common sense to have as many nations carrying the burden and risk as possible. I want the targets taken off American soldiers as fast as possible because that’s how you protect the troops most effectively.
And by the way, since we are securing an Arab nation for Arab freedom it would be nice to see some Arabs in uniform sharing the struggle for freedom.
September 11th was this generation’s December 7th. And the historic task that falls to us today to is to unite nations across the world around shared values and against a common enemy.
No one who seeks to assume the mantle of responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief can be anything but ready to do whatever it takes to make America safer and stronger. This isn’t an issue for politics and partisanship; it as an issue of our fundamental national security.
Terrorism is the new Fascism, the new Communism, the new totalitarianism – a grave and global threat to our values and our way of life. Like World War II and the Cold War it is not just a battle against nations, it is a competition of ideas. A test of whether freedom and democracy will win out over repression and tyranny. Well, let’s be clear: we can defeat radical terrorism; we must defeat it; and we will defeat it. Not just with hard words, but with the intelligence, the experience and the strength to make the right long term decisions.
We know today even more clearly than before that we need to rebuild a global alliance against this global threat, standing together, sharing intelligence, and fighting side by side. With the threats we face, we can never cede our security to others, but even a nation as great as the United States needs some friends in this world.
We need to inspire average citizens in Central America and Northern Iraq, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia to look to us for leadership and hope. To ensure that they see us as partners and allies in their struggle for prosperity and inalienable rights, for a better life and basic liberties.
And we need to realize that this war will be fought not only in the Mideast, but in the Midwest and all over America. Today, the soldiers on our front lines are joined in battle by firefighters, police officers, and other first defenders. According to a recent bipartisan panel led by former Republican Senator Warren Rudman, these first defenders are “drastically underfunded and dangerously unprepared.” Nearly two years after September 11th, the average fire department only has enough radios to equip half the firefighters on a shift, breathing apparatus for only one third, and nearly two-thirds of firehouses are understaffed – with more firefighters and police officers being laid off. We wouldn’t send troops into battle without the equipment and strength they need and if we are serious about winning the War on Terror, we have to be much more committed to making our homeland secure. Let me put it bluntly, if we can find the money to open firehouses in Baghdad, we certainly shouldn’t be shutting them in New York State.
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 to those who defend it.
This nation made a sacred covenant with those it drafted and those who enlisted, but the truth is that every day in America the status of too many veterans at the VA is breaking that covenant.
Just consider: each year the VA budget is a struggle. Every year we have to fight for dollars and health care that were promised and earned on distant shores. Every year new promises are made and old ones broken. In recent weeks, the House of Representatives cut $1.8 billion from VA healthcare.
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 national priorities.
But even if we defeat this $1.8 billion cut, the fight for veterans’ health care be far from over. The shameful reality, as so many veterans know, is that VA healthcare is in a constant state of crisis.
• Today over 130,000 veterans are waiting for care in VA facilities.
• Over 50,000 veterans are waiting over 6 months for their first doctor’s visit.
• We are told that things are better than they were – that a year ago, more than 300,000 veterans were on the waiting list. But this so-called progress came only after a whole class of veterans were excluded from the system. And by 2005 that group of excluded veterans will rise to more than 500,000 veterans without access. This is not progress; that is rationed health care.
• Over the last seven years, spending on individual VA patients has actually decreased by an average of $624. And in the last year, VA enrollment has increased by 15% while spending increased by only 7.8%.
• And now we have a budget proposal for increased fees and co-payments designed to drive an additional 1 million veterans – including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan – out of the VA system. Those veterans should be welcomed with open arms, not shown the door.
No wonder so many veterans have been forced to wait to use the VA pharmacy for prescriptions written by an outside physician. We were told last spring that to solve the problem, the Veterans Department needed new legislation. I worked with Senator Harkin and Congressman Leonard Boswell to do it – and then, in recent weeks, even before it passed, access to VA pharmacies was granted to vets who had waited 30 days for a prescription. It’s a long overdue policy and I applaud it. But why did it take two years to do what was right?
Army Sergeant Vanessa Turner from my home state, Massachusetts, became terribly ill while serving in Iraq and was evacuated to Germany where doctors believed her death was imminent. She is a fighter and she survived, but was medically retired from active duty. When she got home to Boston in early July she was told that the local VA would examine her and begin treatment for the severe nerve damage in her left leg – in mid-October. In the meantime, if the pain was too great she should feel free to go to the emergency room of her local hospital. She said, “It’s easier to stay a soldier and be in harm’s way than to come home and get care.”
Well Vanessa’s story should make clear to everyone in our country that just as we wouldn’t be sending our military into battle without the uniforms and equipment they need, we shouldn’t be neglecting to care for our troops and their families before, during, and after the war.
Yet, twenty percent of our Reservists and their families don’t have health care coverage. And the House of Representatives has passed a wrong-headed provision cutting their pay. At the same time that American soldiers are engaged in battle in Iraq, we have seen a proposal for substantial cuts in federal school aid for the children of military families.
And just last week, we learned something that should make our blood boil – that our troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan might be about to get a pay cut. We have 148,00 troops in Iraq in 127 degree heat who are in danger of losing their lives everyday and the Pentagon is wrong to be talking about cutting their pay or offering them some vague promises that a check is in the mail.
We’re told we simply can’t afford to pay our troops all they have earned. Well let me tell you, if we can’t afford to pay our soldiers in harm’s way and support the families they left behind, then we have bigger problems than a budget out of balance. It means we have our values out of whack.
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, I know we have to be much more aggressive on health screenings for troops. They are required by law and they need to be given.
Everyone in this hall knows that duty in the field isn’t a vacation at Club Med – hardships go with the territory. But all of us should be concerned by the reports coming out of Iraq in recent weeks about long delays in delivering needed supplies such as water and housing materials. In some cases, this is because the private companies contracted by the Department of Defense to supply goods and services won’t operate in Iraq because their insurance companies believe it’s too dangerous to do so. Well someone should remind these private companies, our troops are in danger everyday – and they’re not making a fat profit; but they do need clean water – and they need it now.
The issue here is simple and fundamental: It is about the character of our country. I believe it is wrong to put the needs of our troops and the claims of our veterans behind a massive tax giveaway for the wealthy that is unwarranted, unaffordable, and unfair. Never in its history has the United States passed a big tax cut in a time of war. We have always believed in shared sacrifice. And it is wrong to pad the pockets of special interests before we fulfill our solemn obligations to those that have served.
Recently, in New Hampshire, I met a vet by the name of Joey Dubois. He sat in a wheelchair but no one stands prouder of their country and their service. Now, Joey Dubois, like so many others, is being forced to pay for his own disability because every additional dollar in VA disability is taken directly from his military retirement pay. No other category of federal employee is subject to this kind of unfairness. It is plainly wrong and it is completely unacceptable that we have heard repeated threats to veto any bill that remedies this injustice and provides full concurrent receipt. There are plenty of places to cut back in government – but Joey Dubois and disabled vets are not one of them. It is time to undo this unfairness and guarantee our veterans concurrent receipt.
Indeed, I believe we have a special duty to all vets with disabilities. Today, there are 280,000 veterans awaiting their disability rating. And 108,000 veterans are waiting on appeals of rating decisions. This is just not acceptable. We deserve leadership that will streamline the VA so veterans hear back about their status and receive their benefits when they need them.
So for us, the fight continues. Every advancement, every recognition of veterans’ valor, every time obligations have been kept, it has been because veterans pushed for it. Agent Orange, outreach centers, extension of the GI Bill, increased funding for Veterans Affairs. All these happened because veterans remembered their brothers and sisters and never stopped fighting to keep faith with the promise to veterans. I believe our veterans have fought enough – and we shouldn’t have to fight, year after year, for the benefits we have already earned. Our veterans health care shouldn’t depend on the yearly whims of budget cutters. They’ve earned their benefits. Those benefits ought to be there. And if I am President, they will be.
Our first commander in chief, George Washington said that “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
That alone should drive our government to do right by our veterans. But something even more is at issue now: We must honor not only those who have served, but the ideal of service. Nothing I hope to do as President will be more vital than reconnecting America’s public life to the ideal of full citizenship.
Too often today, citizenship and duty are dismissed as quaint and corny, as fond memories of a forgotten past. But day after day, they are a way of life for millions. And they have sustained and strengthened our democracy for more than two centuries.
