Supporting the Troops: Looking Beyond the Rhetoric

Tacomamama — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:07:15 -0500

"Oh, now I can't even talk to you," said our Army Ranger friend,
jokingly, picking up my Obama '08 button. As he headed out the door
with my husband, he added "Barack Obama is a muslim!" giving us time to
simultaneously respond: "No, he isn't" and
"JohnMcCaindoesnotrepresentyourinterests!"

He escaped quickly,
smiling, but I have to confess I did take some pleasure in the idea
that he had let the political genie out of the bottle and was about to
be stuck in a 90 minute car ride with my husband, Mr. Radical Apathy
'08. I don't care who you support in this election, 10 minutes alone
with my husband's standard "none of it really matters, except that it
is very important that you know you are wrong" diatribe will leave you
clawing blindly for an emergency exit. I understand it is a defense
mechanism, which is why I haven't strangled him yet.

But I wish I could have talked to our friend a little more, because it's hard for
me to understand the support for McCain from many veterans and military
families. Sites like this one,
which states "the choice is super clear," leave me scratching my head.
Because looking at the promise v. performance gap between the two
campaigns does make it super clear to me, but not in the way they mean.

Fortunately, not every veterans group sees it that way. In fact, many don't. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America grades John McCain a "D," Disabled Veterans of America notes McCain as having voted "against us" in 16 out of 32 votes, and FactCheck.org can't figure out what exactly he meant when he said he "had a perfect voting record" on veterans issuees.

Both
major presidential candidates claim to support US troops and veterans.
Theoretically, I am confident they would both like to. When you look
beyond the rhetoric, however, and really look at platforms and voting
records, there are stark differences between the two.

McCain

What he says:

McCain's website says that he will
Wait a minute, everything is written in the past tense....

I have to go to his detailed policy statement to find anything he's actually promising to do in the future.

McCain proposes to:

Fully fund the VA budget
Implement a veterans access card giving veterans a choice of limited private health care
Work to provide enhanced injury screening (stops short of actually referencing Traumatic Brain Injury)
States
that the VA should respond to the needs of women veterans including
care for sexual assault victims, but makes no statement as to what he
will do to cause that to happen
Promises to implement the Wounded Warrior Act. Legislation which has already been passed.
Expand educational programs for family caregivers.

What he's done:

Voted NO on the Tax Rate Extension Amendment which would have provided $1
billion for the establishment of the Veterans Hospital Improvement Fund
(for hospitals like Walter Reed - prominently featured in his stump
speeches).
Voted NO on the Additional Funding for Veterans
Amendment, which would have provided crucial readjustment, mental
health, and rehabilitation assistance to America's veterans, but failed
on a strict party-line vote.
Did not vote on the new GI bill, which expanded educational benefits for veterans.
Didn't vote on the last Defense Authorization (Iraq war funding) bill.
Did
vote yes on earned income tax credit extension (2005) to include combat
pay as earned income, but measure was still defeated by opposition from
senate republicans.
Voted on only 11 out of 22 major defense measures since 2005, including none of the 6 in 2008.

Obama

What he says:

Obama proposes to:

Expand vet centers
Fully fund VA medical care
Allow all veterans back into the VA
Reduce the claims backlog
Build an electronic VBA (one of the reasons VA care takes so long to access is that all record keeping is still done on paper)
Update the GI Bill (does note that this already happened, although still officially in the platform)
Combat homelessness among our nation's veterans
Fight reservist discrimination, through better enforcement of USERRA.

What he's done:

Voted yes on the Tax Rate Extension Amendment, which would have provided $1
billion for the establishment of the Veterans Hospital Improvement Fund
(for hospitals like Walter Reed) but was voted down by senate
republicans in a strict partisan fashion.
Voted yes on the new GI Bill, which expanded educational benefits for veterans.
Voted yes on the Additional Funding for Veterans Amendment, which would have
provided crucial readjustment, mental health, and rehabilitation
assistance to America's veterans, but failed on a strict party-line
vote.
Also didn't vote on last Defense Authorization (Iraq war funding) bill.
Voted yes on earned income tax credit extension to include combat pay as earned income.
Voted on 15 of the 22 major defense measures since taking office in 2005, including 3 of the 6 in 2008.

Although both candidates could do a better job of showing up to vote while campaigning, I think the choice is super clear.

Stop by my new blog:

Kitchen Table Issues

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Supporting the Troops: Looking Beyond the Rhetoric