I learned a lot about duty and obligation from my mother and from my father, who enlisted in the Army Air Corps in World War II. But I learned my greatest lessons about what it means to be an American citizen in a place just about as far away from America as you can get.
I volunteered for Vietnam after college because I believed that I owed it to my country to do my duty. I served alongside a band of heroes on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta. Some of us had been to college, others were just out of high school. But we grew up together on that tiny boat with a quarter inch aluminum hull. Our boat was our sanctuary -- and a place for crossing divides between California, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. We were no longer the kid from South Carolina or the kid from South Boston. We were Americans. Together. All of us the same under the same flag and the same God. Giving ourselves to something bigger than each of us individually.
We arrived as strangers; we left as brothers. We didn’t think we were special. We just thought we were doing our part.
So if I am Commander-in-Chief, I won’t just bring to that profound responsibility the perspective of sitting in the Situation Room. I’ll also bring the perspective of someone who’s fought on the front lines. And I will ensure that America always has the best equipped, best trained, most powerful fighting force in the world.
For those of us who came home every day is extra. I believe we – who stand here today – who have stood our ground for our country – carry the legacy of the brave soldiers who didn’t make it back, whose names are on the wall, in memorials, and in hearts all around our country. It is their contribution that lights our way. It’s up to us keep faith with their sacrifice and to ensure that promises made are promises kept. I believe that in this moment of trial, America is calling all us veterans to service again, to reach for a cause bigger than ourselves. To remind our nation of the true meaning of patriotism, of honor and duty, of citizenship and service, America needs you to lead the way.
Thank you.
VFW Convention, San Antonio, TX
Let me thank Ray Sisk and Betty Morris for their leadership and Bob Wallace with whom I have worked closely over the years. And as a life member of the VFW, let me thank my own state commander, John Martin of Massachusetts, along with Mary Ann Whalen.
There could be no more fitting place to hold a VFW National Convention than in San Antonio. It was here – at the Menger Hotel’s bar – only a short walk from where we are now, that Teddy Roosevelt recruited his Rough Riders. Some say that if you look carefully, you can still see TR’s ghost roaming the hotel’s halls – but that’s probably only true if you’ve spent a couple of hours sitting at the bar.
Either way, the spirit of his fellow soldiers lives on. Because when the troops came back from the Spanish-American conflict, they formed the clubs and associations that eventually merged to create the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
For more than a century the VFW has fought for those who have served and carried on that service to the homefront. From the GI Bill to the national cemetery system, from creating the VA to elevating it to the Cabinet the VFW has made us a better America. And whether it is mentoring young people, volunteering in hospitals, tutoring in schools, or teaching children about patriotism, VFW members represent our highest values of citizenship and service.
Yet I am also conscious that I come here today at a time of transformation for our community of veterans. The Greatest Generation – our model and example – is passing their mantle to us – the Vietnam generation. Those who survived the beaches of Normandy, the sands of Iwo Jima, and the Inchon landing are now passing on. We are losing a thousand of them a day, thirty thousand a month. Their service and sacrifice will live as long as freedom does. Today, we stop again to thank them for their service. Year after year, we also welcome to our ranks new generations of veterans from the Gulf Wars, the Balkans, and the War on Terrorism. And we also say thank you to them for service, their sacrifice, and their clear sense of duty.
In the last thirty years, those of us who were in Vietnam have grown older and hopefully wiser, but we have not forgotten the bonds forged in combat. We came back from the war to a country where so many never thanked us. We banded together to press for government recognition of some of our urgent concerns like the effects of Agent Orange. And what we have learned all points to one central truth that came to us first in the heat and the jungle halfway around the world: We are all responsible for each other.
Another lesson we learned in Vietnam is that sometimes politics gets in the way of decisions that are best for the troops. We must never let that happen again. We know that sometimes abstract ideology doesn’t take account of the life of a grunt, the peril of a sailor in a patrol boat or an airman in the belly of a plane, all trying to do right for their country and survive.
We have every reason to be proud of our military today. They are the finest fighting force in the world. We are grateful for the professionalism, courage, and commitment with which they won decisive victories in Afghanistan and Iraq. But winning military victories is only half the struggle. The mission will not be over until we win the peace – and until the last man and the last woman come home. That is now very much at stake. Let me put it plainly: In Iraq even more than Afghanistan, our post-war planning has failed to do the job and in the process we’ve over-extended our troops and our reserves. Today a soldier in Iraq fears getting shot while getting a drink of water. A squad at a checkpoint has to worry whether the old station wagon driving toward them is a mobile bomb.
There are many lessons from the Vietnam War. One of the most important lessons as a result of Vietnam is that when you decide to go to war, the only exit strategy is called victory –mission accomplished. We must succeed ultimately in our goals in Iraq – because to not succeed would have extraordinary negative consequences for the war on terror. So with characteristic American determination and grit we will see this through and we will make America and the world safer and more secure as a result.
But another important lesson of Vietnam is the obligation veterans feel to tell the truth when it matters most – when the life and safety of troops depend on it. Above all, we learned that the interests of the grunts on the ground come before all politics – and all ideology. And what we urgently need now to protect our young men and women in uniform – and America’s role in the world – are decisions based on professional military judgments and strategic vision, not politics and pride. There are too many names on the Vietnam Wall because of the rationalizations and willfulness of armchair strategists.
So let me say unequivocally, I believe a lack of planning and a lack of candor with the American people have placed our men and women in uniform in increased harm’s way. I believe it is wrong for our troops to be turned from warriors into police officers without the training, support, and numbers they need. And it is equally wrong for the administration to have stubbornly refused the offer of other nations to share the risks and authority in Iraq. One thing I know that unites all of us here today is our obligation to make the troops as safe and comfortable as possible – and that means having enough troops on the ground with enough training and ability to disarm those who stand in the way of completing our mission.
It is imperative to get the United Nations to help not because of any politics but because it just makes plain, old American common sense to have as many nations carrying the burden and risk as possible. I want the targets taken off American soldiers as fast as possible because that’s how you protect the troops most effectively.
And by the way, since we are securing an Arab nation for Arab freedom it would be nice to see some Arabs in uniform sharing the struggle for freedom.
September 11th was this generation’s December 7th. And the historic task that falls to us today to is to unite nations across the world around shared values and against a common enemy.
No one who seeks to assume the mantle of responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief can be anything but ready to do whatever it takes to make America safer and stronger. This isn’t an issue for politics and partisanship; it as an issue of our fundamental national security.
Terrorism is the new Fascism, the new Communism, the new totalitarianism – a grave and global threat to our values and our way of life. Like World War II and the Cold War it is not just a battle against nations, it is a competition of ideas. A test of whether freedom and democracy will win out over repression and tyranny. Well, let’s be clear: we can defeat radical terrorism; we must defeat it; and we will defeat it. Not just with hard words, but with the intelligence, the experience and the strength to make the right long term decisions.
We know today even more clearly than before that we need to rebuild a global alliance against this global threat, standing together, sharing intelligence, and fighting side by side. With the threats we face, we can never cede our security to others, but even a nation as great as the United States needs some friends in this world.
We need to inspire average citizens in Central America and Northern Iraq, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia to look to us for leadership and hope. To ensure that they see us as partners and allies in their struggle for prosperity and inalienable rights, for a better life and basic liberties.
And we need to realize that this war will be fought not only in the Mideast, but in the Midwest and all over America. Today, the soldiers on our front lines are joined in battle by firefighters, police officers, and other first defenders. According to a recent bipartisan panel led by former Republican Senator Warren Rudman, these first defenders are “drastically underfunded and dangerously unprepared.” Nearly two years after September 11th, the average fire department only has enough radios to equip half the firefighters on a shift, breathing apparatus for only one third, and nearly two-thirds of firehouses are understaffed – with more firefighters and police officers being laid off. We wouldn’t send troops into battle without the equipment and strength they need and if we are serious about winning the War on Terror, we have to be much more committed to making our homeland secure. Let me put it bluntly, if we can find the money to open firehouses in Baghdad, we certainly shouldn’t be shutting them in New York State.
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 to those who defend it.
This nation made a sacred covenant with those it drafted and those who enlisted, but the truth is that every day in America the status of too many veterans at the VA is breaking that covenant.
Just consider: each year the VA budget is a struggle. Every year we have to fight for dollars and health care that were promised and earned on distant shores. Every year new promises are made and old ones broken. In recent weeks, the House of Representatives cut $1.8 billion from VA healthcare.
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 national priorities.
But even if we defeat this $1.8 billion cut, the fight for veterans’ health care be far from over. The shameful reality, as so many veterans know, is that VA healthcare is in a constant state of crisis.
• Today over 130,000 veterans are waiting for care in VA facilities.
• Over 50,000 veterans are waiting over 6 months for their first doctor’s visit.
• We are told that things are better than they were – that a year ago, more than 300,000 veterans were on the waiting list. But this so-called progress came only after a whole class of veterans were excluded from the system. And by 2005 that group of excluded veterans will rise to more than 500,000 veterans without access. This is not progress; that is rationed health care.
• Over the last seven years, spending on individual VA patients has actually decreased by an average of $624. And in the last year, VA enrollment has increased by 15% while spending increased by only 7.8%.
• And now we have a budget proposal for increased fees and co-payments designed to drive an additional 1 million veterans – including those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan – out of the VA system. Those veterans should be welcomed with open arms, not shown the door.
No wonder so many veterans have been forced to wait to use the VA pharmacy for prescriptions written by an outside physician. We were told last spring that to solve the problem, the Veterans Department needed new legislation. I worked with Senator Harkin and Congressman Leonard Boswell to do it – and then, in recent weeks, even before it passed, access to VA pharmacies was granted to vets who had waited 30 days for a prescription. It’s a long overdue policy and I applaud it. But why did it take two years to do what was right?
Army Sergeant Vanessa Turner from my home state, Massachusetts, became terribly ill while serving in Iraq and was evacuated to Germany where doctors believed her death was imminent. She is a fighter and she survived, but was medically retired from active duty. When she got home to Boston in early July she was told that the local VA would examine her and begin treatment for the severe nerve damage in her left leg – in mid-October. In the meantime, if the pain was too great she should feel free to go to the emergency room of her local hospital. She said, “It’s easier to stay a soldier and be in harm’s way than to come home and get care.”
Well Vanessa’s story should make clear to everyone in our country that just as we wouldn’t be sending our military into battle without the uniforms and equipment they need, we shouldn’t be neglecting to care for our troops and their families before, during, and after the war.
Yet, twenty percent of our Reservists and their families don’t have health care coverage. And the House of Representatives has passed a wrong-headed provision cutting their pay. At the same time that American soldiers are engaged in battle in Iraq, we have seen a proposal for substantial cuts in federal school aid for the children of military families.
And just last week, we learned something that should make our blood boil – that our troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan might be about to get a pay cut. We have 148,00 troops in Iraq in 127 degree heat who are in danger of losing their lives everyday and the Pentagon is wrong to be talking about cutting their pay or offering them some vague promises that a check is in the mail.
We’re told we simply can’t afford to pay our troops all they have earned. Well let me tell you, if we can’t afford to pay our soldiers in harm’s way and support the families they left behind, then we have bigger problems than a budget out of balance. It means we have our values out of whack.
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, I know we have to be much more aggressive on health screenings for troops. They are required by law and they need to be given.
Everyone in this hall knows that duty in the field isn’t a vacation at Club Med – hardships go with the territory. But all of us should be concerned by the reports coming out of Iraq in recent weeks about long delays in delivering needed supplies such as water and housing materials. In some cases, this is because the private companies contracted by the Department of Defense to supply goods and services won’t operate in Iraq because their insurance companies believe it’s too dangerous to do so. Well someone should remind these private companies, our troops are in danger everyday – and they’re not making a fat profit; but they do need clean water – and they need it now.
The issue here is simple and fundamental: It is about the character of our country. I believe it is wrong to put the needs of our troops and the claims of our veterans behind a massive tax giveaway for the wealthy that is unwarranted, unaffordable, and unfair. Never in its history has the United States passed a big tax cut in a time of war. We have always believed in shared sacrifice. And it is wrong to pad the pockets of special interests before we fulfill our solemn obligations to those that have served.
Recently, in New Hampshire, I met a vet by the name of Joey Dubois. He sat in a wheelchair but no one stands prouder of their country and their service. Now, Joey Dubois, like so many others, is being forced to pay for his own disability because every additional dollar in VA disability is taken directly from his military retirement pay. No other category of federal employee is subject to this kind of unfairness. It is plainly wrong and it is completely unacceptable that we have heard repeated threats to veto any bill that remedies this injustice and provides full concurrent receipt. There are plenty of places to cut back in government – but Joey Dubois and disabled vets are not one of them. It is time to undo this unfairness and guarantee our veterans concurrent receipt.
Indeed, I believe we have a special duty to all vets with disabilities. Today, there are 280,000 veterans awaiting their disability rating. And 108,000 veterans are waiting on appeals of rating decisions. This is just not acceptable. We deserve leadership that will streamline the VA so veterans hear back about their status and receive their benefits when they need them.
So for us, the fight continues. Every advancement, every recognition of veterans’ valor, every time obligations have been kept, it has been because veterans pushed for it. Agent Orange, outreach centers, extension of the GI Bill, increased funding for Veterans Affairs. All these happened because veterans remembered their brothers and sisters and never stopped fighting to keep faith with the promise to veterans. I believe our veterans have fought enough – and we shouldn’t have to fight, year after year, for the benefits we have already earned. Our veterans health care shouldn’t depend on the yearly whims of budget cutters. They’ve earned their benefits. Those benefits ought to be there. And if I am President, they will be.
Our first commander in chief, George Washington said that “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation.”
That alone should drive our government to do right by our veterans. But something even more is at issue now: We must honor not only those who have served, but the ideal of service. Nothing I hope to do as President will be more vital than reconnecting America’s public life to the ideal of full citizenship.
Too often today, citizenship and duty are dismissed as quaint and corny, as fond memories of a forgotten past. But day after day, they are a way of life for millions. And they have sustained and strengthened our democracy for more than two centuries.
I learned a lot about duty and obligation from my mother and from my father, who enlisted in the Army Air Corps in World War II. But I learned my greatest lessons about what it means to be an American citizen in a place just about as far away from America as you can get.
I volunteered for Vietnam after college because I believed that I owed it to my country to do my duty. I served alongside a band of heroes on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta. Some of us had been to college, others were just out of high school. But we grew up together on that tiny boat with a quarter inch aluminum hull. Our boat was our sanctuary -- and a place for crossing divides between California, South Carolina, Arkansas, and Massachusetts. We were no longer the kid from South Carolina or the kid from South Boston. We were Americans. Together. All of us the same under the same flag and the same God. Giving ourselves to something bigger than each of us individually.
We arrived as strangers; we left as brothers. We didn’t think we were special. We just thought we were doing our part.
So if I am Commander-in-Chief, I won’t just bring to that profound responsibility the perspective of sitting in the Situation Room. I’ll also bring the perspective of someone who’s fought on the front lines. And I will ensure that America always has the best equipped, best trained, most powerful fighting force in the world.
For those of us who came home every day is extra. I believe we – who stand here today – who have stood our ground for our country – carry the legacy of the brave soldiers who didn’t make it back, whose names are on the wall, in memorials, and in hearts all around our country. It is their contribution that lights our way. It’s up to us keep faith with their sacrifice and to ensure that promises made are promises kept. I believe that in this moment of trial, America is calling all us veterans to service again, to reach for a cause bigger than ourselves. To remind our nation of the true meaning of patriotism, of honor and duty, of citizenship and service, America needs you to lead the way.
Thank you.
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.
Immigrant Scapegoating Doesn't Solve Problem
August 25, 2003
Tucson Citizen
by John F. Kerry
My wife Teresa grew up under a dictatorship. She didn't get to cast a vote until she was 24 years old when she became a naturalized American.
She reminds me constantly that you can love your heritage even as you fulfill the full measure of your love of our country and your loyalty as a United States citizen. Immigrants have demonstrated their loyalty time and again. At least 10 of the U.S. soldiers in our armed forces who lost their lives in Iraq were not citizens. Their service and sacrifice speak volumes about the character and contribution of immigrants today and across the generations.
Immigrants add more than $10 billion each year to the American economy without even counting the contributions of immigrant-owned business. We need the energy and enterprise of immigrants - and that means we need root and branch reform of our nation's immigration policy. Our policy should not just harness the future flow of immigrants, but it should be based on a program of earned legalization for undocumented workers who are already here.
Those who have been in the United States for a significant amount of time, who have held a job, and who can pass a background security check should be eligible to earn full citizenship.
This proposal makes sense for the economy; it is not only fair to people who have worked long and hard and paid their taxes. This approach is the only way to strengthen our homeland security by bringing undocumented workers out of the shadows and into the light of greater accountability.
We need to end the shame of looking away while workers are exploited, families are separated and people die in a desert trying to find work.
That's why I strongly oppose the "Protect Arizona Now" ballot initiative. It is both heartless and divisive. The plan victimizes immigrants for the failures of government and an unstable economy.
It is no coincidence that the last time a proposition like this was considered was at a time of economic insecurity when some politicians chose to scapegoat immigrants instead of doing the hard work of ensuring economic opportunity for all. Before the Clinton economic boom took hold, right-wing politicians in California chose to blame someone for the lack of state social services and an insecure job market.
Only real economic leadership and truth-telling pushed back the forces of hate and discrimination by diffusing the tensions that economic insecurity had caused. Like those who advocated for Prop 187 in California, the supporters of the new Arizona initiative want to require state and local government employees to check the immigration status of anyone seeking public services. But turning every public service provider into an immigration official will not improve services.
It will not reduce the need of restaurants, construction firms, farms and others for more immigrant labor than our immigration laws create room for. And it will not make Arizona healthier or safer.
Hospitals should treat the sick because disease does not know the immigration status of the ill. It spreads from person to person without checking papers. Teachers should teach kids because we believe all children are born equal and denying them the opportunity to reach their potential offends our democratic sensibilities.
We need to reform immigration law in a way that better reflects our democratic values and our modern, global economy. Turning every teacher, health care provider, and firefighter into an immigration officer is not the solution.
As president, I would do what George Bush failed to do: forge a true, real, and lasting partnership with President Fox to deal with the difficult issue of immigration. I would rebuild our relationship with Mexico and with the rest of the hemisphere - not for political gamesmanship, but because mutual respect across the Americas is vital to the security and the economy of the United States of America.
Then we can have an immigration policy - not a policy of scapegoating - that makes sense for our security as well as our economy, while reminding Americans everywhere of the basic compact of our country: We're all in this together.
Tucson Citizen
by John F. Kerry
My wife Teresa grew up under a dictatorship. She didn't get to cast a vote until she was 24 years old when she became a naturalized American.
She reminds me constantly that you can love your heritage even as you fulfill the full measure of your love of our country and your loyalty as a United States citizen. Immigrants have demonstrated their loyalty time and again. At least 10 of the U.S. soldiers in our armed forces who lost their lives in Iraq were not citizens. Their service and sacrifice speak volumes about the character and contribution of immigrants today and across the generations.
Immigrants add more than $10 billion each year to the American economy without even counting the contributions of immigrant-owned business. We need the energy and enterprise of immigrants - and that means we need root and branch reform of our nation's immigration policy. Our policy should not just harness the future flow of immigrants, but it should be based on a program of earned legalization for undocumented workers who are already here.
Those who have been in the United States for a significant amount of time, who have held a job, and who can pass a background security check should be eligible to earn full citizenship.
This proposal makes sense for the economy; it is not only fair to people who have worked long and hard and paid their taxes. This approach is the only way to strengthen our homeland security by bringing undocumented workers out of the shadows and into the light of greater accountability.
We need to end the shame of looking away while workers are exploited, families are separated and people die in a desert trying to find work.
That's why I strongly oppose the "Protect Arizona Now" ballot initiative. It is both heartless and divisive. The plan victimizes immigrants for the failures of government and an unstable economy.
It is no coincidence that the last time a proposition like this was considered was at a time of economic insecurity when some politicians chose to scapegoat immigrants instead of doing the hard work of ensuring economic opportunity for all. Before the Clinton economic boom took hold, right-wing politicians in California chose to blame someone for the lack of state social services and an insecure job market.
Only real economic leadership and truth-telling pushed back the forces of hate and discrimination by diffusing the tensions that economic insecurity had caused. Like those who advocated for Prop 187 in California, the supporters of the new Arizona initiative want to require state and local government employees to check the immigration status of anyone seeking public services. But turning every public service provider into an immigration official will not improve services.
It will not reduce the need of restaurants, construction firms, farms and others for more immigrant labor than our immigration laws create room for. And it will not make Arizona healthier or safer.
Hospitals should treat the sick because disease does not know the immigration status of the ill. It spreads from person to person without checking papers. Teachers should teach kids because we believe all children are born equal and denying them the opportunity to reach their potential offends our democratic sensibilities.
We need to reform immigration law in a way that better reflects our democratic values and our modern, global economy. Turning every teacher, health care provider, and firefighter into an immigration officer is not the solution.
As president, I would do what George Bush failed to do: forge a true, real, and lasting partnership with President Fox to deal with the difficult issue of immigration. I would rebuild our relationship with Mexico and with the rest of the hemisphere - not for political gamesmanship, but because mutual respect across the Americas is vital to the security and the economy of the United States of America.
Then we can have an immigration policy - not a policy of scapegoating - that makes sense for our security as well as our economy, while reminding Americans everywhere of the basic compact of our country: We're all in this together.
Statement From John Kerry on President Bush’s Speech to the American Legion
August 26, 2003
One lesson we learned in Vietnam is that sometimes politics gets in the way of decisions that are best for the troops and we must never let that happen again. We know that sometimes abstract ideology doesn’t take account of the life of a grunt, the peril of a sailor in a patrol boat or an airman in the belly of a plane, all trying to do right for their country and survive.
We have every reason to be proud of our military today. They are the finest fighting force in the world. We are grateful for the professionalism, courage, and commitment with which they won decisive victories in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But winning military victories is only half the struggle. The mission will not be over until we win the peace – and until the last man and the last woman come home. That is now very much at stake. Let me put it plainly: In Iraq even more than Afghanistan, our post-war planning has failed to do the job and in the process we’ve over-extended our troops and our reserves. Today, a soldier in Iraq fears getting shot while getting a drink of water. A squad at a checkpoint has to worry whether the old station wagon driving toward them is a mobile bomb.
When we decide to go to war, the only exit strategy is called victory –mission accomplished. We must succeed ultimately in our goals in Iraq – because to not succeed would have extraordinary negative consequences for the war on terror. So with characteristic American determination and grit we will see this through and we will make America and the world safer and more secure as a result.
But another important lesson of Vietnam is the obligation veterans feel to tell the truth when it matters most – when the life and safety of troops depend on it. Above all, we learned that the interests of the grunts on the ground come before all politics – and all ideology. And what we urgently need now to protect our young men and women in uniform – and America’s role in the world – are decisions based on professional military judgments and strategic vision, not politics and pride. There are too many names on the Vietnam Wall because of the rationalizations and willfulness of armchair strategists.
So let me say again, I believe a lack of planning and a lack of candor with the American people have placed our men and women in uniform in increased harm’s way. I believe it is wrong for our troops to be turned from warriors into police officers without the training, support, and numbers they need. And it is equally wrong for the administration to have stubbornly refused the offer of other nations to share the risks and authority in Iraq. It is imperative to get the United Nations to help not because of any politics but because it just makes plain, old American common sense to have as many nations carrying the burden and risk as possible. I want the targets taken off American soldiers as fast as possible because that’s how you protect the troops most effectively.
One lesson we learned in Vietnam is that sometimes politics gets in the way of decisions that are best for the troops and we must never let that happen again. We know that sometimes abstract ideology doesn’t take account of the life of a grunt, the peril of a sailor in a patrol boat or an airman in the belly of a plane, all trying to do right for their country and survive.
We have every reason to be proud of our military today. They are the finest fighting force in the world. We are grateful for the professionalism, courage, and commitment with which they won decisive victories in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But winning military victories is only half the struggle. The mission will not be over until we win the peace – and until the last man and the last woman come home. That is now very much at stake. Let me put it plainly: In Iraq even more than Afghanistan, our post-war planning has failed to do the job and in the process we’ve over-extended our troops and our reserves. Today, a soldier in Iraq fears getting shot while getting a drink of water. A squad at a checkpoint has to worry whether the old station wagon driving toward them is a mobile bomb.
When we decide to go to war, the only exit strategy is called victory –mission accomplished. We must succeed ultimately in our goals in Iraq – because to not succeed would have extraordinary negative consequences for the war on terror. So with characteristic American determination and grit we will see this through and we will make America and the world safer and more secure as a result.
But another important lesson of Vietnam is the obligation veterans feel to tell the truth when it matters most – when the life and safety of troops depend on it. Above all, we learned that the interests of the grunts on the ground come before all politics – and all ideology. And what we urgently need now to protect our young men and women in uniform – and America’s role in the world – are decisions based on professional military judgments and strategic vision, not politics and pride. There are too many names on the Vietnam Wall because of the rationalizations and willfulness of armchair strategists.
So let me say again, I believe a lack of planning and a lack of candor with the American people have placed our men and women in uniform in increased harm’s way. I believe it is wrong for our troops to be turned from warriors into police officers without the training, support, and numbers they need. And it is equally wrong for the administration to have stubbornly refused the offer of other nations to share the risks and authority in Iraq. It is imperative to get the United Nations to help not because of any politics but because it just makes plain, old American common sense to have as many nations carrying the burden and risk as possible. I want the targets taken off American soldiers as fast as possible because that’s how you protect the troops most effectively.
Scripps Howard story: Candidate for commander in chief
Candidate for commander in chief
By MARTIN SCHRAM
Scripps Howard News Service
26-AUG-03
In 2004, America's disastrous deficit may well top half-a-trillion dollars, its trained and able workers may still be reeling from millions of lost jobs, health security may still be an unkept promise. And the plain political truth is that those probabilities should boost the prospects of any Democratic presidential nominee.
But one thing is certain to happen _ it is a political truth that has been nothing but bad news for Democratic presidential hopefuls for more than 30 years and it figured to be even more so since Sept. 11, 2001: Millions of Americans will be voting in 2004 not to choose the nation's chief executive but to elect our commander-in-chief.
That was always a large part of the undoing of George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. The Democrats' only presidential victories of the last three decades occurred in years when there were no overriding national security crises. Economic concerns proved decisive for Jimmy Carter '76 and Bill Clinton '92 and '96.
But the 2004 election will occur while the United States is still waging its unwon War on Terror against its proven terrorist enemies including al Qaeda, and with U.S. military men and women still in harm's way and dying, perhaps a few each week, in Iraq. So it was that the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio this week has provided a valuable vantage point.
There, and through the excellence of C-SPAN, anywhere where there was cable television it was possible to witness the unimpressive best efforts of the Bush administration's top guns _ national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They made their best case: Rice urged us to be patient in Iraq; Rumsfeld assured us that more troops are not now needed in Iraq.
And then, onto the stage of the VFW came one of their own, a battle-decorated veteran who talked of the experience he gained in battles aboard a PT boat in Vietnam, where college grads served alongside high school dropouts, and where he earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. He told some painful truths _ about how he and his fellow Vietnam vets came home to a country that gave them no thanks.
Then, Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat running for president, observed that one of the lessons of Vietnam is that veterans "have learned to tell the truth" when it mattered most. And he went on to tell a number of tough truths in which he was clearly sticking up for America's fighting men and women in uniform _ often voicing some tough criticisms of the nation's present commander-in-chief.
"In Iraq," he warned, "we have over-extended our troops." He said "a lack of candor with the American people" has placed U.S. troops increasingly in harm's way. Still, Kerry was not one of the pack of liberal Democrats now demanding a quick exit strategy in Iraq. "The only exit strategy is called victory _ mission accomplishment."
Throughout his speech, Kerry was clearly sticking up for America's war veterans, whom he said repeatedly are not getting the medical treatment, service or benefits that they are due. He spoke of the need to pursue an all-out effort "to defeat radical terrorism." He cited a report by a commission headed by Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, that U.S. homeland security efforts are "dramatically under-funded" and "dangerously unprepared." He said a nation that can afford to be paying for fire houses in Iraq should not be shutting down fire houses at home because of lack of funds.
Much of the time, in the first months of his sometimes sputtering campaign, Kerry seemed unfocused and unimpressive. Indeed, the Massachusetts Democrat gave the impression that he might be nothing more than a tall Mike Dukakis.
Nevermore. At the VFW, Kerry sounded like a leader who has fortified his stump speech by adding a cohesive framework. He also sounded a bit like a Democratic John McCain. All of that might be good news for Democrats. It certainly is not good news for President Bush, yet another of our commanders-in-chief who never saw combat, and his strategist-in-chief, Karl Rove.
In closing, Kerry told the VFW audience that if he is chosen to serve as America's commander-in-chief, "I won't just bring to that profound responsibility the perspective of sitting in the situation room _ I'll also bring the perspective of someone who's fought on the front lines."
On the stage of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, it began to seem that at last the Democrats have a candidate for president who can, for millions of voters, be their candidate for commander-in-chief.
And in the wings, there may well be another _ General Wesley Clark, still unannounced, but thinking about running.
(Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service.)
By MARTIN SCHRAM
Scripps Howard News Service
26-AUG-03
In 2004, America's disastrous deficit may well top half-a-trillion dollars, its trained and able workers may still be reeling from millions of lost jobs, health security may still be an unkept promise. And the plain political truth is that those probabilities should boost the prospects of any Democratic presidential nominee.
But one thing is certain to happen _ it is a political truth that has been nothing but bad news for Democratic presidential hopefuls for more than 30 years and it figured to be even more so since Sept. 11, 2001: Millions of Americans will be voting in 2004 not to choose the nation's chief executive but to elect our commander-in-chief.
That was always a large part of the undoing of George McGovern, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. The Democrats' only presidential victories of the last three decades occurred in years when there were no overriding national security crises. Economic concerns proved decisive for Jimmy Carter '76 and Bill Clinton '92 and '96.
But the 2004 election will occur while the United States is still waging its unwon War on Terror against its proven terrorist enemies including al Qaeda, and with U.S. military men and women still in harm's way and dying, perhaps a few each week, in Iraq. So it was that the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in San Antonio this week has provided a valuable vantage point.
There, and through the excellence of C-SPAN, anywhere where there was cable television it was possible to witness the unimpressive best efforts of the Bush administration's top guns _ national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They made their best case: Rice urged us to be patient in Iraq; Rumsfeld assured us that more troops are not now needed in Iraq.
And then, onto the stage of the VFW came one of their own, a battle-decorated veteran who talked of the experience he gained in battles aboard a PT boat in Vietnam, where college grads served alongside high school dropouts, and where he earned a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. He told some painful truths _ about how he and his fellow Vietnam vets came home to a country that gave them no thanks.
Then, Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat running for president, observed that one of the lessons of Vietnam is that veterans "have learned to tell the truth" when it mattered most. And he went on to tell a number of tough truths in which he was clearly sticking up for America's fighting men and women in uniform _ often voicing some tough criticisms of the nation's present commander-in-chief.
"In Iraq," he warned, "we have over-extended our troops." He said "a lack of candor with the American people" has placed U.S. troops increasingly in harm's way. Still, Kerry was not one of the pack of liberal Democrats now demanding a quick exit strategy in Iraq. "The only exit strategy is called victory _ mission accomplishment."
Throughout his speech, Kerry was clearly sticking up for America's war veterans, whom he said repeatedly are not getting the medical treatment, service or benefits that they are due. He spoke of the need to pursue an all-out effort "to defeat radical terrorism." He cited a report by a commission headed by Warren Rudman, a former Republican senator from New Hampshire, that U.S. homeland security efforts are "dramatically under-funded" and "dangerously unprepared." He said a nation that can afford to be paying for fire houses in Iraq should not be shutting down fire houses at home because of lack of funds.
Much of the time, in the first months of his sometimes sputtering campaign, Kerry seemed unfocused and unimpressive. Indeed, the Massachusetts Democrat gave the impression that he might be nothing more than a tall Mike Dukakis.
Nevermore. At the VFW, Kerry sounded like a leader who has fortified his stump speech by adding a cohesive framework. He also sounded a bit like a Democratic John McCain. All of that might be good news for Democrats. It certainly is not good news for President Bush, yet another of our commanders-in-chief who never saw combat, and his strategist-in-chief, Karl Rove.
In closing, Kerry told the VFW audience that if he is chosen to serve as America's commander-in-chief, "I won't just bring to that profound responsibility the perspective of sitting in the situation room _ I'll also bring the perspective of someone who's fought on the front lines."
On the stage of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, it began to seem that at last the Democrats have a candidate for president who can, for millions of voters, be their candidate for commander-in-chief.
And in the wings, there may well be another _ General Wesley Clark, still unannounced, but thinking about running.
(Martin Schram writes political analysis for Scripps Howard News Service.)
Dean Story in the Times, and a link to the Kerry "American Courage" tour next week!
Here's the Times story on Dean:
August 27, 2003
In a Long Presidential Race, Dean Sprints
By JODI WILGOREN
risscrossing the country this week with Howard Dean, the underdog turned top dog who has surged toward the front of the Democratic presidential primary field, you would almost think there was an election coming up.
Five months before the first ballot is cast and 15 months before the last will be counted, Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, spent the past four days being ferried from rally to rally in a chartered jet as though in the heat of a head-to-head national campaign rather than in the nascent chapter of a long-shot bid in a crowded field. He hit states like Oregon that have little to do with nominations but could be crucial in a general election and all but ignored his Democratic rivals as he roused rabid audiences against their Republican nemesis, George W. Bush.
The staggering, seemingly spontaneous crowds turning up to meet him — about 10,000 in Seattle on Sunday and a similar number in Bryant Park in Manhattan last night — are unheard of in the days of the race when most candidates concentrate on the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and would seem formidable even in October 2004.
Yesterday morning, the campaign took another audacious step, saying that it would broadcast television advertisements in six new states beginning on Friday, and that it expected to raise $10.3 million in the three months ending Sept. 30 — more than any other Democrat in a similar period save for President Bill Clinton in 1995.
"We have to be in the president's face to win," Dr. Dean, 54, said aboard the ancient Boeing 737 his staff dubbed the Grassroots Express.
"When this president talks, sometimes the opposite of what he says is really the truth," he said yesterday in Chicago, between speaking to a tepid union convention and being embraced by about 1,500 supporters atop Navy Pier, "and if we don't call him on it, we can't win."
Billed as the Sleepless Summer Tour, Dr. Dean's 6,147-mile, 10-city rampage cost $200,000 and had its own rock-concert-style T-shirt listing places and dates. (The concept: Americans are sleepless over unemployment and the lack of jobs and health care, while President Bush sleeps soundly at his Texas ranch. The reality: Plane-riders are sleepless from crammed schedules that stretch from 5 a.m. to midnight.)
It was the flashiest and most expensive of a spate of gimmicky Democratic campaign swings this summer, from Grillin' with the Grahams (as in Bob, the Florida senator) to Get on the Bus With Dennis (as in Kucinich, the Ohio congressman) to the Real Solutions Express, featuring Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
The large and energetic crowds that followed Dr. Dean, and the meticulousness of his schedule and stage-managed events, prove he remains a phenomenon.
But the presidential-style trip could increase the risk of Dr. Dean peaking too early — and revealed other potential pitfalls. Holding oceans of blue Dean placards at every stop were nearly all white hands, a homogeneity the campaign tried to counter with a rainbow of supporters on stage, which only drew more attention to the lack of diversity in the audience. The feisty crowds were filled with Birkenstock liberals whose loudest ovations always followed Dr. Dean's antiwar riff — there were few union members, African-Americans, or immigrants.
It remains unclear how such untraditional rallies will translate into the nuts-and-bolts of nominations like endorsements, voter registration, fund-raising and debates. The campaign also may have trouble keeping people interested and preventing its events in coming weeks from seeming mundane.
"We have momentum," Dr. Dean said. "Keeping it is going to be a struggle."
Though polls taken this early in the race can be unreliable predictors, there are statistical signs to back up Dr. Dean's surge in popularity on the street. Zogby International, an independent firm, is scheduled to release Wednesday a poll showing Dr. Dean leading in New Hampshire with 38 percent of the vote to 17 percent for Senator John Kerry; in early July Senator Kerry had 25 percent to Dr. Dean's 22 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.
As the tour began its final day, Joe Trippi, the campaign manager, announced plans not only to match President Clinton's record $10.3 million quarter, but also to buy two weeks worth of advertisements, likely to cost $1 million, in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Washington. He and the candidate both refused to say whether the campaign would abide by spending limits to obtain federal matching funds, something they originally promised to do but later reconsidered.
"Running for president of the United States is a marathon," Mr. Trippi told reporters en route from San Antonio to Chicago. "We decided we were going to run the first four miles at a 100-yard-dash pace. We decided we're going to run the second four miles at a 100-yard-dash pace."
The new advertising plan came after the campaign spent four days soliciting its Internet supporters to match the $1 million President Bush collected last week in the Pacific Northwest, a goal it reached during the Bryant Park rally. (There were also $100- to $1,000-a-plate parties at most stops during the Sleepless tour.)
Linda Ornelas, 54, said she came to Portland State University on Sunday uncommitted but left planning to sign on to her computer and "give him some money."
"It's not that what he says is really so different from what anybody else says," said Ms. Ornelas, an administrator at a large athletic club. "It's that it doesn't feel like it's rhetoric."
After months of low-key question-and-answer sessions in small-town living rooms, Dr. Dean adapted to the masses by sprinkling call-and-response lines and defiant finger-pointing into his standard spiel.
"For the first time I realized the fate of the country might be in my hands," he said later. "Not just because I might become president of the United States of America. Because there were a very, very large number of people depending on me to change the course of this country."
In Spokane, Wash., organizers had cut a basketball court in half with a burlap curtain, expecting 250 people. Instead, several hundred had to watch an enormous television behind the curtain, and 100 more were left on folding chairs in the patio, surrounding a faceless microphone.
"He's not running a campaign, he's running a movement," wrote Natasha C., one of four people the Dean campaign invited to chronicle the trip on their Web logs. "These are protest-size crowds, these are not politics-size crowds, and that's the critical difference."
But it is unclear what the movement is for.
Dr. Dean's standard presentation is a smorgasbord of universal health insurance, opposition to the Iraq war, balanced budgets, tax-cut repeal, affirmative action, gay rights, early-childhood intervention and a broad appeal for "community." The defining theme is all about getting rid of the incumbent.
"What brought me here is Dean — and George," said Karin Overbeck, an independent at her first political rally, in Spokane. "For the second time in my life, I'm ashamed of my nationality. I was born in Germany and I was ashamed; now I'm ashamed to be American."
Though Dr. Dean often says that his message is appealing to independent thinkers across the political spectrum, when he polled the crowd in Portland there were loud claps for the Green Party and Democrats, but sparse smatterings when he asked about supporters of Perot and McCain. And while the people introducing him included Hispanic teachers and black preachers, the people buying the "Doctor is in" buttons were mostly aging flower children and the tongue-studded next generation.
"We're working really hard to change that," Dr. Dean said. At the union convention yesterday in Chicago — where the undecided audience offered mainly polite claps for the zingers that had delighted the devoted — he tried one of his newer lines: "When white people and brown people and black people vote together, that's when we make social progress in this country."
Between stops, Dr. Dean had his first lengthy talks with a large press corps aboard the Grassroots Express. He rarely veered off-message, even when turbulence forced him into a seat between reporters from Rolling Stone and Modern Physician magazines, who traded questions on guitarists and prescription drugs.
Regardless of the record crowds, it is still August — of 2003.
For each of the 800 people who skipped the Green Bay Packers game on Saturday night to chant "We want Dean" in a Milwaukee airplane hangar, there must be many like the young woman in the pink taffeta strapless bridesmaid's dress who went to the hotel bar where reporters and supporters were mingling over martinis and wondered, "What's going on here?"
Told it was the Dean campaign, she looked blank. Howard Dean, someone said. Running for president.
"President?" she asked. "President of what?"
August 27, 2003
In a Long Presidential Race, Dean Sprints
By JODI WILGOREN
risscrossing the country this week with Howard Dean, the underdog turned top dog who has surged toward the front of the Democratic presidential primary field, you would almost think there was an election coming up.
Five months before the first ballot is cast and 15 months before the last will be counted, Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, spent the past four days being ferried from rally to rally in a chartered jet as though in the heat of a head-to-head national campaign rather than in the nascent chapter of a long-shot bid in a crowded field. He hit states like Oregon that have little to do with nominations but could be crucial in a general election and all but ignored his Democratic rivals as he roused rabid audiences against their Republican nemesis, George W. Bush.
The staggering, seemingly spontaneous crowds turning up to meet him — about 10,000 in Seattle on Sunday and a similar number in Bryant Park in Manhattan last night — are unheard of in the days of the race when most candidates concentrate on the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire and would seem formidable even in October 2004.
Yesterday morning, the campaign took another audacious step, saying that it would broadcast television advertisements in six new states beginning on Friday, and that it expected to raise $10.3 million in the three months ending Sept. 30 — more than any other Democrat in a similar period save for President Bill Clinton in 1995.
"We have to be in the president's face to win," Dr. Dean, 54, said aboard the ancient Boeing 737 his staff dubbed the Grassroots Express.
"When this president talks, sometimes the opposite of what he says is really the truth," he said yesterday in Chicago, between speaking to a tepid union convention and being embraced by about 1,500 supporters atop Navy Pier, "and if we don't call him on it, we can't win."
Billed as the Sleepless Summer Tour, Dr. Dean's 6,147-mile, 10-city rampage cost $200,000 and had its own rock-concert-style T-shirt listing places and dates. (The concept: Americans are sleepless over unemployment and the lack of jobs and health care, while President Bush sleeps soundly at his Texas ranch. The reality: Plane-riders are sleepless from crammed schedules that stretch from 5 a.m. to midnight.)
It was the flashiest and most expensive of a spate of gimmicky Democratic campaign swings this summer, from Grillin' with the Grahams (as in Bob, the Florida senator) to Get on the Bus With Dennis (as in Kucinich, the Ohio congressman) to the Real Solutions Express, featuring Senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
The large and energetic crowds that followed Dr. Dean, and the meticulousness of his schedule and stage-managed events, prove he remains a phenomenon.
But the presidential-style trip could increase the risk of Dr. Dean peaking too early — and revealed other potential pitfalls. Holding oceans of blue Dean placards at every stop were nearly all white hands, a homogeneity the campaign tried to counter with a rainbow of supporters on stage, which only drew more attention to the lack of diversity in the audience. The feisty crowds were filled with Birkenstock liberals whose loudest ovations always followed Dr. Dean's antiwar riff — there were few union members, African-Americans, or immigrants.
It remains unclear how such untraditional rallies will translate into the nuts-and-bolts of nominations like endorsements, voter registration, fund-raising and debates. The campaign also may have trouble keeping people interested and preventing its events in coming weeks from seeming mundane.
"We have momentum," Dr. Dean said. "Keeping it is going to be a struggle."
Though polls taken this early in the race can be unreliable predictors, there are statistical signs to back up Dr. Dean's surge in popularity on the street. Zogby International, an independent firm, is scheduled to release Wednesday a poll showing Dr. Dean leading in New Hampshire with 38 percent of the vote to 17 percent for Senator John Kerry; in early July Senator Kerry had 25 percent to Dr. Dean's 22 percent. The poll has a margin of sampling error of 4.5 percentage points.
As the tour began its final day, Joe Trippi, the campaign manager, announced plans not only to match President Clinton's record $10.3 million quarter, but also to buy two weeks worth of advertisements, likely to cost $1 million, in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Washington. He and the candidate both refused to say whether the campaign would abide by spending limits to obtain federal matching funds, something they originally promised to do but later reconsidered.
"Running for president of the United States is a marathon," Mr. Trippi told reporters en route from San Antonio to Chicago. "We decided we were going to run the first four miles at a 100-yard-dash pace. We decided we're going to run the second four miles at a 100-yard-dash pace."
The new advertising plan came after the campaign spent four days soliciting its Internet supporters to match the $1 million President Bush collected last week in the Pacific Northwest, a goal it reached during the Bryant Park rally. (There were also $100- to $1,000-a-plate parties at most stops during the Sleepless tour.)
Linda Ornelas, 54, said she came to Portland State University on Sunday uncommitted but left planning to sign on to her computer and "give him some money."
"It's not that what he says is really so different from what anybody else says," said Ms. Ornelas, an administrator at a large athletic club. "It's that it doesn't feel like it's rhetoric."
After months of low-key question-and-answer sessions in small-town living rooms, Dr. Dean adapted to the masses by sprinkling call-and-response lines and defiant finger-pointing into his standard spiel.
"For the first time I realized the fate of the country might be in my hands," he said later. "Not just because I might become president of the United States of America. Because there were a very, very large number of people depending on me to change the course of this country."
In Spokane, Wash., organizers had cut a basketball court in half with a burlap curtain, expecting 250 people. Instead, several hundred had to watch an enormous television behind the curtain, and 100 more were left on folding chairs in the patio, surrounding a faceless microphone.
"He's not running a campaign, he's running a movement," wrote Natasha C., one of four people the Dean campaign invited to chronicle the trip on their Web logs. "These are protest-size crowds, these are not politics-size crowds, and that's the critical difference."
But it is unclear what the movement is for.
Dr. Dean's standard presentation is a smorgasbord of universal health insurance, opposition to the Iraq war, balanced budgets, tax-cut repeal, affirmative action, gay rights, early-childhood intervention and a broad appeal for "community." The defining theme is all about getting rid of the incumbent.
"What brought me here is Dean — and George," said Karin Overbeck, an independent at her first political rally, in Spokane. "For the second time in my life, I'm ashamed of my nationality. I was born in Germany and I was ashamed; now I'm ashamed to be American."
Though Dr. Dean often says that his message is appealing to independent thinkers across the political spectrum, when he polled the crowd in Portland there were loud claps for the Green Party and Democrats, but sparse smatterings when he asked about supporters of Perot and McCain. And while the people introducing him included Hispanic teachers and black preachers, the people buying the "Doctor is in" buttons were mostly aging flower children and the tongue-studded next generation.
"We're working really hard to change that," Dr. Dean said. At the union convention yesterday in Chicago — where the undecided audience offered mainly polite claps for the zingers that had delighted the devoted — he tried one of his newer lines: "When white people and brown people and black people vote together, that's when we make social progress in this country."
Between stops, Dr. Dean had his first lengthy talks with a large press corps aboard the Grassroots Express. He rarely veered off-message, even when turbulence forced him into a seat between reporters from Rolling Stone and Modern Physician magazines, who traded questions on guitarists and prescription drugs.
Regardless of the record crowds, it is still August — of 2003.
For each of the 800 people who skipped the Green Bay Packers game on Saturday night to chant "We want Dean" in a Milwaukee airplane hangar, there must be many like the young woman in the pink taffeta strapless bridesmaid's dress who went to the hotel bar where reporters and supporters were mingling over martinis and wondered, "What's going on here?"
Told it was the Dean campaign, she looked blank. Howard Dean, someone said. Running for president.
"President?" she asked. "President of what?"
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Dubbya is breaking the law!
Here's an article from the Washington Post today discussing Dubbya and Dick placing their fundraising speeches on the official White House web page. That's a no-no, since you cannot have political info on a government website. We the taxpayers are paying for Dubbya and Dick's re-election campaign!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44591-2003Aug25.html
washingtonpost.com
Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, August 26, 2003; Page A11
Let us hope they don't put Potus in the pokey for being too patriotic.
The president of the United States -- Potus, by his official acronym -- went on a brief foray into the criminal underworld last month in Livonia, Mich., where he ran afoul of U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g): "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature." The transgression occurred when President Bush, on a July 24 visit to Beaver Aerospace & Defense Inc., accepted a request to sign a well-wisher's U.S. flag.
Charges have not been filed against Bush, who after this brush with the law may be relieved that the flag desecration amendment has not been adopted.
Few would begrudge Bush this patriotic lapse, of course. But some Democrats and government watchdog groups are charging that Bush has been playing fast-and-loose with some more important statutes: those that govern the separation between the president's official duties and his political duties.
The main eyebrow-raiser is the posting on the official White House Web site of speeches by Bush and Vice President Cheney at fundraisers for their reelection campaign. The government Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, displays, for example, Bush's speech to a Bush-Cheney luncheon last week in Oregon, in which Bush pronounced the event "a record fundraiser," and the previous week's fundraiser in California, in which he said, "We're laying the foundation for next year's campaign."
Foul, judges Larry Noble, the executive director of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. "It's inappropriate. It's a government Web site. It's the use of government property for political work, which is illegal. They have to be careful."
The Democrats' all-purpose gumshoe, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, protested that "a government Web site paid for by taxpayer funds is being used to disseminate partisan, political information." Particularly irksome to Waxman was a Cheney speech on the White House site joking that those present "probably paid a little more to get in than I did," and noting that "every dollar we raised was important."
An analysis by Waxman's lawyers argued that Bush and Cheney, when they appear at fundraisers, are giving "not official speeches, bur rather political speeches." According to the U.S. Code (31 U.S.C 1301(a)), "appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made," which means only for official -- not political -- purposes. By posting campaign speeches on the Web site, White House staffers could be violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political actions by government employees. If the White House considers the fundraising speeches "official," the lawyers argue, they could be violating anti-bribery statutes.
White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said the administration believes no laws have been violated.
Bush has been working overtime to recover from his indelicate description of first lady Laura Bush on June 27 as "the lump in the bed next to me." On the West Coast last week, he told one crowd: "My main regret for coming here is the fact that I'm not traveling with the first lady. She is a great first lady. I love her dearly. I'm proud to call her 'wife,' and I already miss her."
The president apparently has been forgiven. In an interview for the October Ladies' Home Journal, the two described their marriage as stronger than before their ascent to the White House. "All the things that might've irritated me, like not hanging up his towels, I don't have to worry about anymore," Laura Bush said. "Someone in the White House hangs up the towels."
Even Karl Rove, the president's political brain, has been boasting about the president's marriage. Describing a "revealing" private conversation with Bush, Rove told a GOP fundraiser in Louisiana this month that Bush told him: "My marriage is the best it's ever been."
Nobody ever said compassionate conservatives are colorblind. On the Bush '04 campaign's new Web site, there is a "photo gallery" feature for each of the president's policy priorities. In the "compassion" photo gallery, 16 of the 20 shots feature Bush with non-white faces (the other four are studies of Bush). By contrast, all 16 of the photos in the "environment" gallery display what appear to be white complexions.
Major revision:
"President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over May 1 speech by Bush.
"President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over the same May 1 speech after Bush said in an Aug. 14 interview that "we still have combat operations going on."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44591-2003Aug25.html
washingtonpost.com
Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, August 26, 2003; Page A11
Let us hope they don't put Potus in the pokey for being too patriotic.
The president of the United States -- Potus, by his official acronym -- went on a brief foray into the criminal underworld last month in Livonia, Mich., where he ran afoul of U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g): "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature." The transgression occurred when President Bush, on a July 24 visit to Beaver Aerospace & Defense Inc., accepted a request to sign a well-wisher's U.S. flag.
Charges have not been filed against Bush, who after this brush with the law may be relieved that the flag desecration amendment has not been adopted.
Few would begrudge Bush this patriotic lapse, of course. But some Democrats and government watchdog groups are charging that Bush has been playing fast-and-loose with some more important statutes: those that govern the separation between the president's official duties and his political duties.
The main eyebrow-raiser is the posting on the official White House Web site of speeches by Bush and Vice President Cheney at fundraisers for their reelection campaign. The government Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, displays, for example, Bush's speech to a Bush-Cheney luncheon last week in Oregon, in which Bush pronounced the event "a record fundraiser," and the previous week's fundraiser in California, in which he said, "We're laying the foundation for next year's campaign."
Foul, judges Larry Noble, the executive director of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. "It's inappropriate. It's a government Web site. It's the use of government property for political work, which is illegal. They have to be careful."
The Democrats' all-purpose gumshoe, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, protested that "a government Web site paid for by taxpayer funds is being used to disseminate partisan, political information." Particularly irksome to Waxman was a Cheney speech on the White House site joking that those present "probably paid a little more to get in than I did," and noting that "every dollar we raised was important."
An analysis by Waxman's lawyers argued that Bush and Cheney, when they appear at fundraisers, are giving "not official speeches, bur rather political speeches." According to the U.S. Code (31 U.S.C 1301(a)), "appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made," which means only for official -- not political -- purposes. By posting campaign speeches on the Web site, White House staffers could be violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political actions by government employees. If the White House considers the fundraising speeches "official," the lawyers argue, they could be violating anti-bribery statutes.
White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said the administration believes no laws have been violated.
Bush has been working overtime to recover from his indelicate description of first lady Laura Bush on June 27 as "the lump in the bed next to me." On the West Coast last week, he told one crowd: "My main regret for coming here is the fact that I'm not traveling with the first lady. She is a great first lady. I love her dearly. I'm proud to call her 'wife,' and I already miss her."
The president apparently has been forgiven. In an interview for the October Ladies' Home Journal, the two described their marriage as stronger than before their ascent to the White House. "All the things that might've irritated me, like not hanging up his towels, I don't have to worry about anymore," Laura Bush said. "Someone in the White House hangs up the towels."
Even Karl Rove, the president's political brain, has been boasting about the president's marriage. Describing a "revealing" private conversation with Bush, Rove told a GOP fundraiser in Louisiana this month that Bush told him: "My marriage is the best it's ever been."
Nobody ever said compassionate conservatives are colorblind. On the Bush '04 campaign's new Web site, there is a "photo gallery" feature for each of the president's policy priorities. In the "compassion" photo gallery, 16 of the 20 shots feature Bush with non-white faces (the other four are studies of Bush). By contrast, all 16 of the photos in the "environment" gallery display what appear to be white complexions.
Major revision:
"President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over May 1 speech by Bush.
"President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over the same May 1 speech after Bush said in an Aug. 14 interview that "we still have combat operations going on."
Monday, August 25, 2003
DAV News Release!
I'm a member of DAV, and am very happy to see this DAV news release - I should explain that they have a jpg of elephants, yes, Republican elephants charging over the words: "Stampeding Veterans' Benefits", holding flags with the dollar sign and dollar bills. Worth a thousand words! If you want the jpg, email me! Here's what the DAV has to say about Republicans cheating veterans:
For Immediate Release: August 15, 2003
Contact: David Autry: (504) 586-4668
NEW ORLEANS, August 15--“America’s sick and disabled veterans have been left in the dust as a thundering herd of political power brokers gather in New Orleans to fill their war chests for the upcoming elections,” said David W. Gorman, Washington Headquarters Executive Director of the Disabled American Veterans.
Speaking at a news conference at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Gorman said our elected officials have “put politics above our nation’s veterans.”
The federal budget has under funded the veterans health care system for decades, a trend that continues under the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, Gorman noted.
Legislation funding the Department of Veterans Affairs that recently passed the House of Representatives is woefully short of what is needed to meet the health care needs of America’s sick and disabled veterans, Gorman said. “That is some $2 billion less than agreed to in the congressional budget resolution adopted earlier this year by the House and Senate. We were given assurances by House Republican leaders that veterans health care for the coming year would be increased by $1.8 billion dollars over the current level, and America’s veterans feel betrayed.”
“The DAV demands that the administration and Congress make veterans a national priority. Veterans should not have to wait 6 months or longer for a doctor’s appointment because the VA does not have the resources it needs for veterans health care,” Gorman said.
In addition to the news conference, disabled veterans will gather to hand out informative flyers later in the evening as the Republican Party elite attend their “Stampede to Victory” at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, 739 Canal Street at Bourbon.
For Immediate Release: August 15, 2003
Contact: David Autry: (504) 586-4668
NEW ORLEANS, August 15--“America’s sick and disabled veterans have been left in the dust as a thundering herd of political power brokers gather in New Orleans to fill their war chests for the upcoming elections,” said David W. Gorman, Washington Headquarters Executive Director of the Disabled American Veterans.
Speaking at a news conference at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside, Gorman said our elected officials have “put politics above our nation’s veterans.”
The federal budget has under funded the veterans health care system for decades, a trend that continues under the Bush Administration and the Republican-controlled Congress, Gorman noted.
Legislation funding the Department of Veterans Affairs that recently passed the House of Representatives is woefully short of what is needed to meet the health care needs of America’s sick and disabled veterans, Gorman said. “That is some $2 billion less than agreed to in the congressional budget resolution adopted earlier this year by the House and Senate. We were given assurances by House Republican leaders that veterans health care for the coming year would be increased by $1.8 billion dollars over the current level, and America’s veterans feel betrayed.”
“The DAV demands that the administration and Congress make veterans a national priority. Veterans should not have to wait 6 months or longer for a doctor’s appointment because the VA does not have the resources it needs for veterans health care,” Gorman said.
In addition to the news conference, disabled veterans will gather to hand out informative flyers later in the evening as the Republican Party elite attend their “Stampede to Victory” at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel, 739 Canal Street at Bourbon.
